Sharing America: The Identity Blog

"Sharing America" is a collaborative public radio initiative. A team of one editor and four reporters in newsrooms around the country is covering the intersection of race, identity and culture. Reporters: Erica Morrison (Portland, OR) | Michelle Tyrene Johnson (Kansas City) | Andrea Henderson (St. Louis) | Vanessa de la Torre (Hartford) | Editor: Holly Edgell | [email protected]

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We’re back. And we have news.

By: Holly Edgell, Editor | @hollyedgell

The Sharing America team devoted about three months to reporting for our project “Fixed Odds: Problem Gambling In America,” which looked at the impact of gambling on several communities of color.

The stories:

Defense Dept. Cashes In On Overseas Slot Machines While Problem Gambling Among Military Personnel Is Largely Undiagnosed

Helping Or Hurting? For Some Native Americans, Tribal-Casino Gambling Collides With Gambling Addiction

The Lure Of Luck: How Gambling Can Turn Addictive For Refugees From Southeast Asia

‘No Estamos Locos’: Problem Gambling In One Of Oregon’s Latino Communities

In addition, we pulled together lots of data about the impact of gambling and problem gambling around the country. Check it out here.

As always, you can find our stories at sharingamerica.news.

In other news...

We have a new member of the team! Andrea Henderson joined St. Louis Public Radio and Sharing America in early March. Andrea comes to us from NPR, where she reported for the race and culture podcast Code Switch and produced pieces for All Things Considered. Follow her on Twitter  @drebjournalist!     

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6 things about the black population of the United States

By Holly Edgell, Editor

Black History Month is as good a time as any to reflect on some important indicators about black life in the United States. 

47.4 million (13 percent): The black population, either alone or in combination with one or more races, in the United States. (Source: US Census Bureau 2017 Population Estimates) 

More black immigrants: “There were 4.2 million black immigrants living in the U.S. in 2016, up from 816,000 in 1980, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data. Since 2000 alone, the number of black immigrants in the U.S. has risen 71 percent. Africans made up 39 percent of the overall black immigrant population in 2016, up from 24% in 2000. Still, about half of all foreign-born blacks (49 percent) living in the U.S. in 2016 were from the Caribbean.” (Source: Pew Research Center)  

29.5 percent: The percentage of the employed black population 16 and older working in management, business, science and arts occupations in 2017. (Source: US Census Bureau 2017 American Community Survey)

121,466: The number of black-owned employer firm businesses in the United States in 2016. (Source: 2016 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs)

Education: “For the first time in U.S. history, 90 percent of Americans ages 25 and older have completed high school, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The share of blacks who have done so is also at the highest level on record. In 2017, 87 percent of blacks ages 25 and older had a high school diploma or equivalent.” (Source: Pew Research Center)  

2.1 million: The number of black military veterans in the United States nationwide. (Source: US Census Bureau 2017 American Community Survey)

More from Sharing America here. 

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The year in shopping and dining while black

By Holly Edgell | Editor, Sharing America 

Implicit bias is everywhere. We as human beings cannot completely shed it, no matter how woke we strive to become.

From the conversations about implicit bias in the news media, corporate offices, police departments and pretty much everywhere, we know that there are things we can do to check our biases, heighten awareness about our blind spots, and adjust our behavior accordingly.

And yet. And yet. We continue to see incident after incident play out in public spaces. (When one thinks about the incidents in private spaces, it boggles the mind). Some incidents are diffused on the spot. Some escalate into violence.

Things can go fatally wrong. You’ll recall how a Thanksgiving holiday outing at an Alabama mall ended in the death of a black man named Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. Police believed he had fired shots after an altercation, so they shot him. Turns out, the 21-year-old was not the man who had discharged his weapon, injuring two. That was a different black man.

Not all racial profiling incidents prove fatal, but taken as a whole, they paint a disturbing picture. Spurred by the April Starbucks incident in Philadelphia and an incident at a St. Louis area Nordstrom Rack not long after, we decided to start tracking incidents involving black customers and national and regional retail and restaurant chains.

Guess what? According to the 2018 report “Black Dollars Matter: The Sales Impact of Black Consumers” from Nielsen, black consumers account for more some $1.2 trillion in purchases each year.

