Edutor's note
Eunice Trotteris the Director of the Indiana Landmark’s program for Black History Preservation. Her discussion on this week’sWho Gets Whatpodcast helps us understand the deep history of  Black participation in Indiana’s economic and social development as well as the task of preserving and recalling what has been neglected for so long. Go tomortonjohn.libsyn.comto access this and other podcasts of interest.
Here we are, the end of 2023, and you’re expecting something profound, spiritual or uplifting. Sorry.

This week we’re going to take a look at the reality of the 2018-22 racial distribution within and among the states comprising “the home of the brave and the land of the free.”

Normally, the Census Bureau publishes data on the Hispanic or Latino population separately from data on Race (White, Black, Asian, etc.). This is warranted because Hispanics can be of any race.

Yet Hispanics in the United States are thought of and treated as if they were an undifferentiated entity. We do the same disservice to Asians, Blacks, Whites or your favorite racial group. .

Here we’ll consider the data for each of eight groups: The U.S. population was Hispanic (of any race) 18.7%, Not-Hispanic (NH) White 58.9%, NH Black or African American 12.1%, NH American Indian & Alaska Native 0.6%, NH Asian 5.7%, NH Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.2%, NH Some Other Race (includes declined to respond) 0.4%, and finally, NH Two or More Races 3.5%.

What state comes closest to being the “All-American State” with the closest match to that national configuration? No… not Indiana. Hoosiers are 18.4 percentage points away from looking just like the nation. We’re sandwiched in 24th place between Nebraska and Ohio in that beauty contest.

The winner of the American look-alike contest is Illinois, just 2.4 percentage points off-the-mark. Connecticut and New York states get to ride in the convertible attending the most conforming Illinois. Hawaii, however, is way behind the parade, off by 56.5 percentage points.

Nonetheless, Hawaii takes home the gold medal for “Most Diverse State,” capturing first place in NH Asians with 36.5% of residents in that group, 19.6% tops in percent of population of NH Two or More Races, and easily winning first place in the NH Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander category with 9.7%.

Maine is tops with 91.4% of its population reporting as White. If the District of Columbia were a state, it would be the most Black state at 43.5%, but Mississippi wins for now with 37.1% of it population so identifying. American Indian and Alaska Native honors go to Alaska at 13.9%.

That broad range of dominance in three of the eight groups earned Hawaii a score of 87.2 on our diversity index. (100 would be a case of perfect balance among groups while zero signifies only a single group is present.

Indiana comes out 34th in diversity (a score of 44.3), ahead of Maine and Vermont, the least diverse states in the nation (scores of 18.5).

What benefits are known to exist (rather than be hypothesized) because of population diversity? Is there value, if diversity does not provide differentiation? After all, white bread is just white bread unless it has differences of texture and taste.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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