March for voting rights.

Since the last election, states across the country have passed or attempted to pass harmful legislation limiting the people’s right to vote. In Texas, for example, Republicans aim to create stricter rules on mail ballots and prohibit 24-hour and drive-thru voting (AP News). In Georgia, absentee ballots have been significantly limited, mobile voting sites are essentially banned, and offering food or water to voters waiting in line now risks misdemeanor charges (N.Y. Times ). Consequently, civil rights activists have organized a mass mobilization in the spirit of the 1963 March on Washington, a historical event that transformed political engagement.

TAKE ACTION

Join an upcoming march near you using the map on the March On For Voting Rights website.
Urge your senators to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Donate one dollar a day to Give Us The Ballot (organizers of March On For Voting Rights) and fight voter suppression.
Follow us on Instagram to watch the march unfold in DC in real-time on Saturday.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her) and Tiffany Onyejiaka (she/her)

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom officially began on August 28, 1963 (History). Over 200,000 demonstrators, predominantly Black Americans, descended on the nation’s capital to protest and pressure the Kennedy Administration into creating stronger civil rights protections and legacies during this era of legal segregation (Stanford). It’s important to stress the economic aspect of the demands of this march. Racial oppression and economic oppression have been symbiotic for decades, and many civil rights leaders have fought for equity for Black Americans on both fronts.

Dr. Martin Luther King ended this march with his world-famous “I Have a Dream” speech. However, many other notable civil rights activists also shared powerful words and visions with the crowd. These include Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, Whitney Young of the National Urban League, John Lewis of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and others (National Park Service). Despite the male dominance of the speakers, women such as Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women played essential roles in the organization and execution of this momentous march (National Park Service).

This march did lead to some direct successes for the civil rights causes. President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson met with civil rights leaders such as King shortly after the march (Stanford). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 reflect many of the demands discussed during the many speeches of the march.

However, this march did not end many of the afflictions affecting the ability of Black Americans to have equity in political or economic opportunities. Over 50 years later, many of the topics are echoed by 21st-century activists demanding freedom and economic justice for Black people today.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was reversed in the June 2013 ruling of Shelby County v. Holder. Since then, 24 states have implemented new restrictions on voting that make it especially difficult for marginalized communities to exercise their right to vote (Vox). Activists fought for HR 4, known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, to be re-introduced in Congress as an antidote for these manipulative practices. The bill would require jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to get clearance from the Justice Department before changing voting rules (CBS News). The bill passed in the House on Tuesday this week – but will need full support of Democrats and 10 Republicans to pass in the Senate. As of now, no Republicans in the House support it.

But even if this law does pass, we need to do more work to ensure that all of us have the right to vote. This has never been a one-time fix but a consistent and persistent march for justice – literally and figuratively.

Key Takeaways

Saturday, August 28 marks the anniversary of the The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when 200,000+ demonstrators descended on the nation’s capital to protest and pressure the Kennedy Administration into creating stronger civil rights protections and legacies during this era of legal segregation.
In its honor, activists have organized a series of marches to protest the slew of state legislation implemented since the last election to limit individual's right to vote.
Throughout time, legislation limiting access to voting has made it especially difficult for marginalized communities to cast a ballot.

11/25/2020 | Question your understanding of "authentic" food.

7/22/2020 | Don't Americanize other cultures.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.

Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza

Nicole Cardoza 3/29/21 Nicole Cardoza 3/29/21

Rally against voter suppression.

Last Thursday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a sweeping voter suppression bill into law that allows for more legislative oversight and control on election proceedings. The bill has a couple of positive provisions, like lengthening the time of early voting in general elections, but they fail to compensate for the negative.

Happy Monday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! We covered this topic briefly last June on the anniversary of Shelby County v. Holder, and it's all the more relevant with the law that passed in Georgia last week. I didn't realize how many other states have similar legislation pending – so stay alert for the latest in yours.