To be included in this project one or more of the following must be true of an incident: police and/or security were involved; the incident was captured on video and shared via social media or a news organization; the company took action as a response (e.g. firing an employee, admitting fault, closing the store).

Here are a few details of note:

We found more than 30 cases in more than 20 states

There were more retail cases than dining or fast food

Walgreens and IHOP both appear twice for incidents at different locations

California, Oregon and Missouri were the site of more incidents than other states

As we came across incidents we added them to this map to get a better sense of the geographic distribution of these cases. No particular patterns emerged in terms of where incidents occurred, but--as you’ll see--the incidents themselves seems to unfold in a similar sequence of events.

If you are interested in our news coverage related to racial profiling and implicit bias, here are some items:

What is ‘racial bias training’? As Starbucks breaks to learn, we ask an expert 

After Starbucks Fiasco, Hartford Coffeehouse Gets Its Own Anti-Bias Training

Nordstrom Rack incident leaves St. Louis teen skeptical about racial bias training

Ferguson Starbucks manager calls company-wide anti-bias training ‘thought provoking’

Clayton, Missouri officials meet with Wash U students, say city will conduct racial sensitivity training

Good Service Is A Coin Toss For Those 'Dining While Black'

Funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Sharing America includes reporters at public radio stations in four cities and an editor based in St. Louis. The collaboration covers the intersection of race, identity and culture. MORE 

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The news in November

Hard to believe all the news that happened in November! Here is a look at some of our work. - Holly Edgell, Editor

The month started off with mid-term elections, of course. Erica Morrison looked at a group of women of color who worked to get out the vote in Oregon, where there was an historic race for Portland City Council between two black women. 

Photo by Erica Morrison, OPB

Across the country in Connecticut, Vanessa de la Torre reported on the rise of Jahana Hayes, also a black woman. The former school teacher would go on to win the race for the state’s 5th Congressional District. Vanessa also looked at just what it would take to galvanize people of color to go to the polls.

Photo by Vanessa de la Torre, Connecticut Public Radio

Immediately after election day, Sharing America turned to other matters. Ashley Lisenby reported on how the library in one southern Illinois town serves as an empowering resource for a community with one of the region’s fastest growing Latino populations. 

Photo by Carolina Hidalgo, St. Louis Public Radio

Next, Michelle Tyrene Johnson introduced us to a group of Latino artists making a creative space for themselves and tackling cultural appropriation in Kansas City.

Around the middle of the month Ashley reported on a Ferguson, Missouri apartment complex that was about to evict Section 8 tenants. It turns out St. Louis County had stopped making its share of rental payments. 

We went back to Kansas City toward the end of the month where Michelle reported on the first historical marker dedicated a Missouri lynching victim, Levi Harrington.

Photo by Michelle Tyrene Johnson, KCUR

If you’d like to see what other stories we’ve covered in 2018, check out this interactive map!

In St. Louis, we were very excited to host a two-day training “boot camp” to expose non-radio reporters to radio storytelling. On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, we hosted 12 journalists from the ranks of television, blogs and newspapers in sessions led by the great Kerry Donahue of PRX. Kerry led our training session in Hartford in May, and I just knew she’d kill it again in St. Louis. 

The participants:

Joseph Bustos, Belleville News-Democrat

Kelsey Landis, Belleville News-Democrat

Chester Lampkin, 5 On Your Side

Erin Richey, 5 On Your Side

Sandra Jordan, The St. Louis American

Kenya Vaughn, The St. Louis American

Tammy Merrett, SIUE

Mariah Stewart, Independent journalist

Valerie Hahn, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Andrew Nguyen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Cristina Fletes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Michelle Jokisch Polo, Grand Valley State University

A major shout out to four St. Louis Public Radio employees who sacrificed their Saturday to help with some of the hands-on work:

Ryan Delaney

Sarah Fentem

Marissanne Lewis-Thompson

Rachel Lippman

Getting to know the equipment.

It was great to have folks from the St. Louis American since the weekly paper and St. Louis Public Radio are content partners.

Obligatory station tour! 

We even did some breathing exercises.

