At first glance, this small pocket calendar with a beautiful photo depicting a Thai Buddhist temple on its front cover may not seem important. For those in the targeted Thai community, the image is a sacred endorsement encouraging all Thais to complete and return the 2010 Census form.
This unique and culturally significant message is among one of many specialized outreach efforts taking place throughout Asian ethnic and some hard-to-count communities ― HTCs in Census speak ― that are of special interest in the 2010 Census outreach.
Los Angeles has been identified as the country’s most heavily populated HTC region, with an estimated 4.4 million ― nearly half of Los Angeles County’s estimated population ― falling into this category.
The U.S. Census Bureau explains possible reasons for an undercount due to “linguistic isolation and a concern for privacy and confidentiality.” Community leaders say that fear, apathy, and suspicion are why there is a strong inclination to not participate in the decennial head count.
“Many are new immigrants and may not be aware of the importance that participating in the Census has on their communities. In addition, some fled from political persecution and are generally suspicious about the government sharing information with other agencies, or they see their stay as temporary and do not understand the value in responding,” said An Le, statewide network manager of Asian and Pacific Islander 2010 Census Network (API Count), a statewide project anchored by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC).
Generally speaking, HTC communities consist of new immigrants who come with language, education and economic barriers. Although the Census Bureau has language guides for the 2010 Census form in nearly 60 languages, L.A. County has identified more than 92 different spoken in this region.
Experience from California’s 2000 Census outreach efforts showed that a three-pronged approach, “TQM,” was needed this time around. TQM stands for (1) Trusted Messengers; (2) Questionnaire Assistance Centers staffed by community based organizations in the hardest to count areas; and (3) Microtargeted, locally created ethnic media outreach was a winning combination resulting in California’s mail response rates outpacing the nation.
“Community-based organizations and local ethnic media outlets are key in getting the hardest-to-count Californians to respond because they can address the fears and concerns in culturally sensitive, appropriate and effective ways,” said Ditas Katague, director of the California Complete Count Committee.
Many leaders of community-based organizations said they think that the drastically decreased California state funding for Census outreach ― $24.7 million in 2000 compared to $2 million in 2010 ― has mobilized community groups and inspired awareness and volunteer outreach.
Trusted community messengers like Buddhist monks distributing the Thai calendars at temples emphasize that responses to the Census are confidential, safe and important.
Chancee Martorell, founder and executive director of the Thai Community Development Group, said the 2010 Thai community response is crucial. “When we conducted outreach and education 10 years ago, we expected a full count — close to 100,000. We did not get a complete count. In fact, we believe there was a 25 percent undercount.”
After that disappointing outcome 10 years ago, Martorell and the Royal Thai Consulate worked together to deploy community leaders to local gathering spots including markets, shops, restaurants, garment factories, work places and places of worship.
“What is your #9?” reads some of the Thai-language literature, referring to the race question on the U.S. Census form. Outreach efforts include emphasizing that Thais should specifically write-in their race.
“The current king of Thailand is the ninth reigning king. We explain to Thais why answering Question #9 is sacred ― you are doing it for your king and he is highly venerated ― as close to deity for Thais as it gets.”
In the Tongan community, some of the varied outreach methods have taken place through churches and “Kava Circles.” In these gatherings, opinion leaders share ideas while drinking homemade Kava, a brown-colored, earthy organic tasting drink made with filtered-pounded kava root powder mixed with cold water.
For the Cambodian community outreach efforts, Suely Ngouy, executive director of the Khmer Girls in Action, is training 45 teens to personally canvass homes in Long Beach. This area is home to the largest Cambodians population in the United States ― approximately 100,000 people. The message from the volunteer youths is that filling out and returning the 2010 Census form is safe and important.
Since Census forms are supposed to be mailed back to the government by April 1, or April Fool's Day, Ngouy is using the tongue-in-cheek phrase, “Don’t be fooled, the Census makes complete Cents,” emphasizing that every response equates to about $1,400 in federal funding.
She elaborated on the use of young ambassadors: “Immigrant communities depend on children as navigators of the system. The female family role tends to include responsibility of taking care of siblings, supporting parents/grandparents and providing important he recommendation and guidance, in participating with the Census.”
One of the young volunteers, 16-year-old Dianna Brang, is trying to educate her family and community members.
