The Citizenship Census Question

Last week, my partner and I were talking about the census citizenship question, and how many of our friends are rallying against it. Jolly good! However when I listen to them, they only object because its inclusion would be racist. That has truth, especially when you consider xenophobia, but the full story is more nefarious than that. The Trump administration is trying to use the census to help the Republicans win more elections. Knowledge about what the census actually achieves is needed to understand what Trump is trying to do, so please allow me to explain.

The citizenship question

The Trump administration wants to put a question on the 2020 census that asks if the resident is a legal citizen. When the question was blocked, he then threatened to issue an Executive Order to include the question. He has since backed down, but this issue is not over. Trump will either continue to legally insert the question, or his pattern of behavior indicates that he will continue to broadcast the issue to energize his base into a frothy mob and alienate others from participating in the census.

The census

The census is essentially a survey that the United States government issues every ten years to collect data about our population and the economy. They seek to gather this data from every household in the United States (regardless of citizenship status). They can use that data to look into everything from fertility rates to employment trends.

It is critical for us all to understand one of the primary goals of the U.S. Census, direct from their website:

To determine the distribution of Congressional seats to states.

• Mandated by the U.S. Constitution
• Used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives
• Used to define legislature districts, school district assignment areas and other important functional areas of government




That's right, the government uses the census to determine the number of representatives we get, and to draw district maps. Now consider all of the other voter suppression and gerrymandering efforts the Republicans have been utilizing. It has been clear (to me) that this was another arm of those efforts. However it is not just me- this was revealed as the intent months ago.

 

If the Republicans can get fewer of their opposition to take the census, then it skews representation in the GOP's favor. THAT is the intent of the citizenship question.

 

The "anonymous" census

The census is supposedly anonymous. But imagine you are not a citizen (or you are worried that your citizenship could be revoked), and the United States government comes to your door and asks you if you are living there legally or not. They assure you that it won't be used against you. Are you really going to believe them? Especially under Trump? Don't you think you would refuse to participate?

What can we all do about this?

Your outrage is good. But there are more constructive ways in which you can push back on this. If the question makes it on the census, it is imperative that we all take it. REPEAT: DO NOT ABSTAIN FROM THE CENSUS TO "PROTEST" BECAUSE THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT. But we should all answer that we are not citizens. That will help obfuscate the identity of people that have reason to fear the question.

Furthermore, the damage may already be done. Even if the question does not make it into the census, non-citizens may have already decided not to take the census because they fear it may be used against them. We need to get the word out that contributing to the census is an act of resistance! It is literally their chance to be counted.

And of course, be excellent to each other. Especially those fighting the good fight, even if it's not the exact way you'd like them to do it.