More photos on our Facebook Page 

Here’s to December!

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Two words for October: Zest and grit

By Holly Edgell, Sharing America Editor

If there was a theme to our coverage in October, it might be found in two words that emerged from Erica Morrison’s story about a Portland school that’s trying a new approach to closing the achievement gap between children of color and white  children: zest and grit. As in, “School leaders teach students eight habits of success: gratitude, empathy, self-control, zest, grit, discipline, optimism and curiosity.”

Zest and grit are two great words that sum up the people we got to know through our coverage last month.

Michelle Tyrene Johnson interviewed Kaitlin Vaughn, a resident of Prairie Village, Kansas. 

“If I worked in Prairie Village I could be fired for being gay. I’m married to my wife, but if I displayed a picture of her on my desk, it would be legal to be fired for that,” says Kaitlin Vaughn, who lives on a tree-lined block in that city. 

Vaughn and others are working to get local municipalities to do away with policies that punish LBGTQ residents.

Michelle also got to interview mega-star and Kansas City native Janelle Monáe. Talk about zest! 

“My upbringing, my community was all a huge inspiration for this album,” she told Michelle, as she spoke about her album, Dirty Computer. “And growing up in a small town and having big ideas and being what one would call a weirdo or just having a different approach to the way that I saw music, art and performance, I did at times feel out of place but I think that I wasn’t alone in that endeavor and I think that there were more people in Kansas City, Kansas, who could relate to what it is in that song.”

A Hartford youth group is defining the term “grit” as its members advocate against gun violence. Vanessa de la Torre met the teens of the Greater Hartford Youth Leadership Academy, “a group of 15 students of color that has devoted Saturdays over the past year to research and strategizing. They meet and go over heavy stuff like poverty, mass incarceration, educational disparities and the effects of trauma--some of the societal issues, they explain, that factor into the cycle of gun violence in cities like Hartford.”

Erica also covered a movement that might make some people cringe, while others embrace: Reparations. The racial social justice nonprofit Brown Hope has a unique approach to redistributing wealth to people of color: the Reparations Power Hour. The event is paid for by white donors and each attendee gets $10 just for showing up and being a person of color. 

Ashley Lisenby looked at perhaps more mainstream means of reducing inequities between different groups when she met St. Louis women who are working hard to close the wealth gap between blacks and whites through entrepreneurship. Rebecca Clark, for example, holds a master’s degree and a has professional “day job.” And, she is going further by founding her own publishing firm. 

“It may be small now,” she said of her business, “But I’m taking these baby steps now so then it can grow with them and they can continue to pass it down. It’ll be a family legacy, for sure. At least, that’s my goal.”

As always, we continued to add to our “Shopping and Dining While Black” tracker, learning of an incident at Whole Foods in Philadelphia.

November has started off with a bang! Check out election coverage on our website: SharingAmerica.news

One last note

Earlier this year we covered stories relating to cases of racial profiling in light of the infamous Starbucks incident. Last week, my colleagues and I at St. Louis Public Radio took part in session about implicit bias. It was quite a switch to go from reporting on this kind of training to actually taking part. I share my thoughts in my personal blog.

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From the editor: Are you your DNA?

The issue of Elizabeth Warren and her DNA results has a lot of people talking. For some, the results strike a familiar chord: Many Americans believe they have some amount of Native American DNA. This idea is often thought of in terms of “heritage.” 

But does having DNA from a particular group mean you are automatically a member of that group, that you share their heritage? 

Brandon Scott, executive editor of the Cherokee Phoenix explains why, for him and many other Cherokees, the answer is no. 

“It is in our communities, it is in the words of our elders and the faces of our children. It goes beyond who our ancestors were — it dictates how we live, how we raise our children, and who we are as a people,” Scott writes in a oped piece for Vox. 

There are technicalities, too:

“For Cherokee Nation citizens to be recognized as such, we must retrace our roots back to a family member who signed the Dawes Roll, essentially a turn-of-the-century census for Cherokees.”

I had the chance to take part in a discussion about DNA and “who we are” with Scott as well as Wendy Roth, a sociologist at the University of British Columbia, on the live show Central Standard which airs daily on KCUR in Kansas City and is hosted by Gina Kauffman.

