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On this page you'll find all of our stories on the city of Detroit.Suggest a story here and follow our podcast here.

Every single person is on this map of the US

Dustin Cable
/
Cooper Center

Dustin Cable is a demographer who mapped race in the U.S.

Every dot on the map is smaller than one pixel and represents one person. 

Yes, there are 308, 745,538 dots on this map. 

Cable used population data from the 2010 Census to create this comprehensive image. Here's the key to different colors he used to represent different races:

  • Blue: White
  • Green: Black
  • Orange: Hispanic
  • Red: Asian
  • Brown: Other/Native American/multi-racial

If you take a look at the whole country, you can see a lot of segregation. But there are also colors that blend together, like the purple area that covers Chicago.

Look at what happens when you zoom in.

Credit Dustin Cable / Cooper Center
/
Cooper Center
Michigan looks pretty blue...

Cable explained that the areas that look like smudges of purple are actually just red and blue dots in the same city. The shade of purple just depends on the ratio of red and blue dots. 

When you zoom in even closer, you can see that areas which looked like they were a purple or green blend, are actually segregated neighborhoods.

This is Detroit.

Credit Dustin Cable / Cooper Center
/
Cooper Center
Here's one way to show what segregation looks like.

See that red smudge in the close-up map of Detroit? It's Wayne State's campus. Curt Metzger of Data Driven Detroit said that foreign students living in the University's dorms account for the concentration of Asians. In total, there are over 800 Asian students living in the dorms on campus. Wayne State offers family dorms for students (often they're grad students) with families.  

Credit Dustin Cable / Cooper Center
/
Cooper Center
Race in Detroit, up close.

-- Lucy Perkins, Michigan Radio News

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