This series of census maps are really good presentations of how populations of different race groups distribute across the nation. The choices of location of different race groups have much more to them beyond pure geographical choices. They also reflect the particular race group's cultural customs and especially their immigration history. Information extracted from this series of maps can be used by policy makers of a county or state to establish specific rules for different dominant groups in the population.

Map 1:

The map above, which is distributed by county, shows the population (in percentage) of Blacks in the United States. The data in the above map is based on the 2000 Census. It is clear to see that the majority of the US black population resides in what is known as "the South". Looking back into history this makes sense because the South was were many black slaves worked on plantations. While many blacks moved up North for freedom, the majority of them remained in the South until Slavery was banned after the Civil War. Also, we can see a greater majority of blacks residing in urban areas rather than rural areas. This includes areas such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. However, these areas are not as concentrated as areas in the South.

Map 2:

The map above illustrates the population of Asians in the [mainland] United States. Distributed into counties, the map shows the population of Asians in each county by percentage. The data in the map is based on the 2000 Census. It is important to note that those counties represented in white are ones that have too little of an Asian population to be represented on the map. From the map it seems that large Asian populations are spread out throughout the United States - from the West to the Midwest and to the New England area. However, the most popular area is clearly the West coast, which makes sense because it is the closest coast to Asia. Immigrants from Asian counties such as China, Japan, and Korea tend to come from the west to the West coast of the United States. Then many of them move inland or to the east coast, but the majority stays along the West coast. Many of them also settle in Hawaii, which is not shown on this choropleth map. The map also shows large population of Asians in urban area in the Midwest. Additionally, one of the most densely concentrated areas on the map for Asians is the Sillicon valley, which is the technology capital of the US located in Northern California. With their vast contributions to the world of technology, it would make sense that many Asians reside in that area.

Map 3:

The last map here shows the population, ranked be percentage, of those who classified themselves as "some other race" on the 2000 Census questionnaire. Like the two maps above, the map is distributed by US counties. By looking at the other data collected on the census website, it seems that a major race in which a data is not specifically collected for is 'Hispanic'. If we assume that a large portion of the "some other race" group is of Hispanic origin, it makes sense that the most concentrated areas on the map are in the South West region of the country. Bordering Mexico, the south-west is one of the most popular areas for Mexicans and people of Latino origin to imigrate to, expecially because their immigration process can be long and streneous which makes it less likely for them to travel further into the country. However, thi is not to say that there aren't large populations in the inland area, as seen in the area above Texas. This is probably due to the agriculture that dominates the area. There are also concentrated areas in Florida, most likely due to immigration from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Several interesting conclusions can be made from this series of Choropleth maps. First, these maps show us that minority groups have not moved far from where they originally settled and immigration patterns are easily spotted - Asians are still heavily concentrated in the West, which borders the Pacific Ocean, Blacks are found in high concentrations in the South, which is were slave labor was most prominent, and those of "some other race” (mainly Hispanics) are found in high concentrations in areas bordering Mexico and close to Latin America. It is very interesting that these groups stay close to where they originally settled for three reasons. First, it shows that people like to stay in one place for the most part. Second, it shows that people like to stay in areas where people of their same race are around because it makes life more comfortable and easier to continue cultural traditions. Lastly, this trend shows that the diversity in the United States nationwide is not likely yo change in the near future. While as a whole, the US is a very diverse place, the areas in the northern part of the country tend to lack much diversity and exposure to minority races.

My overall impressions of GIS: I personally found the GIS software very difficult to navigate through. I often found myself having to come in to office hours to get help with the program and the different aspects of it that I did not understand. However, I am very pleased with all of my final outcomes and I am happy that I received exposure to such an important and useful software. I think that GIS is an amazing program with a vast amount of potential. Just based on all the different things that we were able to produce during the lab makes me wonder how much more can be done on GIS. Such a system is very beneficial to policy decision makers in all kinds of fields, whether the topic is election results, population denstities, or the environment. I think that GIS is a wonderful tool that can be used by experts (steep learning curve) to create important maps for the visually-oriented average Joe living in the United States.