Although I am familiar with cartography’s geographic focus, mapping as a data visualization tool presents deeply-intriguing possibilities. Having the opportunity to explore the provided mapping projects was revelatory. From the choices offered, I picked three that held thematic congruities and aligned with my interests: Lincoln Mullen’s Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860, Mobilized Humanities’ Separados/Torn Apart, and Claudio Saunt’s Invasion of America. Taxonomically, these all display the same geographic space (the United States) and quantitatively represent imperialism, racial injustice, and immigrant detainment. All three sites convey the spread of institutionalized racism through choropleth maps representing states, state districts, and Indigenous reservations.
Separados also includes other visualizations, including a point map displaying the locations of immigration allies and a symbol polygon map representing the direction and scale of ICE removals. The minimalistic design and historical period covered by Spread of U.S. Slavery and Invasion of America suggests their role as academic supplements intended for a liberal and historically-literate audience. Separados, meanwhile, focuses on an ongoing civil rights crisis and utilizes uncompromising colloquial language, presenting resources encouraging active praxis. Rhetorically framing ICE’s web of corporate funding as the “Murderboard” and ICE contractors as the “Scroll of Shame” invites dissent towards the exposed entities, a strategy Separados uses to mobilize a leftist audience ready to petition and protest. Each of these visualizations leverages the symbolic grammar of mapping. Spread of U.S. Slavery and Invasion of America’s choropleth polygons suit their strict focus on the geographic and territorial growth of systems of structural racism across America. Similarly, the many map visualizations of Separados are each used to represent political, economic, and geographic dimensions of immigrant incarceration.
A remarkable strength Invasion of America and Separados showcase is displacement’s temporal, dynamic nature. Invasion of America features a “Manipulate Time” functionality that turns the choropleth map into a timelapse of American invasion and conquest of Native territories, animating the westward imperial plunge and vivifying the horror of land encroachment. Separados’ “Lines” visualization utilizes sharp, black polygonal triangles to symbolize the removal and relocation of immigrant populations across geographic space, visualizing the data and contextually capturing the violence of forced movement. Including temporal and kinetic energies within these maps emphasizes the contemporary relevance of Native and immigrant detention. Unfortunately, I found Spread of U.S. Slavery lacking in this regard. While the site contains dense numerical data with toggleable metrics and a granular choropleth mapping by U.S. county, the map lacks the scale, motion, and immediacy needed to ground slavery in its historical context. Spread of U.S. Slavery does contain a time slider representing slave populations across census counts; nonetheless, a timelapse feature or a dynamic mapping schema would help transform this tool from a historical reference into a demonstrational, educative graphic.
All of these maps are scholarly; Lincoln Mullen (Spread of U.S. Slavery) and Claudio Saunt (Invasion of America) are history professors, while the Mobilized Humanities team (Separados) is composed of professors, Ph.D. candidates, and a university librarian. However, Mullen and Saunt’s maps seem like one-off projects for scholarly reference, while the Mobilized Humanities team built Separados as “scholarly activism in a global context,” intended to educate visitors and compel independent anti-carceral action. The separation of institutional knowledge and continuing praxis in these maps highlight the varying intentions maps hold. While data is definite, presenting data within the map medium is subject to creator design and visitor uses. Neither Spread of U.S. Slavery nor Invasion of America uses language explicitly condemning slavery or imperialism, allowing the map’s usage by potentially racist and xenophobic visitors. The objective, socially-neoliberal portrayal of data without subjectivity perpetuates color-blind racism and allows bigotry to take root. Spread of U.S. Slavery and Invasion of America were built in 2014 and 2017, respectively, while Separados was built in 2020. Separados has been updated and serves as a journal revised with new data and maps when necessary, proven by its first and second volume’s separate visualizations and focus. None of these maps are broken in any critical way. Still, Spread of U.S. Slavery and Invasion of America beg sustainable updates that expand the context of the data their maps represent. As an aspiring media theorist, none of these maps are specifically within my field of study – yet, they provide historical matter, the scholarly element codified into popular culture representations that media theory analyzes. Thus, these sites’ provision of data outlining U.S. enslavement, imperialism, and incarceration still pertains to my studies. I plan to utilize these sites as educational materials, academic resources, and catalysts for my activism.
