8 minute read
Get Down With
GET DOWN WITH THE COUNT
WORDS BY | MICHELE DARR
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Th e C e n s u s 2 0 2 0 f u s e i s l i t a n d #WeCountOregon is working overtime to amplify the voices of communities of color to ensure they are represented. With the coronavirus pandemic commanding worldwide attention and threatening larger and larger swaths of the US population, accurate census information is critical, especially for Black and marginalized communities least equipped to cope with the fallout. Given that participation in the census heavily impacts the number of federal dollars that are allocated to provide basic goods, services and resources, community activists are now joining the struggle to engage every American in making the most of the decennial count.
An accurate count informs rescuers how many people will need their help in a crisis and gives health care providers the ability to predict the spread of diseases through communities, especially those populated with children, elderly and socially/economically vulnerable people. Despite the vast and tireless efforts of the US Census Bureau to count every single person living in the US, nearly a quarter of the population is still considered “hard to count”. Historically undercounted demographics include minorities, people of color, immigrants, renters, rural communities, and parents of children under 5. Enter the #WeCountOregon campaign. collective voices and staking a rightful claim in the apportionment of resources, the Census is one of the most democratic processes that we have in the United States,” passionately stated #WeCountOregon campaign manager, Esperanza TervalonGarrett, CEO and founder of Dancing Hearts Consulting, LLC. “#WeCountOregon is a BIPOC(Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-led statewide effort that gathered last February because we knew that reaching out to over a million people in Oregon was going to require something different to make sure that hard to count communities are educated and participating in the 2020 US Census,” she explained. “In 2016 alone, 13 billion dollars of our money came from the feds. That amounts to $3,200.00 every year over ten years for every person counted and that number is likely to increase as inflation and other factors in our economic systems shift. Literally, we are looking at millions of dollars for each person, and in hard to count communities, this money becomes a huge issue.”
In terms of representation and power, an undercount may also mean fewer seats in Congress or State Legislatures and for countless vulnerable communities, not being counted in the census risks leaving them unseen, undercounted, and underserved. “No matter where we are living in this beautiful state, we deserve to have our voices heard and having an additional person representing us in Washington DC really does mean that we have a stronger voice and are impacting federal policies which impacts all of our lives,” she continued. “Our organization also felt that it was really important at this moment in history to tell a new story about Oregon and to remind people that Oregon is not just beautiful green forests and white progressive liberals, but is also filled with Black, Indigenous, Latin- Mexican, Chinese and Immigrant folks that for centuries have built our railroads and sealed our reputation for having some of the best fruit trees and fruit available in the country.”
She went on to explain why different tactics are needed to get an accurate count amongst the historically undercounted. This included working with Open signal
who created video messages for the #WeCountOregon campaign translated into different languages.“These communities are considered hard to count and require sophisticated methodologies because they require additional, in-person engagement to be counted, and just setting up a booth or tabling is not going to build enough trust that you need to take this census,” Esperanza explained. “We are actually going to be using phones, text messages and online engagement parties to reach communities where they live and reaching out to their networks in hard to reach communities using the framework they already have in place.
These partners include APANO, PAALF, PCUN, CAUSA, Latino Network, Forward Together, East County Rising, Unite Oregon, etc...and we plan to conduct a campaign that centers specifically on OUR communities, speaking OUR languages and uniting to literally proclaim, We Count, Oregon!!”
Despite ongoing improvements in technology and data collection processes, the 2020 Census is not without insufficiencies and built-in racist, classist landmines. “Houseless communities have traditionally been counted through a very strange, terrible, classist, racist system where they would actually go out and say ‘there are 6 people living under this bridge and I think they are x...y...z.’ “said Tervalon-Garrett. “The Census Bureau has since been receiving a lot of feedback about the process and with houselessness on the rise, people now have a couple of options for being counted. Once the stay at home orders get lifted in counties, they can walk into one of our Census Assistance Centers or CAC’s, follow the required social distancing measures and work with a staff person to access computers and take the census online to report themselves. Once it is safe to do so, that is definitely a process that we want CONTINUED ON PAGE 54
to be supporting people to engage in.” For a list of CACs you can go to the www.WeCountOregon.com website and connect with one of the partners listed by checking their websites or calling prior to visiting any physical locations to see if they are open. There is also an option to call in your census data by dialing 1-844-330-2020. It takes only a few minutes and various language options are available.
With the census going online for the first time ever, another looming threat has arisen in an area of utmost concern to many, cybersecurity. As in prior decades, the process will start at your mailbox. In past years; Americans would fill out a paper form with information about the people living in each residence, whereas now through Oct.31st, most families will be asked to submit their information over the internet. A digital census may be cheaper for the country and easier for some, but it creates insurmountable barriers for others and carries with it risks similar to the debacle we recently witnessed in Iowa, where an unusable app turned the country’s most watched caucus into a cautionary tale. The Census 2020 will be wise to take heed and learn lessons. ”It’s important to know that your data is actually protected under US Title 13,” Tervalon-Garrett stated reassuringly. “Under Title 13, it is illegal for anyone to share your census data with ANYONE, including debtors, creditors or law enforcement. It is meant to be totally black box, however, I think it is really important that #WeCountOregon is acting with integrity and being honest with folks when we say there are incidents in the past 10 years where census data was being used to identify large communities of folks. We saw that after 9-11 in New York when Muslims and Middle-Eastern communities were targeted and brought in for additional questioning, so to be completely honest, the risk of taking the census is aligned with the risk you take at putting your picture on Facebook.”As if that weren’t enough, concerns about questions being asked and access to Censusdata have also reached a crescendo in some communities. “Every 10 years, the Census aims to count every person in the US. Whether you are acitizen or non-citizen, whether or not you live in a home, whether or not you own a home, are on a lease or staying with other people, if you live here, you are supposed to be counted,” Tervalon-Garrett stated resolutely. “This also includes undocumented people. In a time when 1 in 9 people in the US are living with undocumented family members, it’s important to
know that we do not ask for social security numbers and do not have a citizenship question anymore after a Supreme Court case that was resolved last summer,” she explained. “As for fear-mongering tactics being used by the current US Administration, we actually think the anecdote to that is participation. If someone tells you that we are best off if we don’t count, we have to put that on its head and say well, what is actually possible if we do count?’
As the next hot topic on the collective table, redistricting (reapportionment) is a process allocating Congressional seats by the Federal Government to the States based upon changing demographics. With only a handful of seats necessary to shift a party’s power in Congress for a decade, the need for an accurate 2020 Census count becomes critically important as does the fact that the counts are also used by state and local governments to shape legislative, county, city, and school board seats. Tervalon-Garrett is passionate about engaging participation on the issue. ”While some people think this is about partisanship, this is actually about Democracy. Oregon is up for 6 congressional seats and after census, we want to make sure that we have the proper representation that relates to the population of the State,” she stated resolutely. Reflecting on her driving force, she concluded by sharing some of her deepest motivations for carrying out her mission. “I’m doing the work that is my vocation, the work that God has called me to do, the work that my ancestors have called me to do which is making sure we have resources, infrastructure and leaders. If we can get at least 10% of people we engage with to stay involved in being a part of this change-making moment in history, we will literally be creating a more democratic Oregon and more democratic United States.”