This newsletter is a free resource made possible by our supporters. We'd love you to consider making a monthly recurring donation on our website or Patreon. You can also give one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Thank you for all your support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Donate to the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan effort to register and educate Georgia voters. The most effective way to reverse these laws is to create a Democratic-led state government in 2022.
Voter suppression laws are in progress in several other states right now. If you live in teh following states, click the link to take action (provided by Fair Fight): Arizona | Georgia | Florida | New Hampshire | Texas.
Sign the petition to encourage your Congresspeople to pass H.R. 1 and H.R. 4.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

Absentee voters have to submit a driver’s license, state ID or other proof of their identity.
Absentee ballot drop boxes can only be located in early voting locations (which are often placed predominately in wealthier, white neighborhoods)
Drop boxes won’t be available in the last days of an election (after it’s too late to mail ballots in)
The State Election Board is now managed more by the state legislature, who now have the power to suspend anyone for inappropriate conduct
It shortens runoff elections from nine weeks to less than a month and cuts the early voting required from three weeks to one week. Consider how critical the runoff election in Georgia was for establishing a Democratic Senate in early 2021.

(NBC News)

The most blatant addition prohibits volunteers from distributing items like food, water, and folding chairs to voters waiting in long lines. Because of the lack of polling locations available, Georgia voters – particularly those of color – waited hours to be able to vote in the 2020 elections (NBC News). Not only is this an apparent attempt to deter individuals from voting, but it’s also troubling that the government finds it appropriate to ban a human from providing food and sustenance to another while participating in their civic duty.

When asked during his first formal news conference, President Biden was adamantly against the law, stating that it “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle” (Washington Post). Stacey Abrams called the law Jim Crow 2.0. On Twitter, Kemp proudly shared a photo of the occasion, depicting him seated at a table, surrounded by six white men, signing the bill (Twitter). Reporter Will Bunch from The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the painting in the background featured the Callaway Plantation, a plantation in Wilkes County, GA, where hundreds of Black people were enslaved, which makes it all the more sinister. Read the full story on Will Bunch’s Twitter thread.

To fully understand the context, we have to analyze its similarities with voter suppression laws of the Jim Crow era. By definition, voter suppression, is when the state or federal government intentionally makes it difficult for people to exercise their right to vote. The Fair Fight PAC breaks down three fundamental voting stages: voter registration, access to polls, and ballot counting. Voter suppression can happen at any stage of this process. Although voter suppression affects everyone from having a fair and democratic election, it usually directly impacts communities of color, the elderly, people with disabilities, and others systemically marginalized in our country.

Voter suppression for Black people has been around since the beginning. The 15th Amendment, enacted in 1870, made it unconstitutional to deny any man the right to vote based "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (National Geographic). But, Black men were often barred from the polls, along with other people of color, through state-wide rules and regulations that limited their rights. This wasn’t just a racial decision but a political one; during that time, Black people overwhelmingly voted Republican (the party of Abraham Lincoln).

States implemented polling taxes – which made it too expensive for any poor person to vote. Some also started to use literacy tests to thwart Black people, knowing that many weren’t granted the opportunity to learn – and were punished for attempting to.

Side note: The grandfather clause is often included as a form of voter suppression. This practice granted prospective voters eligibility if their father or grandfather had voted in the past. This obviously did bar non-white voters from voting, but it was actually implemented to enfranchise uneducated and/or poor white men, so the poll taxes and literacy tests didn’t block them. The law became obsolete after a Supreme Court ruling in 1939, but the “grandfathered in” terminology still remains (NPR).

In Mississippi in 1890, the state went so far as to require voters to read and interpret a section of the state constitution chosen by a local official. White people were given simple clauses to read and were often assisted by poll workers. In contrast, Black people were given the most incomprehensible clauses that even the most well-read political figure may not have understood. During his run for re-election, Democratic Senator, Mississipi Governor and noted white supremacist Theodore Bilbos said the following:

“

The poll tax won’t keep ’em from voting. What keeps ’em from voting is section 244 of the constitution of 1890 that Senator George wrote. It says that for a man to register, he must be able to read and explain the constitution...and then Senator George wrote a constitution that damn few white men and no niggers at all can explain.

(Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader)

These laws were effective. In Mississippi, less than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age Black people were registered to vote after 1890. In Louisiana in 1896, there were 130,000 registered Black voters. But this number plummeted to 1,342 by 1904 (Smithsonian).

It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the federal government attempted to eradicate these voting laws. Within four years of its enactment, Black voter registration increased from 25% to 65% (Brennan Center). But seven years ago, the Supreme Court significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act. In its June 25, 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, the Court rejected a provision of the Voting Rights Act that determined which jurisdictions with a history of discrimination had to “pre-clear” changes to their election rules with the federal government before implementing them. This gave states a free pass to make whichever rules they see fit without oversight (Brennan Center).

This enabled states like Georgia to implement new laws that disenfranchise voters. One rule, the “use it or use it” law, allows states to remove their citizens from the voter registration list if they didn’t vote in past elections. The "exact match" law requires that voters’ registration information exactly matches the information found at the state’s Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration. In 2017, the Georgia state government, led by then-Secretary of State Kemp, who had just announced his run for governor, used these two rules to remove over 600,000 voters from the registry (The New Republic). An additional 53,000 voter registrations were pending at the time of the election. Unsurprisingly, Kemp won the election against Stacey Abrams by roughly 55,000 votes (NBC News). You can read about other examples of modern-day disenfranchisement here.

Progressive leaders have been advocating for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would reinstate some of the changes made in 2013. They offer a more comprehensive view of discriminatory acts in the voting process that reflects modern-day (Brennan Center). The For the People Act, introduced in early 2021, is also designed to restore the VRA and end gerrymandering and reduce corporate spending in elections (Brennan Center). It’s possible, but not likely, that these will pass the Senate, but we can rally. More urgently, we must support the organizers in Georgia to ensure everyone has access to the resources they need, despite an equitable system. As you watch this conversation unfold, be sure to tune into the latest on voting rights in your state, too.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Last week, Georgia state legislatures passed voter suppression laws that will disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
These laws echo similar acts throughout history that tried to make it more difficult for people of color to access the polls.
Although the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to end the Jim Crow voting laws, a provisional change in 2013 made it easier for states to create oppressive laws once again.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 9/27/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/27/20

Protect the polls.

It's Sunday! I've paused our weekly COVID-19 reporting to bring you more ways to take action this election. Last week, we discussed the importance of a diverse justice system. Today, Jami takes us into the racial bias that affects our polls.

For a more historical view on the importance of protecting the polls, I highly recommend you read our reporting on voter suppression and the legacy of Rep. John Lewis. In addition, last week's piece on the modern-day poll tax only emphasizes this issue. Let me know if you sign up to be a poll worker!

Thank you for your contributions. If you enjoy this newsletter, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Sign up to be a poll worker. Requirements differ from state to state, but positions are paid and usually require working on Election Day plus additional training. Go to workelections.com and select your state for more information.
Serve as a voting resource. Read up on voting rules and regulations in your county. Push out accurate information on early voting, absentee voting, etc. on social media. Make sure your friends know they can come to you with any questions!
Push for your workplace to make Election Day a paid holiday.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

We’re less than two months away from Tuesday, November 3rd— Election Day. In many states, we’re fast approaching the deadline to register to vote. We recommend checking out Slate’s comprehensive guide on the best way to vote in every state, which includes not only all deadlines and rules for voter registration and mail-in voting, but also recommendations on which method of voting will most ensure your vote will actually be counted. Unfortunately, as our past newsletters on voter suppression and Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting have shown, our government doesn’t make it easy for us to vote, or for those votes to be counted accurately.

