On Census Day, there will be more than 2.3 million people behind bars in this country. That is a population larger than 15 individual states, and larger than the combined populations of our 3 smallest states. Because this population disproportionately consists of African-American and Latino men, critical civil rights issues are at stake in achieving an accurate count in 2010.

The Census Bureau counts people in prison as residents of the correctional facility. It strives to use individual enumeration via census forms wherever possible and, as a last resort, uses administrative records to collect information on inmates.

The controversy comes not from the counting procedures – which the Census does well – but from the rules that govern where prisoners are counted. Many state constitutions declare that incarcerated people remain residents of their pre-incarceration addresses. (In fact, these same prisoners are either denied the right to vote or are required to vote absentee in their home districts.) Because census numbers are used to allocate political representation within counties and states, drawing districts as if these individuals lived in the prison town skews democracy.

Seven states are considering legislation that would adjust census population figures for the state’s internal redistricting. For example, some states plan to collect the home addresses of incarcerated people, while others are considering a requirement that districts not include prisons in their population base. More than 100 counties adopted this latter approach after the 2000 Census.

In decades past, counties that wanted to make such an adjustment were on their own. The Census Bureau published prison count data far too late to be of help to those drawing districts. But the Census Bureau recently announced that it will publish Group Quarters data (which includes prison counts) early, in May 2011. This information will make it easier for states and counties to redistrict according to their own standards.

Despite press reports to the contrary, the Census Bureau won’t be counting prisoners at their pre-incarceration addresses, and earlier-than-usual release of Group Quarters population data will not affect federal or state funding formulas. All the Census Bureau is doing is making it easier for data users to identify group facilities – like prisons — within the redistricting data.

And by publishing numbers for prisons in Spring 2011, instead of in late summer, the Census Bureau simply has given states the tools to decide for themselves how best to ensure equal representation for their citizens.

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Peter Wagner is executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-partisan organization that documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities and the national welfare. Mr. Wagner can be reached at pwagner [AT] prisonpolicy.org. For more information how prison counts influence the democratic process, please visit the organization’s website: http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org.

“The decennial census is a shared national undertaking. [It] will soon be up to the public to fulfill its civic responsibility to return the questionnaires in a timely fashion.” (Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office, in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, 2/22/10.)

It’s March and the 2010 census is starting in earnest. (Hats off, though, to the Native Alaskans who set a good example by cooperating with census takers before heading out of their villages for seasonal hunting and fishing.)

Census workers are fanning out across rural areas and other communities (such as areas recovering from natural disasters and some urban high rises without individual mail boxes) where direct mail service is spotty or nonexistent. As we learned last week in Census 101, this is the Update/Leave operation: Enumerators update the address list and census maps as they hand deliver census forms to each housing unit. The 12 million households in this universe, covering roughly nine percent of the population, should fill out and mail back their questionnaires as soon as possible, to get the “participation rate” ball rolling.

Everyone else, be patient! Most of you will get a letter next week signed by Census Director Robert Groves himself, followed by the questionnaire a week later. And then … well, let me quote the man of the hour (that would be Dr. Groves): “Our biggest risk is the uncertainty presented by the American public’s response to the census. We really need your help in encouraging and motivating everyone … to participate.” (Testimony (PDF) before the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security, 2/23/10)

People, let me put this in plain English. It’s time to step up to the plate and do what the Constitution envisions and the law requires: Answer those silly ten questions, seal the envelope, and mail it off. You’re done for another decade.

And the ever-growing list of cynics? Well, let’s review the latest: Andy Rooney, as usual, didn’t do his homework before raising doubts about why the census asks for certain information, like your telephone number. (There goes the historic tendency to overcount older Americans.) Citizens Against Government Waste awarded “Porker of the Month” honors to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Dr. Groves for “fail[ing] to oversee and control [the cost] of the census,” even though they took office at the tail end of a decade-long planning process. (Now the Census Bureau has to spend millions in targeted promotion to conservatives, to overcome this sort of uninformed nonsense.) Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) lamented the Super Bowl ad’s failure to speak to harder-to-count minorities. (Disapproval makes strange bedfellows, and that ad most certainly wasn’t part of the targeted campaign.)

