Census 2020: Staying Safe & Getting Counted!
October 12 & 13th 2018 - This past weekend, over 80 DRUM members took over Diversity Plaza to hold a 2-day public education workshop on Census 2020, and specifically the Citizenship question, funding, political representation, and fighting back.
The Trump administration has threatened our ability to get resources by trying to add a “citizenship question” into the 2020 Census to make our communities too scared to fill out the Census, which means we lose money for things like:
- Schools
- Hospitals
- Parks
- Public transportation
- Political representation
- Housing
Through interactive props developed by our members, we engaged well over 1000 community members about the proposed Citizenship question on the Census. We highlighted the dangers of the question and the information gathered, and the even more likely fear caused in our communities by the question leading to undercounting, and subsequently underfunding of basic services and political under representation.
Our interactive props highlighted how much money New York state receives as a result of the data from the Census in regards to education, health, housing, infrastructure, and how New York state has lost Congressional representation seats as a result of under counting over the years.
Given the realities of a current administration that is committed to depopulating and defunding our communities, we discussed the agendas behind this proposed shift in the Census. And we converted those discussions into action by getting testimonies from over 750 people to be submit for the public commentary period when it reopens.
We want to thank all the community members who came, engaged, and signed up.
Special thanks to Minkwon, Chayya CDC, Queens Neighborhoods United, Make the Road NY, Caribbean Equality Project, CAAAV-Organizing Asian Communities, and Ugnayan, for not only bringing their members, but also volunteering to engage other community members in over 8 languages.
We also want to thank the electeds, candidates, and staffers, who came out and also volunteered to gather people for the public commentary, notably NYC Councilmember Daniel Dromm, NY State Senate candidate Jessica Ramos, NY State Assembly candidate Catalina Cruz, Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' campaign staffers, and NY State Senator Jose Peralta's staffers.