Take a listen! 

In an article Roth wrote PBS NewsHour she says:

“As a social scientist who studies the way that racial identities and categories change over time and place, I believe our ideas about race and ethnicity are shaped by societies and not just what is found in our genes.”

Roth did a study to find out whether DNA test-takers “view their results as definitive, and whether that might encourage them to view racial differences as purely biological.”

The results are fascinating! 

Last week I wrote a blog titled “Who gets to say who you are?” In it, I considered Warren’s case as well as that of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who has insisted on her blackness, and a man named Robert Taylor, who tried to use his four percent of “blackness” to take advantage of government programs designed to provide women and minorities with greater access to government programs.

In answer to my own question, I just don’t know. Americans pride ourselves on self-determination. As an individual, I am grateful to live at a time when I feel I can define who I am, based on what I know of my roots--and my DNA test.

By Holly Edgell | Editor, Sharing America

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Remembering September

The month began with a sandwich. This is no ordinary sammy, either; Michelle Tyrene Johnson brought us the story of a Kansas City pork tenderloin sandwich that was introduced by a Japanese-American couple in the 1950s. Decades later, you can still find it at Kitty’s Cafe. 

As a local food critic put it: “It’s hard to find the perfect pork tenderloin that is soft and not too chewy and perfectly seasoned and a little bit crunchy, and this has all those things.”

Next,Vanessa de la Torre brought us squash--not the kind you eat. She met two Hartford teens who, thanks to their prowess with the sport, have earned full scholarships to prestigious prep schools. For Julissa, who is Mexican-American, and Ku, a refugee from Thailand, their skills made possible what they once never dreamed of. 

Hartford teens Ku Paw, left, and Julissa Mota celebrate after getting accepted to Connecticut boarding schools.

The media is replete with reaction and commentary about the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” from people on the coasts and even overseas.

As guest host of the KCUR show Central Standard, Michelle invited three Kansas City residents who are Asian American to talk about the film–its impact, its resonance, even its “Easter eggs.” 

Sticking with the movies, across the state of Missouri, Ashley Lisenby interviewed filmmaker Cami Thomas about her documentary series “Smoke City.”  

The native St. Louisan developed the series to understand the region’s racial and socioeconomic divides in the wake of the unrest sparked in the region by the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. Thomas says she hopes the episodes encourage people to get to know neighborhoods besides their own. 

Cami Thomas, producer of the “Smoke Screen” documentary series, with fellow filmmaker Calvin Tigre.

Toward the end of September, Ashley was part of “Beyond the Ballot,” a four-station story collaboration that asked: “What do Missouri voters really want?” ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

Here’s the full series

Ashley’s reporting looked at how grassroots activism among African-American voters helped cause an upset in the August primaries and asked whether the same approach could work in November. 

ACLU volunteer Dean Kpere-Daibo knocks on doors in July at homes near Kirkwood to talk about the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s race.

There was a new incident to add to the “Shopping and Dining While Black” tracker: It involved the H&M store at a Pembroke Pines, Florida store. This brings the 2018 total of cases we know about to 29. 

Check out the map here

Amid our news coverage for the month, the Sharing America team gathered at Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford for a couple of days of training and meetings. We got tech and storytelling tutelage from Kerry Donahue of PRX as well as writing and voice coaching from Sora Newman, a longtime NPR pro. It was good stuff! 

We spent the better part of a day brainstorming about a team project that will drop in early 2019. Stay tuned for more on that!

Squad. From left: Vanessa de la Torre, Erica Morrison, Ashley Lisenby, Holly Edgell, Michelle Tyrene Johnson

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August: No dog days here

We followed up Erica Morrison’s July story about black gun owners with a story from Ashley Lisenby about black women joining up for ladies’ night at a range to learn and practice shooting.Their reasons for attending ranged from wanting personal protection to a desire to learn the basics of handling a firearm safely.

We have done quite a few stories about housing issues and segregation and we continued that trend in August. Michelle Tyrene Johnson went to the Kansas City Star archive and reviewed homes listed for sale in July 1963. What she found was not surprising, but dismaying all the same. She also interviewed a man who found that, though he could afford a home in a particular neighborhood, being black meant he couldn’t actually buy there.