But here’s the thing: There will be a census no matter who threatens to boycott and who rails against perceived government overreaching (what’s up with all the pseudo-constitutional scholars who fancy themselves as the “true” Americans?) and who criticizes the communications campaign for spending too much or not spending enough (depending on your perspective). And the outcome will determine who gets their fair share of political influence and economic resources for the next ten years, whether you like it or not.

There may be plenty to second-guess in an activity this large and complex, and there are things I wish the Census Bureau had done better or differently. But as Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), chairman of the oversight subcommittee, said at a hearing last week, “Problems are to be expected.” What’s “vitally important,” he said, is that “we do the necessary hard work now.” That means it’s time for everyone to stand up and be counted.

Census fans, excitement is in the air!

Already, “advance letters” from chief census honcho Robert Groves are arriving in mailboxes in rural areas, targeted counties along the Gulf Coast recovering from Hurricane Katrina, and some urban dwellings where direct mail delivery is spotty. Following that “heads up” will be the first wave of “enumerators” (sounds so … math class?) distributing census forms by hand to homes without traditional “city style” addresses or regular mail service. These census takers will verify the location of each housing unit, possibly spotting addresses missed in earlier canvassing, as they carry out the Update/Leave (get it?) operation.

In a similar vein, starting later in March, census workers will visit homes in remote areas, including Indian reservations, confirm the unit’s precise location, and collect census information from the household on the spot (Update/Enumerate operation — get it?).

From March 8 – 10, most households will receive the advance letter, letting them know to expect their census form in the mail about a week later and asking them to mail it back “promptly” (Mail-out/Mail-back operation — duh!). The English-only letter (except for the 13.5 million homes that will get a bilingual English-Spanish form) includes a note in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian, telling recipients to visit the census Web site for help. A few days hence, homes in census tracts where at least 10 percent of households primarily speak a language other than English (one of the five in which census forms are printed) will receive a postcard with instructions on how to request an in-language form, which you can do until April 21.

Later this week, the Census Bureau will activate the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance lines for Census 2010. The primary purpose of these call centers is to answer questions about the census and process requests for in-language forms. The phone lines are also a “last resort” way to respond to the census, for people who are unable to fill out the form and mail it on their own (for example, due to a disability). Keep in mind that, through April 11, people who want to call in their answers must provide the unique code on the census form they received in the mail.

Need help filling out the questionnaire in another language? Assistance guides are available in 59 languages on the 2010 census Web site, or you can call the toll-free help lines to request one. Hearing-impaired individuals can call the TDD line if they have questions. And fearful immigrants don’t have to rely on the Census Bureau; many census advocates are preparing assistance materials in a wide range of languages. (See the Quick Links and Resources for Census Advocates sections of my Census News Briefs.)

Didn’t get a form at your home base? From March 19 – April 19, Be Counted forms in six languages will be available at 40,000 locations around the country. Can’t get one of those? After April 12, call the help line and give your answers over the phone. But remember that the census is first and foremost an address-based operation that is best completed through the major enumeration methods. Be Counted forms and telephone responses are stop-gap ways to participate if all else fails.

To prod historically hard-to-count communities, the Census Bureau will mail about 40 million replacement questionnaires, in two waves in early April, to all addresses in low-response neighborhoods. Additional major operations will count people without a usual residence (Service-based Enumeration, March 29 – 31), people living in group facilities such as college dorms and prisons (Group Quarters Enumeration, March 30 – May 14), and people who are transient, such as migrant workers (Enumeration at Transitory Locations, March 22 – April 16). People experiencing homelessness or who live in a temporary location should wait until these operations are finished before using a Be Counted form or calling the assistance lines if they believe they were still missed.

I hope this quick tutorial on the early major census operations will help census advocates and local officials mobilize their constituents to be counted in the way most appropriate to their circumstances. By understanding the big picture, we can help ensure a more complete count without gumming up the works in a breathtakingly complex national exercise.

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A note to our friends in the census-resistance movement: If you follow the advice of those great patriots, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, and violate the law (13 U.S.C. §221) by only writing in the number of people in your household, guess what? A census taker will come a-callin’, spending my hard-earned tax dollars to follow up with households that decided the law doesn’t apply to them. Go ahead; make a constitutionally mandated effort involving 9,400 activities to manage 44 operations even harder. But don’t even think of complaining about the high cost of the census. At some point, hypocrisy renders “principles” moot.

Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day, dear readers? I had a ball sending census Valentine e-cards to family and friends. Courtesy of the ya es hora. HAGASE CONTAR! (It’s time. Make yourself count!) campaign, the nifty cards conveyed a “we’re all in this together” spirit — Count the one you love!

And we’d better all be in this together, because the magnitude of the task is mind-boggling. We’re talking 310 million people (and no national registry)! It’s going to take not just a lot of hard work to achieve anything close to an accurate count, but also a great deal of creativity to gin up collective enthusiasm for the census.

So, is everyone pitching in? Well, in one corner we have census advocates who believe that the U.S. Constitution calls for an enumeration of everyone living in this great country, in order to create a level playing field in our democracy. These believers — national and grassroots nonprofits, private and corporate foundations, business owners — are supplementing the Census Bureau’s outreach and promotion campaign with an unprecedented range of innovative activities targeting segments of the population that are at greatest risk of being missed.

Christmas brought us posters and palm cards, distributed in churches across the country, which highlighted the journey of Mary and Joseph to be counted in an ancient census. The NAACP is circulating a “Take the Census Pledge.” Voto Latino is offering 25 iTunes to those who promise to fill out their form. The Leadership Conference Education Fund whipped up attractive calendar magnets spotlighting key census milestones to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc. taped a really cool video, featuring Darnell Dinkins (who dat?), for its “Man Up, Be Counted” campaign, aimed at historically undercounted Black men. Target will print the census logo on its shopping bags next month.

Coming up are events focused on senior citizens, college students and small business owners in hard-to-count communities. Once census forms are in the mail, there will be a Census Faith Weekend (March 20-21) and National Week of Action (March 22-27), when community organizations will make an all-out push to encourage their constituencies to fill out the questionnaires. It’s all so uplifting!

In the other corner we have … ummm, well, we have the Republican National Committee sending out an “Official Document” that is a fundraising appeal disguised as a “Census” of the party faithful. We have House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) signing a similar plea for funds on behalf of the National Republican Congressional Committee that tells recipients they have been “carefully selected” to receive the “census document.” The Virginia-based Council for Retirement Security commissioned a National Census of Senior Citizens (see the mailing – PDF). I think I see a pattern here: “Hey, what a great opportunity to get everyone’s attention! Let’s pretend we’re a census!” (Still nothing on Rep. Boehner’s Web site promoting the real census, though.)

We have Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Fox News and a host of conservative organizations lambasting the Census Bureau for buying a Super Bowl ad. That is not fair! Were it not for the official paid media blitz, the rip-off artists wouldn’t be able to take advantage of growing public awareness to look for a “census” envelope in the mail.

And we have Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Glenn Beck and Tea Party leaders telling people not to answer any census questions beyond the number of people in their households. The Constitution doesn’t contemplate any additional queries, according to the anti-census crowd. Oh really? According to the Census Bureau’s Web site, the first census in 1790 asked six questions, including gender, race and relationship to the head of the household. Virginia Representative James Madison (he, of the band of Founding Fathers and subsequent Oval Office fame), a member of the special congressional committee that designed the first census form, apparently recommended at least five of these subjects.

I don’t know about you, but this constant negative drumbeat just doesn’t get my census juices flowing.

So with Census Day finally on the horizon, you’d better hope your neighborhood is in the bull’s eye of the imaginative and inclusive pro-census campaigns. Otherwise, you might spend the next ten years wondering why there’s no money to widen the highways, hire more cops and build more classrooms, and why new businesses aren’t opening their doors in your community. And don’t bet on being able to ask your elected officials to help you make the case, because political representation will flow to those who collectively stood up to be counted.

manipulate —
1. to adapt or change (accounts, figures, etc.) to suit one’s purpose or advantage
2. to manage or influence skillfully, esp. in an unfair manner: to manipulate people’s feelings
(Source: dictionary.com; italics in original)

The 2010 Winter Olympics begin this week, which is fitting for our purposes because the 2010 decennial census will require an Olympian effort. It’s also fitting because the census games have already begun. The big event? Mud throwing, as in, aim at the wall and see what sticks. (Hmmm, sounds more like a summer than winter sport, but maybe professional mud throwers have to be slick, like an ice rink or luge run.)