“My mom doesn’t know much and is skeptical," she said. "People believe that the Census is a way to deport or catch undocumented immigrants. They’re afraid of what government might find out, but I want to explain that it’s important to get involved. It’s important because we don’t get enough parks and recreation in our area.”
Those working on Korean outreach said their fear of the government finding undocumented immigrants is one possible reason why a tremendous number of Koreans did not participate in the last decennial census. In 2000, the Southern California South Korean Consulate estimated there were 678,000 South Koreans in Los Angeles. The Census captured fewer than 195,000 — an undercount of a half million. This year, an outreach strategy through Korean churches is to make sure that everyone participates, regardless of immigration status.
Another community outreach method is taking place through the recruitment and hiring of temporary Census staff at questionnaire assistance centers like the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance, (OCAPICA), which has partnered with 20 community-based organization in its outreach efforts.
“No one specific strategy incorporates all activities. Face-to-face time with someone who they know, or can be trusted is very important in the messaging,” said Jason Lacsamana, director of youth initiatives & special projects with OCAPICA.
Christen Hepuakoamana’a Marquez, APALC Census 2010 media coordinator is excited that for the first time, Pan-Pacific groups linked culturally ― Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Guamanian and Tongan ― have united to create a Census outreach video.
Marquez also shared the important message with her dance group. “Most Native Hawaiians have family members, or friends, who are affiliated with a ‘Halau,’ or hula school, which is a very effective way to reach out into the community to spread the message, specifically regarding Question #9 and the opportunity to provide mixed-race responses.”
At a recent senior Asian and Pacific Islander Census outreach event, Lydia Lee, a Census Bureau partnership specialist, showed Mandarin and Cantonese speakers some Lunar New Year materials wishing them blessings and emphasizing that 2010 Census participation is simple, important and safe.
Another printed poster shows the traditional circular Sapin-Sapin Filipino dessert. This traditional glutinous rice and coconut milk snack is familiar for its concentric purple, white and orange colored layers. In the poster, a pie-shaped wedge is cut out of the dessert with the message encouraging Filipinos to be counted so they will receive their fair share of more than $400 billion federal dollars that will be distributed as a result of 2010 Census results.
Many criticize how the USCB spent $340 million in ethnic outreach, noting that 47 percent of the 600 ethnic media representatives – from the private sector, not Census Bureau employees- who participated in Census roundtable briefings, were not included in the media advertising purchase.
“The Census emphasis has been on 'trusted voices,' and they fell short because in many cases media outlets are the trusted voice in the community," said Jacob Simas, associate editor of New America Media, a national news service and resource for ethnic media based in San Francisco. "Hopefully it’s not too late for targeted Census outreach, and maybe there will be follow-up advertising to coincide with during door-to-door enumeration.”
Census employees, called enumerators, will go door to door this spring to visit households that have not returned their forms.
Others have criticized marketing intended to spur participation in specific communities. In Northern California, for example, the Native American Hoopa Valley Tribe twice rejected Census Bureau outreach marketing. One advertising poster depicted the image of three teepees in a location that looked like the Great Plains.
Their community's “trusted voices” ultimately advised that the image was inappropriately stereotypical and irrelevant to the Hupa, who live in subterranean housing, in northeastern Humboldt County’s Redwoods.
“Census outreach should address our unique situation ― that we are very rural, everyone has a post office box but we don’t have street addresses, and finally throughout our tribe’s history there’s some reluctance and suspicion to respond to federal inquiries,” said Joseph Orozco, station manager of Hupa Tribal radio.
With $2,000 in private funding from The California Endowment, Orozco gave feedback to New America Media on the advertising. They eventually used a young tribal member’s graduation photo of him wearing traditional dance regalia with a headdress and basket, overlooking the Hoopa Valley and Trinity River. The framing of the print and public service message draws a connection between being counted in the Census and Klamath River water rights. “If we don’t let ourselves be counted," the advertisement says, "they’ll say no one lives here and take away our water rights.”
Martorell, who receives federal funds for the Thai group, underscored the significance of the Thai calendar and the importance of all these targeted efforts. "We need data to back up and justify the need for the people who depend on our resources," Martorell said. "Otherwise they continue to be invisible, isolated and marginalized. No one wants the creation of a permanent underclass. We want to make sure everyone has equal access to equal opportunities such as financial literacy programs, affordable housing and entrepreneurship training.”