This year, the lack of poll workers will make it even more difficult for people to vote. During the pandemic, many poll workers—the bulk of whom are over 60 years old (U.S. Election Assistance Commission)—are staying away. Election officials are scrambling to find younger people to fill the gaps, as the lack of poll workers has already hindered many state’s primaries (NPR). On the April 7 primary in Milwaukee—a city that usually has 180 polling places— officials only had enough workers to staff five, leading to extremely long wait times (CNN). This disproportionately affected the city’s large Black population (Business Insider). Even in normal, non-pandemic years, Black and Latinx people wait almost 50% longer than white voters (Brennan Center).

Without enough polling places, people with the least access are the most likely to be deterred from voting. It’s hard to vote if you don’t have a car, and this year, you have to go across town instead of walking a couple of blocks to your polling place. It’s hard to vote if you can’t get time off work, or if you have a kid, and this year you have to wait in line for two hours. This is why having enough poll workers so important—because the deficit disproportionately disadvantages low-income voters and voters of color (The Atlantic).

Poll workers also individually can influence who actually gets to cast a ballot. Before, I didn’t realize that they had any authority; I thought that their duties were just administrative or clerical. But research shows that even though election workers don’t make the voting rules, they can influence how those rules are actually implemented. Poll workers, election officials, and county recorders often have discretion in what kind of minor errors in voter forms or registrations they can decide to let slide or not. Studies show that election workers enforce the rules unevenly, and the decisions often come down to racial bias (Michigan Journal of Race and Law).

In Big Horn County, Montana, officials made the voter registration process more complicated and technical for Indigenous voters than for white voters. Election workers looked for minor errors to use as excuses to deny the Indigenous voters’ registrations (Windy Boy v. County of Big Horn). Another report from Arizona showed that Indigenous voters were often “placed… on ‘suspense lists’ (similar to inactive lists) when the recorder was not satisfied that an applicant sufficiently clarified his or her address. There are few guidelines on what should constitute an adequate address in Arizona; instead, it is left to the recorder’s discretion and may be influenced by implicit bias” (Michigan Journal of Race and Law).

Similarly, the ACLU discovered that “black and Latino voters in Florida were more than two times as likely to have their mail-in ballots rejected as white voters—because of a mix of voter error and how the state processes ballots” (The Atlantic). But blaming these rejections as “voter error” is a way officials can blame the voters themselves without taking into account the inequality in voter information access. Even when voters ask the right questions, they might not get the right answers depending on their race.

In a study from before the 2012 election, researchers sent almost two thousand emails to legislators in 14 states, feigning to be constituents unsure if they could vote without a driver’s license. Half the emails were signed “Jacob Smith”; the other half were signed “Santiago Rodriguez.” None of the states actually required an ID, but legislators that supported voter ID laws responded to “Jacob Smith” much more than “Santiago Rodriguez.” Even legislators that didn’t support ID laws responded more frequently to the white-appearing name, though the difference was not as large (Legislative Studies Quarterly). These reports and studies show how people of color face barriers in voting – not only from our unjust voter suppression laws but also from clerical and administrative workers all throughout the voting process.

Voting is a tactic and should just be one aspect in our fight for equity and justice, alongside protests, community organizing, and other types of activism. But if you are willing and able, you can apply to be a poll worker by going to workelections.com and clicking your state. I just sent in my application here in Illinois. Am I nervous about the coronavirus risk? Yes. But I’m more nervous about voter disenfranchisement, and I will take all the precautions I can. If you can’t be a poll worker, help other people vote. Study up on all the voting regulations in your county and serve as an information hub for your family, friends, and social media feed. And of course, make sure your registration is accurate and up-to-date.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

At polling places, Black and Latinx voters wait in line almost 50% longer than voters (Brennan Center).
We don’t have enough poll workers this year because of coronavirus. A lack of poll workers disproportionately affects voting access for people of color. (You can sign up to be a poll worker via workelections.com!)
Research shows that officials are more likely to reject voter registrations and mail-in ballots from voters of color (Michigan Journal of Race and Law).
Voting is one tactic among many. No matter who wins, we cannot stop our fight for racial equity and justice.