But back to the census, which in fact already started with door-to-door enumeration well north of the Olympic host city of Vancouver, Canada. The vast majority of American households will receive their census forms next month, and then the real push begins to convince the skeptical, the fearful, the too-busy, and the unaware to answer ten questions and mail back the form.

The nation’s linguistic and cultural diversity makes the task daunting; the Census Bureau can’t overcome the significant barriers to a full count on its own. It takes a village (to borrow a well-worn phrase), with state and local officials, civic, faith, and business leaders, and community organizations all working to build bridges between the people they serve and Uncle Sam.

Except … if you’re a Democratic public official or a group advocating for the poor or people of color, you’d better watch your back. Because conservative opinion leaders are throwing mud already, accusing anyone remotely connected to the Democratic party of trying to “manipulate” the census results. Last week, Townhall.com columnist Joel Mowbray suggested that Ohio Treasurer Ken Boyce, who heads the state’s Complete Count Committee, would likely find a way to artificially inflate the count in “Democratic strongholds” with help from “cutthroat Obama advisers.”

The basis for the charge?  Umm, none.  Mowbray dreams up a scenario in which his obvious political nemesis would sprinkle liberal-leaning neighborhoods with Be Counted forms that could be used to ramp up the count.  The success of this supposed scheme assumes that the Census Bureau doesn’t have strict protocols in place for adding people on Be Counted forms to the census (it does), as well as statistical programs designed to catch unusual patterns in the count (it’s happened before, but never to the advantage of hard-to-count areas, trust me).  But we digress, because who needs facts when the only point is to throw the long bomb and whip the crowd into a frenzy.

Speaking of fourth and long, the Super Bowl provided another opportunity for conservatives to take cheap shots at the Census Bureau, presumably with the goal of manipulating public opinion about the decennial count. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) chastised the agency for wasting taxpayer dollars on an advertisement during the big game. I think the gentleman from Arizona cut Investment 101. Let’s see: We spend $2.5 million to reach the largest ever television audience, to help us save $90 million for each one percent of households that census takers don’t have to chase down for their responses. Sounds like a bargain to me (but then, I was a social sciences major).

Citizens Against Government Waste called the Super Bowl ads “a colossal waste of money,” saying the promotion amounted to a “glorified public service announcement” (FoxNews.com, 2/3/10). Problem is, the Census Bureau can’t seem to convince elected officials like Sen. McCain to give it free advertising by posting census information on their Web sites.

It’s clear that the census is little more than political sport to some on the right. But their campaign to suppress the count in communities that tend to elect Democrats is on the verge of backfiring. As The Guardian reported on January 29, “Tea Party” movement leaders are answering the call of Glenn Beck and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) by promoting a boycott of the census. The Guardian quoted a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, Michael Johns, as saying that conservatives have “legitimate concerns about the integrity of the process.” Hmm, wonder where they got that idea?

But even if the tea partyers are just fed up with all things government, their potential willingness to duck the census spells trouble for those who heretofore thought their anti-census rhetoric might suppress the count only in communities they don’t represent. If response rates start sputtering in traditionally easier-to-count White, middle-income suburban strongholds, conservatives might find that it’s too late for damage control, while the Census Bureau’s merry band of partners carry on their uplifting, empowering message that census participation is beneficial, easy, safe, and – yes – required by law. In the Olympic spirit, victory goes not to those who seek an advantage by accusing their opponents of cheating, but to those who work the hardest to win.

The mailer has been sent to thousands of households, from Georgia to Minnesota, and tells recipients that “strengthening our party for the (next)… elections will take a massive grassroots effort. As a key facet of our overall campaign strategy, the Republican Party is conducting a Census of Congressional Districts all across America.” The mailer misleads people by saying on the front of the envelope, in bold letters, that the mailer is a Congressional District Census. Above the recipient’s address the mailer says “Census Document Registered To.” There is even a “Census Tracking Code.” notice attached to the mailer.

(Click here to see a PDF copy of the mailer.)

And the object of the mailer itself? To raise money for the GOP. The mailer is straight from the Republican National Committee (RNC). What hypocrisy! This is the political party of Minnesota Republican Congresswomen Michele Bachmann, who urges her constituents not to fill out portions of the real U.S. Census form that will being arriving in mailboxes this year. She says the official census form is too invasive. Well, take a look at this faux effort by the GOP headquarters. The Republican survey asks 36 questions about political affiliation and recent voting activity. These are hardly subjects the real census would be asking anybody.

