Rumors, Lies, Innuendo, Fear, Uncertainty, and Despair

A coalition of African American leaders concerned about minorities being undercounted in the 2010 Census called Wednesday for inmates at federal and state prisons to be tallied in their home communities instead of the towns where they are incarcerated.

Carol Morello
The Washington Post

The US Constitution calls for a regular census to be taken. The original purpose of this census was equitably to distribute members of the House of Representatives among the various states. As the number of states increased, and as the population began moving south, west, and from farm to city, the census drove increases and decreases in the number and size of representative districts in each state.

The census always has been a contentious matter because of the political clout implied by census counts. In recent years the scope of, and the controversy surrounding, the census have expanded. The census is no longer a mere head count. The census now collects extensive ancillary data (e.g., indoor plumbing, household income, home ownership) that are used in a variety of government and commercial activities. Most census data are available to the public, including businesses.

Federal grants, handouts, and special programs are driven by census data. This is not just about the number of people who happen to live in a certain jurisdiction—it’s about votes, money, and power.

Now come Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH, and Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network.

And what do these guys want? They want the census to count the 1.2 million minority Americans who are in prison as residents of their “home towns” rather than as residents of the location of the prison in which they are incarcerated. This would direct more federal and local funds to the neighborhoods from which these inmates came.

Home, Sweet Home

I don’t really have an opinion on the census issue. Messrs Morial, Jackson, and Sharpton may well be right. Allocating these inmates to their “home towns” might be equitable. More votes and more money might be the fair and reasonable thing to do.

But I am disturbed that the Three Amigos seem to have no sense of shame or irony about the underlying circumstances. Their constituents account for 12% of the US population but make up 40% of the inmates in our prisons.

Over the past half century trillions of dollars in public and private money have been transferred to minority individuals, neighborhoods, and organizations like the National Urban League, the National Action Network, and Rainbow/PUSH. We have yet to see any significant results from this massive transfer of wealth.

It is not the responsibility of the Bureau of the Census but someone ought to ask these gentlemen, “If, because of changes in the census rules, you win more votes, more money, more power, what will you do with them?” “What have you accomplished so far?” “What exactly will we get for our money?”