And the Most Racist Place in America Is ... Closer Than You Think

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By BETH DALBEY and JUSTIN HEINZE

Racism isn’t an easy thing to measure, but a new analysis of Google search data reveals not only the most racist places in America, but also ties racism to lower life expectancy for blacks in those areas.

The authors of the peer-reviewed study, published April 24 in the journal PLOS ONE, used Google Trends, a simple tool that allows anyone to analyze the frequency of searches in a certain area.

They compared searches for the “N-word” with searches for non-racist terms like “migraine(s),” “economist,” “sweater,” “Daily Show” and “Lakers.”

The result:

The most racist places in America are located in a belt that stretches through most of Appalachia, from Kentucky through West Virginia, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and New York State. It branches off and continues across Pennsylvania and all of South Jersey and Delaware.

There are isolated spots in eastern Texas, northwest Florida, Georgia, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in its Thumb area, but the bulk is concentrated in a single belt.

The data scientists said simply asking people if they’re racist reveals false results because they tend to self-censor themselves. If asked if they’re racist, most people will simply say no.

But their Google searches tell a different story, according to data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, who earlier analyzed Internet searches for a paper measuring the effect of racist attitudes on Barack Obama’s electoral prospects. It found that racial animus may have cost Obama more votes than previously thought.

“Google data, evidence suggests, are unlikely to suffer from major social censoring,” he wrote in a previous paper. “Google searchers are online and likely alone, both of which make it easier to express socially taboo thoughts. Individuals, indeed, note that they are unusually forthcoming with Google.”

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So, if someone is sitting at home alone looking at racist websites and searching for racist terms, who does that hurt?

The researchers said higher concentrations of racist online activity correlated to higher mortality rates for blacks in those areas, even after adjusting the numbers for a variety of socio-economic variables.

“We found robust associations between area racism and heart disease, cancer, and stroke, leading causes of death among blacks,” the authors said. “These findings are congruent with studies documenting the deleterious impact of racism on health among blacks.”

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Discrimination negatively affects the health of blacks because it enforces patterns of residential segregation in some of an area’s worst neighborhoods, the study authors concluded.

“Racial discrimination in employment can also lead to lower income and greater financial strain, which in turn have been linked to worse mental and physical health outcomes,” the study authors said.

The map showing where racial activity occurs generally follows Humboldt State University’s map of racist Tweets.

The study published in PLOS ONE reveals that Google searches for the N-word drop off the farther west one goes. No region west of Texas showed higher-than-average searches for racist terms.

The map showing where racial activity occurs generally follows Humboldt State University’s map of racist Tweets.

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Map by David H. Chae via Creative Commons