(Roughly) Daily

 click here or on the image above

From Bloomberg, an interactive graphic that allows readers to see and compare the heritages (as reported in the 2010 Census) of residents of the U.S. as whole and of each of the nation’s 3,143 counties.

(The example above was pulled at random… One notes that a “German heritage vs Mexican heritage” sort yields Maricopa County, Arizona– the precinct policed by brown-skin-busting, sexual-abuse-ignoring, vendetta-prosecuting “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio, the subject of a current Justice Department investigation– as the county in the U.S. with the most self-identified citizens of German heritage.  Chillingly weird.)

***

As we wonder if the “melting pot” has become a “fondue pot,” we might spare a thought for the first Mississippi field secretary of the NAACP, Medgar Evers; he was assassinated on this date in 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens’ Council.

A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers’ blood.
A finger fired the trigger to his name.
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man’s brain
But he can’t be blamed
He’s only a pawn in their game.
– Bob Dylan, ‘Only a Pawn in Their Game’

 source