9/9/2020 | Make the census count.

9/7/2020 | Learn about critical race theory.

8/4/2020 | Protect the right to vote by mail.

7/21/2020 | Honor the legacy of Rep. John Lewis.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 9/23/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/23/20

Reject the modern-day poll tax.

Yesterday was National Voter Registration Day. And today there are still millions of people who can't vote in the U.S. this upcoming election. As part of our ongoing series on covering various forms of voter suppression, today we're analyzing how the modern-day poll tax disincentivizes people to vote.

Today's article – written by Jami – centers the voter disenfranchisement in Florida and the work of the FRRC. If you can do one thing today, share their work using the action items below.

Thank you for your contributions! If you enjoy this newsletter, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Donate to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition’s We Got the Vote fund. 100% of these tax-deductible donations will help returning citizens pay their court fines so they can vote and fully participate in their communities.
Listen to Voting Rights for Returning Citizens episode of The Returning Citizen podcast, which explains the issue in a national context.
Read through the ACLU Florida’s collection of actions to fight racism and white supremacy in the state. Choose one or more to participate in.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

On Friday, September 11th, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld SB 7066, Florida’s law requiring returning citizens to pay off their court debts before being able to register to vote (NPR). (The term returning citizen refers to people with prior convictions, in this case felony convictions specifically.) The law blocks almost 800,000 potential voters, a disproportionate number of whom are Black (The Guardian). In other words, it’s a poll tax—a fee one must pay in order to vote—and like the Jim Crow era poll taxes, it’s specifically designed to suppress the votes of low-income and Black citizens. But here in 2020, the poll tax is back again.

That this is happening in Florida is relevant. Florida is not only a swing state, but also considered one of the presidential race’s primary battlegrounds (FiveThirtyEight). It also has a history of poll taxes (Richmond University). People convicted of felonies were not allowed to vote until Floridians overwhelmingly passed a referendum restoring those voting rights in 2018, enfranchising 1.4 million people (NYTimes), including one in every five Black adults (Sentencing Project). In a swing state, 1.4 million potential votes matter a lot; in 2012, Obama beat Romney in Florida by just 74,000 votes—an 0.88% margin (St. Augustine Record).

Just eight months after these voting rights were restored, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the new law requiring payment of court debts (Washington Post). This was a way to again disenfranchise the same population without explicitly saying so, as 774,000 of those 1.4 million owe debt, according to a University of Florida report (Courthouse News).

This May, a federal judge determined that DeSantis’s law was unconstitutional, but now the 11th Circuit Court has overturned that decision, making it valid again. Florida’s system also makes it difficult to know how much these potential voters owe, or how much they’ve already paid, as Slate outlines. The case could wind its way to the Supreme Court, but that takes time, and the Florida voter registration deadline is October 4th. For this presidential election, the damage is done.

The poll tax as we understand it now developed in response to the 15th Amendment, added in 1870, which stated “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (National Archive/Our Documents). The idea that Black Americans—including formerly enslaved people— could vote did not go over well with many people in power.

“After the 1870s, particularly in the southern states, there was an effort to restrict any kind of political power for African Americans,” William Pretzer, the curator of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, told Smithsonian. “There was great concern on the part of the white power structure that this was a revolution in their lives.”

In response, white legislators enacted voter suppression laws that included required literacy tests (as we discussed in a previous newsletter) and poll taxes, which effectively blocked not only Black Americans, but also Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color whose growing numbers struck fear into the white political elite. In Texas, voters were required to pay around $1.50 ($30 in 2020 dollars) to vote, unless they were covered by a “grandfather clause” which exempted anyone who could vote before the Civil War (or whose ancestors could vote) from paying the tax (African American Policy Forum). As only white men could vote before the Civil War, this meant that only the descendents of white men were exempt from paying the tax. (The law also disenfranchised poor white immigrants who came to America after the war.) Similar laws were enacted across all the former Confederate states (Smithsonian). Thus the Southern political elite ensured that while the federal law might give Black voters the vote in theory, the state poll tax still forbade it in practice, consolidating power amongst the wealthy white.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax and guaranteed American citizens the right to vote regardless of wealth (National Archives). “There can be no one too poor to vote,” he said; everyone deserved the “freedom to vote without bans or barriers” (NYTimes).

