High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Racial Mapping is the use of cartography to identify and situate distinct racial groups . By using maps to highlight, perpetuate, and naturalize the differences of race through both literal and metaphorical means , mapmakers create a common knowledge by displaying specific data as representative the real world, and construct racial identity by framing, situating, and defining what race is. As a result, there is a long tradition of cartography being used as a tool to support social Darwinism, physical anthropology, and evolution theories, which seek to promote specific people as superior to others.