Mission is the District. It's also a street that spans all accross San Francisco. Majority is Latino but ever since the dot com era the place began to have caucasias/white/pink people. There is also a decent-sized asian population. Mainly Pilipino but some chinese and there are also a sizeable amount of african folks around that have been around.
The Mission does not compare to LA (whittier, etc...) or other areas because the neighborhood is not saturated by one side/race. Also, while the crime level is at the very least on par with neighborhoods which contain project housing, it also varies in what other things it offers. It's really not a bad place, if you don't bang at least.