Some groups still excluded in census

By Justin Hannigan

Perhaps you saw the goofy advertisement for the upcoming "Snapshot of America" during the Super Bowl. If you didn't, here's a bit of news for you: the twenty-third census of the United States is coming.

To many, the census may seem cursory and uninteresting. For others, this decennial headcount sounds more like a decennial headache. But the census should be cause for neither boredom nor apathy.

Census-taking is as old as government. Historically, censuses have been used to gain information about populations under the rule of some form of state or empire, typically for reasons of taxation, planning of civil projects and military recruitment.

The Roman Empire, one of the most diligent census takers in history, had its subjects check in every five years in order to determine just how much tax money could be collected. During the Crusades, censuses were held in order to determine how many able soldiers might be recruited to fight.

It is by no means a neutral process. The census is a pillar of state authority. It is impossible for a state to effectively exercise control without information about the population over which it rules. If policy and collective action are the language of governments, then censuses are the dictionaries that provide for the articulation of that state action.

In our country, the census serves a similar role, although with some alterations. We have the Internal Revenue Service -- that feared bureaucratic leviathan! -- handling issues of taxation. Registration for military service is compulsory for males upon reaching age 18 and a necessary prerequisite for registering to vote. Simply put, some of the more onerous functions of the census have been taken on by other specialized institutions in our government.

Still, our census is as important as the justice of its mission is ambiguous. The Constitution requires an "enumeration" of "the whole number of persons in each State" every ten years for the purpose of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives fairly.

This is the stated purpose for conducting the census in our country: to determine how many representatives in Congress each state should receive and to collect information about how to draw the districts those members of Congress represent.

But it really is about more than that and always has been. The census serves an important purpose in guiding social policy. The inclusion of different people and groups in the census throughout history has mirrored the forward march of citizenship and rights in America.

Whereas the first census in 1790 only counted white male respondents above the age of 16 -- and, as you may recall from your American history classes, a dubiously logical three-fifths of every male slave -- over the decades the census has expanded to count almost all residents of America and take note of their age, gender and ethnicity.

Generally in this country, census information has been put to benevolent use. Counting the members of disadvantaged minorities and gathering information about those groups can and does facilitate government action to improve social policy.

However, the data acquired from this coming census cannot assist those whom it does not recognize. This year's census comprises a simple ten questions, seeking to build a demographic snapshot of the United States based on age, gender and ethnicity. But the exclusion of entire dimensions of human identity, such as sexual orientation, carries important consequences.

The entire LGBT community is excluded from categorization in the coming census, and it will be another decade before same-sex couples and parents can be recognized in our official headcount. This means another decade of ignoring their place in society, another decade of shirking responsibilities government has to these families of choice.

In consideration of these specific philosophical and practical complaints against current census taking practices, I urge every student here to participate in the census nonetheless. Our society has become, in general, more just and democratic since the dark days of racial segregation and gender-based oppression just a few short decades ago. Changes in the census and the content of its questions reflect that.

So, what can you do? Fill out the census form wherever you live, be it a dormitory or an off-campus home. They are officially due on April 1. As President Obama says in the ubiquitous advertising, "We can't move forward until you mail it back."

Justin Hannigan is a senior history and political science major.