Minorities getting short end of Census stick, again

Minorities getting short end of Census stick, again

The ball is literally in the court of President George W. Bush to give African Americans a fair shake in the census count, especially since about 3 million were not counted, U.S.Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-7th) said Sunday.

Many of them, Davis said, are the homeless, those who are hard to reach, but who in fact exist. They, he said, should be included in census numbers.

"An inordinate number of African Americans were not counted. We're about 3 million undercounted. We've done better this year than we've ever done but that does not change the fact that we have all of these people who were undercounted.

"There is nothing we can do about it but to urge Bush to use the adjusted figures. We've done everything else. It's over now," he said. "It's left in the hands of the president. We've done what we could do, knocking on doors trying to get them to send the forms back. After you've done what you can, all you can do now is to stand and continue to make sure the president knows our position. It's now up to President Bush.

"We knew all along that there was a strong possibility of an undercount, especially among low-income populations, among people who live in big inner-city areas, people who are undereducated and those living in rural communities.

"That is why we fought so hard to try and have statistical sampling or to have this scientific adjustment made and we're still hoping and I hope not against hope, that President Bush will release the adjusted figures. There is still a chance.

"The Census Bureau is going to give the hand count and the adjusted figures to Bush by March 5," Davis said. "We know that people were missed. We know that we missed homeless people, children living in shelters for battered women, people who were unreachable and untouchable.

"We're still asking that those individuals be included under the sampling arrangement and that we allow those figures be used for entitlement activities.

"The Supreme Court has already said that the apportionment figures will not be used for apportionment, which is to decide how many congressmen each state will get.

"That is understandable but we are hoping that they can and will be used for human services (and) other kinds of entitlement activities so that the poorest people in America, those who were undercounted will not be left out."

Explaining the sampling figures, Davis said that's making adjustments based upon population characteristics which will give you the number of people who are most likely within a population group.

"Blacks live in big cities. Blacks don't send the form back the same degree as other people. Blacks are less educated. They have a more difficult time reading and understanding, so this is the population group that is not counted."

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