This is the party of Senator David Vitter, who introduced legislation to mandate that the Census Bureau doesn’t count everybody in America for purposes of Congressional reapportionment. The fundraiser asks recipients: “how much does it concern you that the Democrats have total control of the federal government?”

“The purpose of this document is to gather Republican opinion from across the country and raise a little money,” says RNC spokesman LeRoy Coleman. Unfortunately, this is an old GOP trick. In 2000, the RNC sent out a similar fundraising letter, disguised as a census form. The effort was quickly exposed for what it was– a scam on the American people. I guess the GOP figures that since 10 years have passed, they can gear up for another fundraising effort now that Census 2010 is ready to roll out. In the process, the GOP will tarnish the reputation of Census 2010.

In response to the scam, the head of the American Association for Public Opinion Research wrote to Michael Steele, head of the RNC, expressing dismay at this fundraising scheme masquerading as a Census 2010 form. He said, “there is potential damage to participation in the real Census if U.S. residents view the Census mailing as partisan or just another piece of junk mail.” I don’t think the GOP cares.

One Republican operative was quoted in the political newspaper Politico as declaring: “of course duping people is the point… that’s one of the reasons it works so well… they will likely mail millions this year.”

Members of Congress love to point out that the U.S. Constitution gives them authority over the nation’s decennial census. Makes some sense, since the sole constitutional purpose for the population count is to reapportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the states.

Why, oh why, then, do so few of our venerable lawmakers display information about the upcoming 2010 census on their jazzy (mostly) web site home pages?

There are 11 members of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives. Only a third have posted the 2010 census logo and message on their web sites. Most of the Democratic members haven’t, nor have half of the Republicans. To be fair, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), also chair of the Republican Census Task Force, lists the census under his “Issues Spotlight.” The issue summary assures us that the task force is working to ensure that the Census Bureau doesn’t use “sampling” in the enumeration and that all 2010 census partners are “ethical, legal and trustworthy.” Hmmm, definitely wouldn’t want to be at a census pep rally with civically-minded scumbags.

Speaking of census partners, the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee (of which the census panel is a part) has put a 2010 census message on his home page. The Ranking Republican member? No census promotion, but we know we are in good hands because listed first under Hot Topics is ACORN.

Meanwhile, some helpful representatives are promoting really important census causes, such as a bill to ensure no one convicted of DUI can hold a 2010 census job. Whew, at least we know former Rep. Vito Fossella won’t be knocking on the doors of his former Staten Island constituents. (Okay, that wasn’t very nice. But I am starting to get steamed.)

And what about those Senators, who don’t have to worry about that tedious post-census redistricting process but who surely care about the $460 billion a year in census-driven federal program allocations? With about three times the number of staffers as their lowly House colleagues, you’d think they could at least manage to post the cheerful “It’s In Your Hands” graphic and possibly offer a few FAQs. But on the subcommittee of jurisdiction, only Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) handed in his homework. (Memo to full committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman: Yes, we do care about an accurate count in Connecticut.)

People, this is embarrassing. Lawmakers are quick to complain about census planning, operations, and results. They’re understandably worried about reaching historically hard-to-count neighborhoods, and they’ve let the Census Bureau know it. But doing everything they can to help ensure a fair and accurate count, even in their own districts? Not so much.

The Census Bureau has made it easy for legislators to promote the importance of the census to their constituents; there’s even a special page – Fast Facts for Congress – just for them on the bureau’s web site. Post the colorful Ten Questions, 10 Minutes! fact sheet on your own site and give yourself a gold star. Otherwise … as my grandfather would have said … quit yer bellyachin’!

Ask Americans to name an objective and independent consumer advocate, and chances are the Better Business Bureau would be high on the list.

So when a “warning” from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) about how to avoid census scammers started circulating on the Internet, many educated and otherwise savvy people bought the message and passed it along. Several well-meaning friends sent the missive to me, asking in an innocent effort to be helpful (and maybe to impress their census-crazed friend), “Is there anything we should add before sending to our e-mail list?”