PART II The Census on Multiracial ID's
When she fills out her 2010 Census form this week, Mei-Ling Malone is looking forward to answering Question #9 ― “the race question.” She’s adamant about documenting her multiracial background.
Malone, who studied multiracial politics at UC Irvine and is now pursuing a doctorate at UCLA, has an African American father and a Taiwanese mother. For Malone, 26, this is her first opportunity to respond to a Census and possibly provide a different answer to the race question than what her parents may have noted for her 10 years ago.
“President Obama is called our first black president, yet his mother was white," she said. "For a majority of people who are black and multiracial, we are physically viewed as black, and treated, or discriminated as such. I’m glad that when I indicate I’m multiracial, I’m also counted as black.”
On 2010 Census forms, respondents have the option to self-identify more than one race. Ten years ago, when, for the first time, respondents had options to self-identify as more than one race, nearly 7 million people (roughly 2.4 percent of the respondents) indicated such.
This year the boxes on Question #9 reflect five different races, seven Asian ethnicities and four Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander groups. For those who do not identify with any of those groups, they can write in a response to indicate any race they wish to be counted as.
Some criticize the race categories on the U.S. Census form as not being inclusive for our diverse population, but Census officials are quick to respond to these charges. They point to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) “Directive 15 “ (issued in 1997) that sets the federal standards for collecting, classifying and tabulating data on race and ethnicity across all federal agencies.
For Census 2000, the question on race included 15 separate checkbox response categories and three areas where respondents could write in a specific response. This same approach is used for Census 2010.
The checkbox response categories and write-in responses can be combined to create the five minimum OMB-defined race categories plus the category "Some Other Race." In addition to "White," "Black or African American," "American Indian and Alaska Native" and "Some Other Race," seven of the 15 response categories are "Asian" (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Other Asian) and four are "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" (Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, Other Pacific Islander).
The actual data collection process works as follows: The Census Bureau first takes responses from 2010 Census forms and scans and captures the answers. Then, this information is turned into electronic text. For Question #9, an “auto coder” ― a computer program that classifies and tabulates write-in information ― then tabulates the data into different multiracial combinations of the initial race groups.
The five major race categories, as defined by the OMB, plus the "Some Other Race" category, can be put together in 57 possible unique combinations of two, three, four, five or six races. When this information is added to data of the six single-race groups, the Census Bureau will have 63 different tabulated categories.
While there are many options for race self-reporting, for those who advocate individuality, or intend to write in “American” or “human being” ― responses that the Census Bureau has received in the past ― will not have their race tabulated in the final race data.
For the majority of respondent answers, answers to Question #9 will arguably yield some of the most interesting data for our “Portrait of America” – the phrase used by the Census Bureau in many of its advertisements to describe the work of the decennial census.
Heightened racial awareness and numbers of self-reported multiracial identity are expected to increase. Many believe this is a reflection of social change and greater opportunities since the 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which overturned the laws against interracial marriage still in effect in 16 states.
"A fascinating phenomena of our nation’s dynamic nature of racial and ethnic composition is that it is diverse and always changing," said Nicholas Jones, chief of Census Bureau Racial Statistics. "The Census 2010 results will provide a new portrait of America, with information on the racial and ethnic diversity in the population, as well as the changes in the multiracial population.”
A Census Bureau brief on its 2000 data showed 40 percent of those who reported more than one race lived in the West. With 1.6 million self-reported multiracial persons in California, this was the only state with a “two or more races” population greater than 1 million.
Ten years ago, 40 percent of the self-reported multiracial population was under age 18.
“This is a historic opportunity," Jones said. "For the first time, we will have information from two decennials to make comparisons and analyze past and present characteristics and how multiracial self-reporting translates over age groups and gender."."
Beyond data on self-awareness and interesting social trends, more significant is how Census 2010 results will shape and influence public policy.
“For those who may think that the option to identify with more than one race is trivial, they are mistaken," said Christopher Parker, a professor of political science at the University of Washington. "Marking more than one box can affect both the enforcement of civil rights and inform the political behavior of those who choose more than one racial category with which to identify.”.”
Malone, for one, sees the value in that.
“While race is not a biological category, it’s important in determining how people are received, treated and what opportunities they will have," Malone said. "In order to monitor progress, race needs to be quantified when information is officially collected.”
It will take approximately six months to collect, analyze and tabulate the data. The Census Bureau is required by law to deliver a population count to President Obama by Dec. 31.
