After more than 100 years of counting Americans, the U.S. may finally have a permanent Census Bureau Director that is a person of color. Yesterday, Robert Santos, who is Mexican-American, sat before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as the first person of color to be nominated as Census Bureau Director. 

Not only is this a historic day for our nation, and representative government, but having a person of color leading the nation’s top statistical agency is significant on many levels. 

인구가 증가하고 있음에도 불구하고 유색인종과 이민자 커뮤니티는 인구 조사에서 지속적으로 과소 집계됩니다. 즉, 우리는 종종 정치적 권력과 영향력을 잃고 병원, 새 학교, 도로 수리를 위한 커뮤니티 기금도 잃습니다. 지난 10년 동안 우리는 역사상 가장 정확한 인구 조사로 여겨졌음에도 불구하고 인구 조사에서 상당한 과소 집계를 보았습니다. 2010년 인구 조사는 누락되었습니다.  2.1 percent of black people and 1.5 percent of Hispanics —  accounting for about 1.5 million people not counted. This most recent census will likely see similar reports, (when the Census Bureau delivers the results of its post-enumeration survey) given the COVID-19 pandemics and deliberate efforts by the 트럼프 행정부는 유색인종 지역 사회를 계산하지 않을 예정이다. 

The Census is critical to helping our communities, businesses, and people across the nation to ensure that they have the information and resources they need to thrive. Article One, Section Two of the Constitution legally obligates Congress to conduct a 정기 인구조사를 통해 권한을 부여하다 all Americans — not just those that can afford to be counted.  But since the first census in 1790, the decennial census has been plagued by political influence. We did not count Native Americans until 1900 and our nation’s original sin, the fractionalizing of enslaved Africans as three-fifths of a person, just enough to placate Southern states’ concerns about disproportionate Northern power in the new Congress, but not enough to consider them whole persons. That mathematical compromise at our founding continues to plague us through as the same white supremacist thinking shows up as overt attempts by the previous administration to 인구조사를 미화하다 그리고 투표 연령의 시민만 세어라. 유색인종 커뮤니티의 인간성을 학대하거나, 과소평가하거나, 완전히 무시하는 역사를 가진 이 커뮤니티에 사는 많은 사람들이 정부를 의심하고, 따라서 인구 조사에서 세어지는 것에 대해 편안함을 느끼도록 돕기 위해 추가적인 노력이 필요하다는 것은 놀라운 일이 아닐까? 

But Every American deserves to have their voice heard and to be counted in selecting the people and policies that will determine the future of our families. That starts with a fair and reliable census. In order for our vote to be truly counted accurately, we need fair districts, which require an accurate and fair census count. Reliable census data is essential to creating districts where everyone is counted equally. During Mr. Santos’ opening remarks, he described his Mexican-American heritage and his family’s struggle towards the American dream. We can only hope that a Census Bureau Director from the fastest growing and most undercounted communities and his long career in statistical methodologies, will help set policies that will assist in ensuring that Latinx communities and all communities of color are fully represented in this decade’s census count and everyone moving forward in a democracy that finally works for all of us.