My answer: TRASH IT, before this doctored message hoodwinks more unsuspecting readers! Yes, folks, the right wing has misappropriated the BBB’s name to spread falsehoods about census participation that might scare people away from the count or encourage a lack of cooperation with census takers.

Oh sure, the e-mail includes just enough truths to lend it an air of legitimacy for the average person, such as not giving out social security numbers and bank account information to people claiming to be with the Census Bureau. But the red flags are everywhere … except most Americans don’t know enough about the census to spot the glaring errors.

Aside from misusing the BBB’s name (hello, FBI Cyber Investigations Unit?), the message is outdated and factually incorrect: It confuses the 140,000 handheld device-carrying address listers of last spring with the million enumerators expected to knock on doors armed only with paper and pencil in May 2010. Oops!

And then there’s the tell-tale reference to that bain of Republican’s census existence, ACORN. Be alert, the faux BBB staffer says, because no one from this former census partner organization should be asking you for census information. Uh, okay, we’ll keep our eyes open.

More alarming, though, the e-mail assures Americans (in CAPITAL letters!) that they need only offer up the number of people in their household. (Is it legal for Rep. Michele Bachmann to moonlight as an anti-census consultant?) I may be sensitive, but this sounds like an invitation to violate federal law. No wonder the real authors prefer to remain anonymous.

The message ends as so many e-mail scams do, with a friendly nudge to “share the information with family and friends.” And apparently lots of people want to be helpful, judging by how far the e-mail has spread.

Here’s my suggestion: If you receive this sham e-mail, write a letter to your local newspaper, warning others of the scam and setting the record straight. I frankly don’t care if the 6^th district of Minnesota is undercounted (you get what you vote for!), but I do care about the rest of the state and historically hard-to-count communities around the country.

For more information about the phony e-mail and a statement from the real Better Business Bureau, visit http://www.bbb.org/us/article/phony-bbb-e-mail-spreads-fiction-about-2010-census;-get-the-facts-14542.

In 1987, the new chairman of both the House census oversight subcommittee and the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-CA), took one look at the draft 1990 census form and asked me, in his lovely lilting Caribbean voice, “Terri Ann, dear, why does the race category for Blacks include the term ‘Negro?’” He was a little incredulous, but after Census Bureau staff patiently explained the research behind the decision to include a term generally viewed as outdated, Chairman Dymally was satisfied and the matter didn’t generate much additional discussion.

In fact, it was another term tested for the race category that drew more ridicule; I recall a well-known Black leader remarking, “Afro American? Afro is a hairstyle, not a race!” Needless to say, that term was not included on the census form; instead, the Census Bureau added African American to “Black or Negro” in 2000.

“Negro” stayed on the form for 2010, despite the passage of many decades since the term was widely accepted and used to describe Black Americans (Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall used the word in his opinions). One reason: More than 56,000 respondents wrote in “Negro” on the 2000 form – almost half of them under age 45 — despite the term appearing alongside “Black” and “African American.” But now, many younger Blacks – who equate “Negro” with historic inequities and social subjugation; who might not even know that their grandparents’ birth certificates bear this racial identification – understandably are asking why.

A writer for TheGrio.com, an African American news site, raised the issue on The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC) on January 6. The public response was swift but as varied as the cultures that make up the Black experience in America. For a sample of reaction, I needed to look no further than my own social circles. My best friend e-mailed immediately and in horror: “Is this true? OMG!!!!” and later said she was inclined to ignore the whole exercise because her identity went beyond Black – her grandfathers were White and Hispanic; a great-grandfather was Portuguese. “Skip the race question,” I implored, “or check off all of the categories, but answer the d*?! census!” But this from our terrific southern Connecticut partnership specialist, who is Black: She patiently explained at a recent Complete Count Committee meeting that her extended family in the South never used the terms “Black” or “African American.” “They don’t relate to those words,” she told me.

Should census questions anticipate changing cultural and social mores on race, ethnicity, and ancestry? Yes … but those preferences are not clear-cut and are continually evolving. It’s also worth remembering, in the shadow of the King holiday, that we collect race data in the decennial census to help ensure compliance with the nation’s civil rights laws. Data that are murky or not easily understood in the context of historical discrimination might not reveal a clear picture for effective monitoring and enforcement.