PART III Making It Count
A hoodie covering her head, legs swinging as she sat on the paper-strewn table, the 19-year-old half-smiled while saying it’s going to be more effective this time.
“I think it’s going to be a good year,” she said. “The census has done a good job advertising on billboards and on TV, cultivating a sort of…anticipation.”
A mere 9 the last go-around, Roselyn Ruiz said she remembered little of the process or results, but she’d watched her big sister work for the Census and thought, why not, she didn’t have a job. She’d try it this time too.
Every day for a five-hour shift since mid-March, Ruiz has manned one of the 150 Questionnaire Assistance Centers (or QACs) sprouting up around Los Angeles. The QACs exemplify some of the 2010 Census Bureau’s more aggressive efforts to include otherwise Hard to Count (HTC) communities such as Hispanics, Russians and Koreans.
Located at churches and supermarkets, outside stores and salons, the tiny centers often consist of a bureau employee and a table he or she’s filled with Census forms and 59 different language guides for them. The questionnaires themselves, abbreviated forms of the 10-question version, come in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese.
Employees set up these sites to help those who are illiterate, unable to speak English or uncomfortable navigating through the written, 7th-grade level questions have their presence noted in the constitutionally-required decennial count.
The QACs form one aspect of the bureau’s efforts to ensure as widespread a participation as it can. 2010 marks the first year the Census has sent a bilingual English/Spanish questionnaire to 13 million households around the country; that it has used television, radio, billboard and print sources to advertise its campaign in 28 languages and that it has spent $340 million on that campaign.
And defying initial expectations, the Hispanic community may send in more forms than its members ever have before. As the Census has used multimedia to promote the count, recommending street-corner QACs like the one Ruiz set up in the process, many residents have said they understand how participating can secure minority-specific funding as well as seats in the House of Representatives and intend to follow through.
Census enumerators will send a sort of infantry to track down the homeless, the migrant workers or those living in RVs. Employees unable to connect with unresponsive households after three phone calls will hand residents their forms, in person.
In answering the surveys, however, some Hispanics said they find race-related Question 9 confusing. Some fear the Census is a circuitous route to the Migra and deportation. Others who are illiterate may face another challenge. Because they cannot read and are unaware of the existence of a QAC, they don’t know to call a toll-free number for assistance.
Setting up her table outside East L.A.’s 21st Street Market, Sharon Beauty Salon or a water store (depending on the day), Ruiz has been in charge of the Hooper Street QAC for a 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift. She said foot traffic in the middle of a work day’s been a bit slow, about 11 or 12 visitors a day, but folks are eager.
“People come to me to help them answer the form,” she said. “They know they have to participate. There’s this rumor that they’ll have to pay a $25 fine if they don’t send it in.”
She described how she spent most of her time easing the fears of those seeking her aid.
“A lot of people are afraid of deportation,” she said. “You can tell by their facial expressions. So I just explain that this information is confidential and protected by law and that their names will only be available in 72 years for history books.
“And I tell them, ‘you know, 72 years—that’s basically a lifetime, so don’t worry. They may need your phone number in case you’re a sloppy writer, and they want to verify your information. It’s not personal,’” she said.
But Wendy Arias, 29, sitting with her copy of the Census within Sharon Beauty Salon near Ruiz, said that reasoning doesn’t always work. “People are scared,” said the Mexico native in Spanish. “Many don’t care if this is for ill or good. If it involves releasing their records, they don’t like it.”
Ruiz also explained how respondents may find Questions 8 and 9 an obstacle towards sending in the form.
Question 8 asks whether the “person [is] of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin” and offers these options:
“No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
Yes, Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano
Yes, Puerto Rican
Yes, Cuban
Yes, another Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin.”
It also asks participants to “print [that] origin, for example, Argentinean, Colombian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Spaniard, and so on.”
Question 9 asks “what is the person’s race?” and offers these options:
“White
Black, African American or Negro
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian Indian
Chinese
Filipino
Other Asian --…for example, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Native Hawaiian
Guamanian or Chamorro
Samoan
Other Pacific Islander --…for example, Fijian, Tongan, and so on.
Some other race – Print race.
Ruiz said “a lot of people find questions 8 and 9 problematic and say they’re racist because if (respondents) are not Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuban they have to write their nationality in. I have to tell them ‘you get a little section too.’ ”
Other bureau representatives said the Census has worded these questions that way for 40 years, and the fill-in section simply gives respondents leeway.
