A newly-released focus report on U.S. households by the Census Bureau reveals Washington State is in the top fifth nationally in mixed-race households. Which ever way you slice it. Of Washington husband-wife households counted in the 2010 Census, 10.9 percent were mixed race – versus 6.9 percent nationally. That ranks eighth out of the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The trend carried across other types of couplings in Washington households. Of unmarried, opposite-sex partner households in Washington, 19.6 percent were mixed race versus 14.2 percent nationally; the state ranked eighth of 52. For same-sex households in Washington, 18.5 percent included partners of different races, versus 14.5 percent nationally; and the state ranked 10th of 52. The report was full of other notable findings nationally, and for Washington and Seattle – regarding solo households, households with children, households headed by single women and single moms, and same-sex households.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘Race’ Category
Washington ranks high in mixed-race households
by Matt Rosenberg May 6th, 2012
City will remove race-based graffiti at Seattle Parks boating facility
by Matt Rosenberg September 29th, 2011
Only last month, after 12 years and a $3 million public-private fundraising effort, the George Corkery Family Boating Center re-opened at the City of Seattle’s Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center at Stan Sayres Memorial Park along Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood. Our fellow Seattle Times news partner The Rainier Valley Post reported on the milestone. It’s a great, community-driven improvement to a government-owned site that’s a hub for aquatic recreation in boating-mad Seattle and a focal point every summer for the iconic hydro races of SeaFair.
It’s now unfortunately also the site of some ugly graffiti which blames “white people” for a U.S. “terror-hate” campaign in Iraq.
In a reference to the U.S.-led war in Iraq which began in 2003, graffiti over the men’s room urinals adjacent to the just-upgraded facility proclaims in blue magic marker, “terror-hate by White People in Iraq.”
Told of the graffiti, Seattle Parks and Recreation Department spokesperson Dewey Potter said it would be removed. She stated, “hate crimes come first. We’ll take care of this as soon as possible.”
UPDATE, 9:41 a.m.: Potter emailed to say that a work order has been sent and the department will get the graffiti “removed immediately.”
Race-based graffiti in men's room of Seattle parks department boating facility in Mount Baker neighborhood/Matt Rosenberg
“Police Legitimacy And Predictive Policing”
by Matt Rosenberg March 25th, 2011
SUMMARY: Writing for a publication of the U.S. Justice Department, the Chief of Police of Lincoln, Neb. warns that modern mapping and data analysis techniques which let police pinpoint likely crime hot spots and perpetrators should not be used as a pretext for overly aggressive policing because it heightens perceptions of bias and profiling. Instead, he says, so-called “predictive policing” tools should be used to help police pinpoint areas ripe for joint interventions in the social environment by public sector and community actors. These could include addressing chronic truancy, litter, graffiti, broken infrastructure and the need for expanded hours and programs at public recreational facilities and libraries.