You can find more Sharing America stories here!

Also in August, Ashley partnered with reporter Molly Parker of the Southern Illinoisan newspaper to examine public housing problems in East St. Louis. Molly is part of Propublica’s Local Reporting Network. You can find Ashley’s story here, and Molly’s here.

Erica brought us a fascinating example of Portland having to face the fact that being a progressive city doesn’t automatically mean it’s off the hook when it comes to confronting racism. A local group decided to use billboards to make its point.

In addition to these stories, we continued to add to our Shopping and Dining While Black Tracker, mapping incidents at retail chains and eateries around the country.

Keep your eyes on us! For a taste of how September is shaping up check out this very American culinary tale from Michelle and look for a smashing story about how a rather niche sport can change lives from Vanessa de la Torre.

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Calling all journalists!

St. Louis Public Radio and Sharing America are offering a free, two-day intensive introduction to public radio journalism for experienced professionals who might be interested in learning more about our branch of the news industry. Space is limited, so we’ll be asking interested journalists to apply.

The workshop itself is free. Attendees are responsible for their own travel and accommodations.

All journalists are welcome, and we especially hope to see applications from journalists of color.

Find info and the application form here!  bit.ly/2w797Gb 

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Ben Carson declared mission accomplished in East St. Louis—where public housing is still a disaster

This article was produced in partnership with The Southern Illinoisan, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network . EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -

This article is part of a reporting project that includes Ashley Lisenby of St. Louis Public Radio. Look for her radio story about East St. Louis families on the waiting list for housing vouchers coming soon.

“In the months leading up to HUD chief Ben Carson’s visit... HUD’s own inspectors had failed nine of East St. Louis’ 12 sprawling public housing projects, citing a wide variety of health and safety violations, according to federal records obtained by The Southern Illinoisan.”

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July: Contrasts in coverage

By Holly Edgell, Editor

If there were any themes for Sharing America stories in July they were at seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum: Well-being and guns.

Here is a selection of our work!

Ashley Lisenby started the month with a story about a St. Louis girl who wants grownups to do something about all the vacant buildings and lots in her neighborhood. Deyon Ryan, 12, wants to see them transformed into safe, liveable places. 

“When I look across the street,” Ryan said sitting outside her home. “There’s nothing but vacant buildings. There’s literally two houses across the street that’s not vacant.”

Next up, Michelle Tyrene Johnson took us to a very special place in Kansas City: Uzazi Village, where staffers are working to lower infant mortality by supporting black mothers.  

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes and the rate of infant mortality for black infants is almost double that of white infants.” 

Vanessa de la Torre reported on a drug that can help prevent HIV, but is not widely known about among communities of color. 

“PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, can lower the risk of getting HIV through sex by more than 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who inject drugs can cut their risk of HIV infection by at least 70 percent with PrEP. Yet six years after the federal government approved the daily blue pill for HIV prevention, Connecticut public health officials say they are still trying to put PrEP on people’s radars, and into the hands of those most vulnerable to contracting the virus.”

Erica Morrison explored the world of black gun ownership. She and her OPB colleague Ryan Haas asked: Who owns guns and why? 

“It’s not clear how many African-American Oregonians own guns because the state does not release demographic data on gun ownership due to privacy laws. But a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Foundation showed a third of black households in America do have a gun. For whites, that number is closer to 50 percent.” 

Michelle had the opportunity to explore the issue of guns when she guest-hosted an edition of the KCUR program Up To Date. 

Police said Ryan Stokes had a gun on him the night he died in Kansas City’s Power and Light entertainment district. 

“After being accused of stealing a cellphone, Stokes and a friend became the targets of a foot chase that ended when police shot and killed Stokes, who was 24 years old. Accounts of what happened that night, five years ago this week, differ between officers and witnesses.”

Finally, in an effort to track “shopping and dining while black” incidents (which seem to keep coming), yours truly created a Google Map of documented cases that involve national chains from coast to coast. Check out the map here.

This was prompted by a high profile incident in the St. Louis area involved 10 Washington University incoming freshman falsely accused of dining and dashing. 