“These two questions allow people to self-identify,” said Census Public Affairs Specialist Earlene Dowell. “It’s up to them how they identify themselves, and their responses are later reviewed and counted.”
But while Felipe Moscoso, manager of the East Los Angeles Census Office, “definitely thinks the Census will be successful because its employees have been working very hard,” he also said questions 8 and 9 “have become an issue” as the wording confuses respondents, who often ask: “Well, I was born here, so what race am I?”
A Honduran, 41, working in L.A.’s downtown, unnamed due to her undocumented status, said she considered filling out the Census, knowing how allocating more funds to Latinos based on representation would benefit her. But she would likely withhold her name and found Question 9 unnerving.
“The two questions should be one question,” she said in Spanish.
She did not find listing her nationality in No. 8 offensive but couldn’t see why she, who thought of her race or ethnicity as Latina, should have to write in what she considered another version of the same answer in No. 9.
Some academics said counting-problems will arise from the use of ethnicity-implying words “Hispanic” and “Latino” when referring to race.
“The issue here is ‘what is race?’ ‘What is ethnicity?’” wrote Leo Strada, UCLA professor of urban planning, in an email. “The question of what is race has been discussed countless times[, and] the Census has gone over this issue many times with experts from all social science fields.”
He said while historians, anthropologists and social biologists view Latinos as an ethnic group or collection of people from different nationalities, political scientists, ethnographers and sociologists did find Latinos “semi-racial” if defined as such by public perception and the media.
“Latino non-response to the race question dates back to the 1970s,” he said. “Once Latinos identify in the Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin item, they skip the race question since in their minds they have ‘answered the question.’”
Strada explained that because the Census has always required a race question, organizers focused more attention and funds into improving that Question 9’s non-response rate than they did for, say, the question concerning family relations.
In the 1960s, he said, the Census used surname lists to count Hispanic populations. Because the government found that method limiting, the bureau in 1970 began combining that data with the one culled from those who had identified themselves as Latino. While there was overlap in such data, Latinos who lacked Spanish-sounding surnames or were inter-marrying were skewing the numbers.
Though “the Census accepted the judgment that Latinos are not a race…adding Hispanics as a racial group would throw off data going back to 1970, so they created two separate questions,” he said.
Finding that response rate increased when the Census placed the Hispanic/Latino/Spanish question before the “race” question, the bureau continues to do so.
Not viewing themselves as “White” or “Black,” for example, Latinos would mark “Latino” or “Hispanic” in the “Other Race” space on Question 9, Strada said. So even as recently as 2000, 45 percent of those filling in the “Other Race” space were Latino.
“The Latino non-response rate remains high,” he said, “and there appears to be no simple solution.”
Leading up to the Census, media outlets and critics emphasized how difficult tracking the Hispanic population of a state like California would be, given the fact that so many of its members are migrant workers.
And Roberto Ramirez, chief of the Ethnicity and Ancestry Branch with the Census Bureau, explained that accounting for such groups encapsulates one of the main reasons the bureau hired more than 1 million temporary employees during the count.
“We call those who have not responded a few times and then show up,” he said. For the homeless, those living in the American Union Reservation, parks, boats, circuses, converted garages, RVs, a different temporary space or as migrant workers, the Census has employed an approach called the Partnership Program. Census reps “go door-to-door and recruit people from the community to help us in person,” he added. “This goes until July.”
He pointed out that Census reps would most often count respondents who had written in “mixed” for either questions 8 or 9 or both manually.
And many took no issue with either the questions’ wording, its racial or ethnic implications or those requiring a written-in response.
“I’ve filled out the Census, and I have to say I think all the commercials and ads have made it clear why we all should,” said Salvadoran-born Miguel Portillo, 18, standing behind the cash register at his family’s downtown shop, Danielle’s Bridal.
“Yeah, Question 9’s a little weird, and I hadn’t heard of QACs until now” he continued. “But 9 doesn’t bother me, and people will still fill out the form.”
When it comes to getting a count truly representative of the U.S. population, the Census—important, expensive, controversial and to some, negligible—may still face many challenges. But employees like Ruiz are optimistic the campaigns and the QACs have will help achieve the desired effect.
“It may not be completely accurate,” she said, “but I think it’s getting pretty close.”
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