Shortened Census Count Will Hurt Communities of Color

Shortened Census Count Will Hurt Communities of Color

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau is having a harder time than in the past counting all Americans, and is now saying its workers will spend less time trying to count everyone.


In August, the Trump administration announced the plan to end the 2020 Census count a month early, on Sept. 30 instead of Oct. 31. With about a month left before that new end date, fewer than two-thirds of U.S. households have been counted so far.


The result will be that the census will count fewer Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, Asian Americans and Americans of Hispanic or Latino origin than actually live in the U.S. That will mean less public money for essential services in their communities, and less representation by elected officials at the state and federal levels.


An Effort to Find Everyone


Some people – including people of color, poorer people, rural residents and people who are not U.S. citizens – are less likely to respond to the census. In part, that’s because they have less convenient access to the mail, telephone and online services needed to respond to the survey.


In addition, some communities distrust the system. Among Japanese Americans, that distrust is because they r ..

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