LibGuides: SOCL 203: Race & Power (Weiner): Current Racial Realities

Community Information

Social Explorer: Visualization, reporting and downloads of U.S. Census Data. See the video below on how to use the database to find demographic information.

http://data.census.gov
Explore census data, learn about America’s people, places, and economy
See the video below on how to use the website to find demographic information.

ATTENTION: As of October 1, 2025 the data.census.gov website displays the following message. "Due to the lapse of federal funding, this website is not being updated. Any inquiries submitted via data.census.gov will not be answered until appropriations are enacted."

Government

Other Resources

USA.gov
The "Google" of U.S. government websites. Use this search engine to find information published on .gov sites.
Freedom for Immigrants: Mapping U.S. Immigration Detention
Interactive map of U.S. immigration detention.

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"Freedom for Immigrants is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system."
How Diverse are US Newsrooms?
From the American Society of News Editors, in partnership with Google News Initiative
Not My Tax Dollars
Not My Tax Dollars is a project of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). Find out how much money people in your city spend on Israel, and what could be funded instead.

Newspapers

ProQuest Newspapers

National and international news sources, including major titles like the Boston Globe, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, and LA Times.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette Current

Date(s):1989-present
Articles from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette; all pictures and advertisements are included 2018-present.
ProQuest Central

Journal articles, magazines, and news in almost every subject area.

Search for Public Schools
From the National Center for Education Statistics. Use the Search For Public Schools locator to retrieve information on all U.S. public schools. This data is collected annually directly from State Education Agencies (SEAs).
National Center for Education Statistics
Land Grab Universities
Civil Rights Data Collection
The Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection includes data about: enrollment demographics, discipline, school expenditures, teacher experience, and more.
Elementary/Secondary Information System (ElSi)
From the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Elementary/Secondary Information System (ElSi) is an NCES web application that allows users to quickly view public and private school data and create custom tables and charts using data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and Private School Survey (PSS).

State-level education data is made available through most state Departments of Education. The tools and levels of access may be different, as each state has its own education laws and mandates. Watch the video below to see two examples.

State Unemployment by Race
https://www.epi.org/indicators/state-unemployment-race-ethnicity/
Economic Policy Institute
Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity
from the Kaiser Family Foundation
Home ownership rate by state
Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Statistics (JCHS)

Family wait times for public housing
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). This is a report that *contains* data sets. Scroll down to find your state and the 2020 wait times for public housing.
See video tutorial on public housing wait times

Using Social Explorer to access US Census data

County Health Rankings
The annual County Health Rankings measure vital health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income inequality, and teen births in nearly every county in America.
Kaiser Family Foundation: Uninsured Rates for People Ages 0-64 by Race/Ethnicity
Provides data on a state level as of 2023. Use the "Refine Results" tool on the left to change how the data is displayed.

Infant Mortality Rates by County

Visit this page from the March of Dimes: Mortality Overview | PeriStats | March of Dimes

Use the selection tool on the right to view the data:

Crime

Bureau of Justice Statistics
The Mission of the Bureau of Justice Statistics is "to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded."
Crime Data Explorer/Arrest Data Analysis Tool
From the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Prison Policy Initiative
"The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society."
Quick Links:
Incarceration stats by race, ethnicity, and gender: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2023/09/27/updated_race_data/
Correctional Facility Locator via the Democracy ToolKit: https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/locator2020/
Prison Pay Rates
Read the "Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers" report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Vera Institute incarceration trends website
Find jail and prison trends across counties, states, and regions. Use the map to explore how your county compares to others along five key incarceration metrics.

Police

Mapping Police Violence
Mapping Police Violence is a research collaborative collecting comprehensive data on police killings nationwide to quantify the impact of police violence in communities.
Fatal shootings by a police officer
This links to a spreadsheet compiled by The Washington Post (see "More Info" below). For more information see the next link in the list: Video tutorial on Fatal Police Shootings spreadsheet

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This spreadsheet was downloaded from GitHub on March 5, 2025.

Washington Post. (2023). data-police-shootings. GitHub. https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings

For more details on the data contained in this spreadsheet, please visit: https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings/blob/master/README.md
Video tutorial on Fatal Police Shootings spreadsheet
Please watch this video if you need help navigating the spreadsheet in the link above.
1033 Watch: Look Up Your State

Laws

US Protest Law Tracker
"The US Protest Law Tracker, part of ICNL’s US Program, follows initiatives at the state and federal level since November 2016 that restrict the right to peaceful assembly. "
Anti-CRT Law Tracking
The CRT Forward Tracking Project (FTP) identifies, tracks, and analyzes local, state, and federal activity that attempts to restrict access to truthful information about Critical Race Theory (CRT), race, and systemic racism. T
Anti-BDS law tracker
Foundation for Middle East Peace’s Table on Anti-BDS laws. These tables track anti-boycott-of-Israel bills & laws across all US states and in the US Congress.

SOCL 203: Race & Power (Weiner): Current Racial Realities

Community Information

http://data.census.gov Explore census data, learn about America’s people, places, and economy See the video below on how to use the website to find demographic information.

http://data.census.gov
Explore census data, learn about America’s people, places, and economy
See the video below on how to use the website to find demographic information.