You can find much more from Sharing America on our website!

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50 years young: Happy birthday, Franklin!

Franklin is the only black kid in the Peanuts gang. And he almost didn’t get included. 

Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz “had been wary of including a black child in the Peanuts gang and was concerned that it would come off as patronizing. That's what perhaps contributed to the wholesome, almost-too-perfect character of Franklin: He was a good student and kind to everyone and was even, as some critiqued, a bit bland.”

Nevertheless, Franklin made his debut on July 31, 1968, just months after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The timing was no accident. 

Read/hear more about how Franklin came to be!

How Franklin, The Black 'Peanuts' Character, Was Born (NPR’s Code Switch)

'Peanuts' First Black Character Franklin Turns 50 (NPR’s Weekend Edition)

Guess Who’s Coming to ‘Peanuts’ (New York Times)

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On a stop in Memphis, the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo shows a slice of Americana few know or talk about.

This photo essay is amazing! 

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The beauty of human skin in every color | Angélica Dass

Angélica Dass's photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portra...

This is an incredible TED Talk from  Angélica Dass, a photographer from Brazil. 

Her work “challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portrait project, Humanæ, and her pursuit to document humanity's true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black and yellow associated with race.”

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Mapping discrimination: A ‘shopping and dining while black’ tracker

If the incidents seem to be coming fast and furious, you’re not imagining things. (Not to mention the other “fill-in-the-blank” while black cases). Many of the chain restaurants a…

Did you know? African-Americans are responsible for $1.2 trillion in purchases each year? 

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It’s an honor to be nominated. Really!

From the Editor

Ashley Lisenby got her notification via a Tweet.  I got the news in an email. Only about six months into our work with Sharing America we were surprised and delighted with the news! 

Blake Strode, ArchCity Defenders Executive Director

A person or persons unknown nominated us for the ArchCity Defenders annual “Excellence in Poverty Journalism” Awards. For those outside of St. Louis, where Ashley and I are based, ArchCity Defenders is a civil rights nonprofit law firm. They conceived of the awards “to recognize and honor in depth reporting on race, class, and poverty, and to inspire more coverage.”

Ashley was nominated for her, “Inside the Workhouse: Conditions, treatment and time served remain under scrutiny.” I was nominated for “St. Louis conference 'celebrates' 50 years of Fair Housing Act.”

What made the recognition even sweeter was that our St. Louis Public Radio colleagues Kameel Stanley and Tim Lloyd of the We Live Here podcast were nominated, too! For their excellent “Out of The Ville” episodes.

Ashley’s cheering section was in full effect!

The awards ceremony was held on Thursday, July 12 at one of my favorite St. Louis spaces, ANEW, atop the Big Brothers Big Sisters building in the Grand Center district of the city. 

Organizers asked attendees this important question.

Drum roll: Kameel and Tim were named finalists! And, so was Ashley! I may not have made the cut for my story, but I am so pleased and proud of my colleagues. All the finalists and winners are here.

Ashley and ArchCity Defenders Director of Communications Rebecca L. Gorley 

Covering race, identity and culture involves some pretty heavy lifting at times. Spending an evening where the work is not only recognized and honored, but truly appreciated is big. -Holly Edgell, Sharing America

Kameel chats with Blake Strode.

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Race, Ethnicity and Marriage in the United States

Every state has seen an increase in the percentage of married-couple households that are interracial or interethnic, but changes varied across the U.S.

“The percentage of married-couple households that are interracial or interethnic grew across the United States from 7.4 to 10.2 percent from 2000 to 2012-2016.” 

From the Editor of Sharing America:

As the child of a black mother and white father, I felt a bit like a freak of nature growing up. I was overly sensitive to the fact that I was “different.” It was rare to see interracial couples in the 1970s and even into the 1990s, my formative years. 

Now, they’re everywhere! Even my parents will remark with a degree of astonishment when they see a commercial featuring an interracial couple. And for many people in their 30s and younger, interracial marriage is simply no big deal. As the saying goes, “love is love.”

If you are interested in learning more about the growth at the state and county levels (not to mention a lot of other fascinating data), read this article from the US Census Bureau! -Holly Edgell