According to the folks behind the project, the maps are "based on every geocoded tweet in the United States from June 2012-April 2013 containing one of the 'hate words'" -- more than 150,000 in all -- and then weighted against the total Twitter traffic in each specific county. Areas with a higher proportion of hate tweets are designated by red, with those where such tweets are less frequent are marked by various shades of blue, as seen in this graphic.
As you'll see, the reddest areas are generally in the Midwest and East, with assorted hot spots in Western areas.Here's the overall map for "homophobia"....
...and this is the image for "racism." As you can see, there's significant areas of darker blue in Colorado on both maps.Here are two images focusing on the state. First, Colorado's overall homophobia score....
...and the state's racism tally: What words led to the blue areas in Colorado? The Geography of Hate breaks things down by four homophobic words -- "dyke," "fag," "homo" and "queer" -- and five racist words: "chink," "gook," "nigger," "wetback" and "spick."Here's how Colorado scored on each word, with a differentiation made for "negative" tweets -- presumably to factor out messages in which the words are used in ways that are meant to be congenial rather than hurtful.
Continue for more heat maps showing Colorado's score for hate tweets.
