COVID-19 has reminded us all of the deep racial inequities and inadequacies in our public systems.
Are you organizing Black communities? Looking for some key statistics and tips for ensuring a full count of Black people?
Here are some key take-aways and stats from the recent webinar by XYZ focused on ensuring Black communities are counted:
- The Black population is missed more than any other race/Hispanic population in the U.S. Census
- Young children are undercounted at a very high rate and the net undercount for young Black children is 50% higher than the rate for all young children
- There are a couple of obvious reasons why young Black children are missed at a higher rate
- For every uncounted resident, the Black community risks losing $1,600 every year for each resident over the next 10 years
- Black children (birth to age four) are systematically undercounted in decennial censuses. In the 1990 and 2010 U.S. Census, young Black children were underrepresented at twice the rate of their non-Black peers, which has disastrous effects on federal funding allocations to programs.
One million children were missed in the 2010 U.S. Census nationwide. Many of them were missed, because:
- Families submitting the census did not know to include young children.
- Children lived with two parents and neither parent knew who should count the children.
- Children lived with their grandparents.
- Young children were not related to the primary household residents.
- Children were living in households temporarily.
- Children lived in the household some days but lived somewhere else on others.
Ease local community doubts about privacy and confidentiality issues with census data.
- Many Black communities have mistrust of government intrusion and push back on census enumerators coming to their door.
- Inform them that the Census Bureau has made it easier to complete the census by providing an online option.
- By responding early and utilizing this option, the enumerators will not need to come knock on any doors in their community.
For full webinar click here: https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Counting-Black-Children.mp4
For webinar slides click here: https://lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Webinar-Counting-Black-Children-in-the-2020-Census.Updated.pdf
In solidarity,
Eric Morrison-Smith
Comments (0)