I recently filled out my census, albeit late, but I saw something that upset me on the census form. No, it wasn’t the word Negro, that’s the least of my problems here. My issue is in the very first part of the questionnaire where it clearly states “Do not count anyone in a nursing home, jail, prison, detention facility, etc., on April 1, 2010.”

The census form then states these persons may be counted twice so they should be left off your form. My issue here is that persons in prisons are counted as residents where they are incarcerated so they’re not counted where they’re from. We all know of the staggering incarceration rates of, particularly Black males, but increasingly Black women are being incarcerated. These persons are counted as residents in communities where they do not live, while the communities they come from don’t have the numbers needed to release and allocate funds to them. They remain disadvantaged.

If Tim Wise has made anything plain to me it’s that if someone is disadvantaged or “underprivileged” someone else has to be overly advantaged or “overprivileged”.

In New York State we’re divided into upstate and downstate, which is New York City and Long Island. New York City has millions of residents, most of which are “minorities” and the last time I checked white people were in the minority in New York City. This makes NYC a majority minority city. Upstate New York has mostly white residents, many of whom live in rural communities. These are the communities prisons are build in, not the city. So those rural, white residents in upstate NY get inflated numbers while downstate numbers in communities of color are reduced. As a result more funds are allocated to our neighbors upstate.

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This game is clearly rigged. Information gathered from the census affects how many representatives a communtiy gets in the House of Representatives and how much federal funding is released for hospitals, job training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects and emergency services.

It’s similar to the Three-Fifths Compromise which counted enslaved persons in the South as three-fifths of their total population in order to increase the South’s power and representation in Congress.

There are many communities or color in upstate NY that suffer based on these practices as well but so do white communities. When working at the local prison becomes the only gig in town a young white person has, their prospects sadly narrowed down. Corrections officers rates of alcoholism and domestic abuse are high. Manufacturing jobs upstate dried up leaving old factories and new corrections officers in their place. Here is a great opportunity to switch former manufacturing jobs from prison industry jobs to green jobs.

Nothing about these practices are fair or just. In these scenarios there aren’t enough winners. There are simple changes that can be made and in the Obama era I’m appalled that this is still going on. There are NY assembly-persons pushing for these changes and it’s important for us to informed and supportive of these initiatives where we live. Though I’ve sent in my census form it’s not over yet.

At The Huffington Post: What Race Did Barack Obama Choose On His Census?

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