And yet Florida’s law clearly shows that there are still people too poor to vote. At least three-fourths of people convicted of felonies in Florida owe the courts money, and most of them cannot pay it (NYTimes). Often, the word “felony” can call up images of murder, but driving three times with a suspended license is a felony in Florida, while murderers are explicitly excluded from the voting law. Instead, in a racist state with a history of overpolicing and overconvicting Black communities (ACLU Florida), the law is, again, a way to block poor people and Black people from voting while not expressly saying so. Like those Jim Crow voting laws, Florida’s law is a smokescreen. It is unconstitutional. It is voter suppression. Support the work of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and donate to their We Got the Vote fund to support the cause and help returning citizens vote.

Key Takeaways

Florida’s law SB 7066 suppresses the vote of returning citizens (people with prior felony convictions) by requiring them to pay off their court debts first. SB 7066 affects around 774,000 people, a disproportionate number of whom are Black (The Guardian).
This law follows in the footsteps of the Jim Crow-era poll taxes, which effectively blocked Black voters and other voters of color.
The 24th Amendment (passed in 1964) abolished the poll tax and was supposed to ensure that anyone could vote regardless of wealth. But the overwhelming majority of those affected by SB 7066 do not have the means to pay their debts (NPR).

RELATED ISSUES

9/9/2020 | Make the census count.

7/21/2020 | Honor the legacy of Rep. John Lewis.

6/29/2020 | Don't vote for Trump.

6/24/2020 | Fight voter suppression.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 9/9/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/9/20

Make the census count.

It's Wednesday and there's only 22 days left to complete the U.S. Census! You may have already completed this back in April, and that's a good thing – considering how messy the current census counting situation is right now. In case you missed the news, Renée is giving us the overview in today's newsletter. Learn why the extension is necessary for ensuring fair representation of everyone – especially those most marginalized.

And do your part to rally your friends, family and colleagues to take the census! The next best time to complete the census is now.

Thank you all for your contributions. To support our work, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Complete the census! You can do it online, on the phone or via mail: 2020census.gov
Create time and space at your (IRL or virtual) office for your team to complete the census.
View where your state ranks on the 2020 Census Response Rates. Then, research specific ways you can help your state / city count – whether by joining text / phone banking initiatives, or spreading the word in your neighborhood.

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez

Beginning in 1790, the United States Census has been part of the country’s constitutional law. Every ten years, every person in America is counted for two main reasons: distributing funds and properly revealing representation. Census findings not only affect the funds and resources allocated to communities, but it also determines the number of seats each state in Congress holds as well as the drawing of congressional and state legislative districts (Census.gov).

On August 3rd, the Census Bureau announced that field data collection would end on September 30th, a full month before the Trump administration’s extended October 31st deadline. (CNN) In an internal document released last week by the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee, Census Bureau officials warned the Trump administration that compressing the Census data timeline would “eliminate activities that will reduce accuracy” (CNN).

Also mentioned in the Powerpoint-styled report is any modifications made to the review process would eliminate or reduce steps designed to ensure the exactness of data before it is made public (Census.gov). With a shortened timeline, there won’t be time to review data that may be skewed in a practical matter before presenting it to the president on December 31st.

A U.S. judge was able to temporarily halt this movement last Saturday, an issue that will remain in effect until Sept. 17 when she will hold a hearing in a lawsuit filed by the municipalities and advocacy groups (Reuters). This move buys the census some “precious and indispensable time” to gather more data (NPR). And this adjustment is critical; a miscount threatens the accuracy of the numbers used for reapportioning seats in Congress and the annual distribution of $1.5 trillion for federal funding of public services (NPR).

