Diversity Perspectives: What I think.
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look nothing like the handout Mr. Clasen gave my English class. This sheet has been circulating for ages via the internet, and I seem to find the contrasts it highlights between the "haves" and "have-nots" of the world compelling. However, much of the information it presents it questionable, out of date, or poorly defined.
According to the United Nations World Population Prospect document, the world population in the year 2002 was approximately 6.4 billion. If we calculate the corresponding percentages (and lump North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania into the "western hemisphere" category), we get the following ratios for our population of 100: sixty Asians, twelve Europeans, thirteen Africans, and fifteen people belonging to the West Hemisphere, five of which being from America. This information doesn't really shock me considering that China has the most citizens which would boost the Asian's ratio.
According to the same United Nations document, the world population in the year 2003 consisted of 3,025,152,000 men and 3,007,154,000 women, making the men's population more than the women's, contrary to my handout. Also, if rounding to the nearest percent, the ratio would be one.
When looking at races we run into definitional problems trying to lump entire continents" worth of people into one class based on some nebulous concept of color. What makes a person "white" or "black"? If we say that Africans are considered "black", does that categorization apply equally to Nigerian, Egyptians, and South Africans? Should the classification of Asians as "white" or "non-white" be based solely upon skin tone or upon geographical and cultural factors as well? The fact that thirty percent of this globe consists of "white" people doesn't surprise me at all, taking into account that there are more ethnicities than Caucasians.
