Week 8: Simply map

This week, I chose to do a project on simply map and see the distribution of white and black population in the a small radius of the 90024 zip code and 90007 zip code. With UCLA being the heart of this map, I thought it was important to see the population percentage (as of the 2010 census) of the 90024 comparatively with student demographics. As seen on this map, the West Los Angeles demographics of black and white population are significantly different. On the white population map, it is especially apparent that there is a large percentage in the area. About one third of this map looks to hold a percentage of whites of about 85-93% in the Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood areas. Another large percentage (72-85%) covers another third of the area such as East Santa Monica, Century City, and Beverlywood area. The remaining areas are south of Santa Monica Blvd, with a 55-72% population of whites and a very small area that is less than 50% white. The black population map tells another story. Here, the population scale is very apparent that there is little black people in this area. There is less than 1% of black people in the areas that are 72-93% white. The areas that have a higher black population are southeast Santa Monica and Crenshaw area that vary from 6-100% black. It makes more sense when compared with socio-economic factors that this area is very affluent and has a large disparity in white/black populations.

Comparitively, I did the same for the zip code around our rival USC campus. Though by visiting both places, it is apparent that there is a great racial difference in the areas, and even more so compared to the student body. The white population around the private USC campus is almost non-existent.There is 30-62% white population in USC's fraternity row, where many of their students live. East of Alameda and a small part of downtown LA also have this percentage of white population. The rest of the area is below 30% white. On the other hand, the black population around the USC campus is more than 2/3 of the area 20-100% black. Other areas are at least 2-20%. Although this is a high population, it is not as significant east of USC because of a high population of Hispanics in the area, that are not taken into account on my maps.

After comparing both of these maps to each other, it is evident that the USC area boasts a much larger black/minority population than the surrounding UCLA campus. The type of real estate and area must be large factor in determining the obvious racial difference between the areas of two prestigious schools in Los Angeles. The fifteen mile difference in the city produces a much different demographic picture. However, I also found it interesting to compare the student body distribution of black and white populations on both campuses. I found that UCLA actually has a higher percentage of white non-hispanics (32%) compared to USC's 23.8%. Both schools have about 3% of the student population as self-identified black students. From this sample, I found it interesting to see how little of the large population of black people in Los Angeles attend USC/UCLA. This information seemed to disregard the area because both schools had a very similar  black population percentage even when the black population in their areas were much different. I compared this finding to Douglas Massey's article on the "Continuing Causes of Segregation." Black populations are much more highly confined to poor areas as compared to other groups. I could only imagine that this large disparity is due to racially discriminative factors and unequal resources. I believe that with unequal education and resources in areas, there is not as much progress as there could be with talented black students attending prestigious black universities and we must educate people that this is not due to any lack of intelligence (far from that), but discrimination that persists to this day.