Now, a new web-based tool offers members of the general public a visually dramatic, incredibly granular look at the racial composition of their communities, almost at the block by block level. (Note: We are advised that the tremendous interest in the maps has caused intermittent site difficulties. So if it doesn't work, try again later.)
The tool is a creation of Remapping Debate, a relatively new online journal, and the research site Social Explorer. The data comes from the latest five-year American Community Survey, and allows users to zoom down to the census 'block groups' level, a smaller geographic unit than a census tract. The tool has been set up to make it easy to highlight areas that remain ultra-white, as well as areas that are disproportionately African-American or Latino or both.