The Trump administration’s decision to expedite the census timeline during an election year and pandemic cannot be overlooked. Because the census determines the allocation of seats in Congress, there is undoubtedly a push to receive incomplete data to ensure seats are held by those who don’t have marginalized communities’ best interests over the next decade (New York Mag).

It’s also not the first time the Trump administration has tried to manage the census in a way that sways to their political agenda. In 2019, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, insisted on a citizenship question added to this year’s census (NPR). With Trump’s xenophobic history towards immigrants on full display over the last five years, the Supreme Court blocked the citizenship question from the 2020 census (CNN).

A miscount or no count at all is disastrous for not only Black and Brown communities but also immigrant communities and those experiencing homelessness. Historically, Black and immigrant communities have been undercounted or not counted at all in the census. In 1940, the Census Bureau missed 1 in 12 Black residents (The Guardian). In the 2010 census, 2.1% of African Americans were not counted, including 6% of African American children (Forbes).

Also undercounted: 1.5% of Hispanics and 5% of Indigenous people living on reservations while the white-non Latino population was overcounted by almost 1% (CBS). A 2019 report by the Urban Institute estimates that between 1.1 million and 1.7 million Black residents will be missed in 2020’s census (Urban Institute). However, because of the ongoing pandemic and upending to daily life because of it, years of mistrust of the federal government, the numbers could be far higher.

Racial inequality in national statistics is not new. It has cost the Black community millions of dollars that could have been used for education, mental health services, clinics, businesses, and public programs like Medicaid. An example of this is the disproportionate incarceration rate of Black men.

Black men are incarcerated five times higher than white people, and when the census traces, it documents that Black men are part of the prison population. This inflates the population count and divests funds from Black communities, where incarcerated Black men will eventually return (Forbes). Like the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, who successfully sued the administration over its citizenship question, advocacy groups have voiced their concerns about the new census deadline:

"This new deadline allows Trump to cheat hard-to-count communities of color out of the resources needed for everything from health care and education to housing and transportation for the next 10 years" (CNN).

Like door-knocking, field operations are critical in undercounted communities and counting populations that are most vulnerable like the unhoused. Black people in America only make up 13% of the population, yet, 42% of the unhoused population is Black. The numbers are even higher among Black people experiencing homelessness with children at 52% (ABCNews).

With the deadline fast approaching, Census field agents are now pushing to get into the rural communities that don’t have internet or telephones access. Virtual phone banks organized by advocacy groups are scheduled for September 9th in Chicago, where only 40% of households have completed the census (ABC7). On the opposite end, fieldwork will end in San Diego, a city with a large Hispanic population, which will end on September 18th, twelve days earlier than the official deadline (KTLA).

Almost 230 years later, to the first enumeration, the 2020 Census may be the most critical of our generation as we face down a public health crisis, racial uprisings, an economic crisis, and a federal government steeped in fascism. We must do everything in our power to ensure BIPOC people are counted in this census. If we don’t, these communities stand to lose more than they already have over the last six months of this pandemic and four years of this administration.

key takeaways

The last day to complete the U.S. Census is September 30th.
Black communities are historically undercounted in the Census, leading to millions of dollars lost for valuable resources.
In the 2010 Census, 1.5 million Black and Hispanic people went uncounted.

7/21/2020 | Honor the legacy of Rep. John Lewis.

7/20/2020 | Protect your community from the harm of gentrification.

7/8/2020 | Investigate school district funding disparities.

7/6/2020 | Abolish qualified immunity.

7/5/2020 | Support the Navajo Nation through COVID-19.

ARCHIVES

March for voting rights.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

Key Takeaways

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Rally against voter suppression.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

KEY TAKEAWAYS

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Protect the polls.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

KEY TAKEAWAYS

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Reject the modern-day poll tax.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

Key Takeaways

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Make the census count.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

key takeaways

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT