Once again, the 2020 Census is facing another threat to its accuracy and completion. Beyond the very present threat of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a new memorandum from President Donald Trump this week orders that undocumented immigrants be excluded from the census counts that are used to divide up seats in congress. This change is...
Author: Kate Warren
May 11, 2020
How will we count America? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are more questions than answers.
As the days of social distancing continue to pass us by, so do the days that the U.S. Census Bureau has left to conduct a complete and accurate count of every person living in the United States. As with many other systems in our society, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in census plans,...
March 19, 2020
The census in the season of Coronavirus
April 1, 2020 is Census Day. The federal government has been planning for this day, and the rollout of invitation that preceded it, for the past decade. But no one could have foreseen at the time that our government would undertake its decennial census at the exact moment of a public health crisis. 2020 is...
October 21, 2019
Why I’m nervous about the census
The census – the constitutionally mandated effort by the government to count each person living on U.S. soil every 10 years- is one of this country’s original grassroots movements. It is a more significant undertaking than any campaign, or any get out the vote effort. Every 10 years, we try to count everyone. The results...
July 8, 2019
How can Cleveland close its racial income and wealth gap?
Racial disparities in income run deep in this country. Unconscious bias, historic disinvestment in black communities and public policies that advantage white people have all fed a growing wealth gap that persists to this day. While it is true that black workers are disproportionately represented in low-wage occupations, there is national research that shows...
May 28, 2019
Solutions that chip away at racial disparities in criminal justice
It is well-documented that black Americans, particularly black men, are arrested, charged and incarcerated at disproportionately high rates compared to white Americans.[1] The existence of this racial disparity in the criminal justice system has ripple effects in nearly every other system. For instance, having an incarcerated parent is considered an adverse childhood experience, which...
April 22, 2019
Data Days CLE: What’s all the data about?
April 15 marked Cleveland’s third year of Data Days CLE, an event for which The Center for Community Solutions is a proud sponsor. As a member of the planning committee for the event, I can honestly say that the folks behind Data Days are some of the coolest, grittiest nerds I know—they are people who...
April 8, 2019
Where is the justice? Addressing racial disparities in the juvenile justice system
This is the third blog in a series responding to the infographic report on racial disparities in Cleveland that I authored in December. You can go back and read the first blog on infant mortality and the second blog on racial disparities in childhood. It would be impossible (and irresponsible) to write anything about the...
February 25, 2019
Addressing racial disparities in childhood: Opportunities in education
This is the second blog in a series responding to the infographic report on racial disparities in Cleveland that I authored in December. Click here to read the first blog. The existence of wide disparities between black and white children living in poverty is not surprising. Poverty is a measure of income relative to family...