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US Geography Lesson

Apr 28, 2006 1:35 PM
Tags: economics, immigration, louisville, maps, nj, politics, race, religion

Elyssa reminds me of an incident that happened in Louisville, Ky. while I was out getting nachos and beer with some acquaintances.

Curious Friend of a Friend: So where are you from, originally?
Me: New Jersey.
Curious Friend of a Friend: What state is that in, again? New York, right?
Me: Umm ... it's its own state, bro.

Not terribly surprising, considering the Bluegrass State is the epicenter of high school dropouts in this country.

There is a lot of cool stuff at this archive of American Ethno-Geographic maps, like Russian speakers by county, the counties with the highest percentage of Muslims and counties with less than 25 black people (PDF).


Comments: US Geography Lesson

I like that the census gives you until the age of 25 before you're considered a high school dropout. It's nice to have a buffer. Sorry Jerri Blank!

Posted by: michael on April 28, 2006 1:51 PM | permalink

Wow, there aren't any counties in Maine with fewer than 25 African-Americans? Guess I didn't give them enough credit for diversity. Also surprising that California's central coast isn't more devoid of African Americans. Otherwise, that map was about what I would expect.

Posted by: Jay on April 28, 2006 1:59 PM | permalink

Dude, less than 1%? Sure.

But less than 25?

In a whole county?

I had high school classes with that many black people.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 28, 2006 2:23 PM | permalink

Do you have any idea how non-diverse some parts of the country are? Yeah, I had lots of black people in my high school too, what's your point -- we grew up in metropolitan areas of mid-Atlantic states.

Posted by: Jay on April 28, 2006 2:43 PM | permalink

Clearly you've never been to Maine. I spent 7 summers of my life there and I'm fairly certain I never saw an African-American the entire time I was up there.

Most of America is not diverse. Hell where I grew up in MA we were still part of the Boston bussing system!

Posted by: Elyssa on April 28, 2006 3:07 PM | permalink

Alternate comeback: "Yeah, like Kentucky is in Ohio."

Posted by: Keesey on April 28, 2006 3:56 PM | permalink

Ok, the Muslim stats make sense for Texas - places with large populations see larger numbers of Muslims. But the Jewish numbers are weird. There are three places of concentration - Dallas(makes sense) Austin (makes sense, even though the population is much smaller than other metros), and Texarkana. What the hell attracts Jews to Texarkana? All I remember seeing through there was Waffle Houses.

Posted by: Od-ll on April 28, 2006 4:27 PM | permalink

Elyssa - Was the "clearly you've never been to Maine" meant for me or Joe? If you were aiming it at me... I don't know why, because I think we agree. My point is I was very surprised that Maine lacked counties with fewer than 25 blacks -- I really thought there'd be a few of those counties up there!

Posted by: Jay on April 28, 2006 4:29 PM | permalink

Aimed at Joe. Always aimed at Joe ;) (jk Joe!)

Posted by: Elyssa on April 28, 2006 4:53 PM | permalink

"What the hell attracts Jews to Texarkana?"

Maybe it's redneck Christians that couldn't fill out their census forms?

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 28, 2006 4:55 PM | permalink

Oh yeah, I also want to add that I was surprised by the high school dropout rate. After looking at that map, I looked up more info and found out that the average dropout rate for the US is 25%. I wonder if that's fine (we need burger flippers and such) or if we need more people to actually graduate.

Back to the original New Jersey / New York thing... It's better that they thought it was in New York rather than calling it the "mullet state" or "Bon Jovi state," like I would have.

Posted by: Od-ll on April 28, 2006 5:59 PM | permalink

there are basic things i expect people to know, and they're blowing my mind left and right! on a preview for the new mtv reality series, "tiara girls", a parent or coach or someone asks one of the contestants, "you know who the vice president is, right?" and she reponds, "...his name is kennedy, right?"

yep. and he's the mayor of the great city of new jersey!

Posted by: kelley on April 28, 2006 8:16 PM | permalink

kelley: I don't have to look to people I don't know for screw-ups like that. A couple years ago, a friend of a friend asked (totally seriously) what the difference is between senators and governors. Yeah. And the really sad part -- this was in DC, and the friend of a friend was a research analyst for a federal government consulting firm.

Posted by: Jay on April 29, 2006 11:07 AM | permalink

I had a college girlfriend in NJ who, when I asked how many states there were, said "51."

"51? Umm, there are an even 50."
"No, there's 50 and then one that is, uh, annexed or something."

Maybe the whole "State of Israel" phrase tripped her up.

That said, I once told a chick from Toronto that I knew a guy who went to McGill. She wasn't terribly impressed with my knowledge of The Great White North.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 29, 2006 11:53 AM | permalink

It's possible that your friend was thinking of Puerto Rico. Some consider it the 51st state and expect it to join the union at some point.

Posted by: Od-ll on April 29, 2006 12:47 PM | permalink

Od-ll:

Or, DC, but, no.

She. Was. Retarded.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on April 29, 2006 4:55 PM | permalink

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.