To some extent, the Census Bureau will always be behind the curve, given that research and testing start before the previous census ends and since questions are finalized several years before each count. And no small matter: Preferred descriptions of identity often don’t fit neatly into a scientifically designed questionnaire. Nevertheless, Census staff must start working closely with all race and ethnic communities now, to understand how each population views itself and to evaluate a wide range of options for measuring the tapestry that is America, without undermining overarching civil rights goals or the statistical integrity of the data.

Conversations about race inevitably generate an endless range of opinions and deeply felt emotions. But translating distaste for terminology into a boycott, when it’s too late to change the form, is not useful. The only helpful driving emotions now should be anger at the historic inequity of a differential undercount in the census, and a passion to overcome it. With enough energy directed toward that goal, we can make real progress in restoring fair political representation and access to public and private resources that improve the quality of life for all communities.

by Phil Sparks

When the 1990 decennial census rolled around, the Advertising Council of America, representing most of the big New York ad agencies and most of the TV and radio networks, produced so-called Public Service Advertising (PSAs) for hundreds of stations across the country urging the American public to participate in that year’s census. The Ad Council had been doing PSAs for the Census Bureau’s decennial census for 40 years up to that time. The problem was that the PSAs, playing on donated airtime by radio and TV stations, most often aired in the middle of the night or early in the morning when “dead” time was available for stations to insert the PSAs into their schedule. As a result, the ads reached a very small part of the total population and almost none of the traditionally hard-to-count populations across the country.

For the first time in 2000, the Census Bureau spent several hundred million dollars on a paid advertising campaign. The result was a “campaign” that targeted both mainstream white populations as well as hard-to-count African-American, Asian, Hispanic and other audiences. The message was that hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year were disbursed for such vital community services as health care, education, transportation and job training, and that these dollars were also based on decennial census information. The paid advertising campaign was credited with helping spur the decennial mail response rate in 2000, saving many millions of dollars.

Over the past decade, lots has changed in the nation’s media. It has become more diverse, reaching dozens of racial and ethnic groups in-language with sophisticated messages. New media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., have become specialized social platforms attracting millions of voices each day. Cable television has actually overtaken network TV, with larger combined audiences in prime-time programming each night. The Census Bureau has noticed!

Starting on January 17 the Bureau will roll out one of the largest paid advertising campaigns in the nation’s history in support of Census 2010. Compared to the initial paid advertising effort in 2000, this year’s decennial census advertising campaign is light-years ahead. The ads have been produced in 28 different languages, compared to a handful in 2000. Almost half of the overall advertising budget will be devoted to local media outlets, as opposed to a heavy emphasis a decade ago on national advertising. New media will be a central part of the campaign, with the www.census2010.gov Web site expected to draw tens of millions of visits. The site will be promoted in the advertising. The Web site itself will answer questions about how to complete a census form and what the census data are used for. The Web site will have information in 58 languages. Finally, and most importantly, a majority of the advertising dollars spent by the Bureau will be targeted to the hard-to-count communities of color — in their languages.

For example, there will be eight different versions of advertising targeted to Asians, with various Asian groups appearing in each ad. Even culturally sensitive “scenes” will be changed in each spot. In one ad targeted to Filipinos, the rice maker will be recognized by that audience. But, in the same ad targeted to Koreans a different rice maker is used, in addition to a Korean spokesperson.

Some ads for different racial and ethnic groups will focus on particular issues picked up in the Bureau’s extensive survey research done in late 2008 (see my blog of Sept. 22, 2009). The Hispanic-targeted ads will stress the confidentiality of the census forms and data, while some of the Asian-targeted ads will trumpet that proud community members are participating in Census 2010.

Census advertising will also move and change with the various phases of the decennial this year. Supporting first the mail-back effort and then the door-to-door program. Hard-to-count areas from the previous census will be especially targeted in the initial phases of the ad effort. Then, because of extensive real-time data collection information, the Bureau will be able to increase advertising in areas where the response rate is low as the decennial proceeds.

Lastly, the Bureau is not forgetting a tried and true PSA effort. Spots featuring 100 key public figures, celebrities and sports figures will be part of the PSA campaign to garner free advertising on behalf of the census.

Overall, the Census 2010 advertising campaign represents a quantum leap over the effort a decade ago.