About the Exhibition
The Library exhibition, 'Power and People: The U.S. Census and Who Counts,' is currently on display in Doe Library through February 2020. It is also accessible online.
As you know, the Census is vast -- there is so much that could be said, but the following themes have been chosen as a focus. We will use historic and current material (the graphics in the 1890 census, for example, show incredibly sophisticated data visualization). Thus, the exhibition's focus includes the Decennial, but with a bit about the American Community Survey (ACS), and will also geographically focus on California and the Bay Area.
Overall, we hope to convey the complex nature of the Census -- that it is powerful in terms of its impact on funding and representation, and that it is an invaluable source of information, unique in its scope. At the same time, it reflects the anxieties and prejudices of its time period, which have been resisted (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) by people fighting to make the census a more accurate and inclusive measure.
Themes
Race(ism) Matters -- The impact of racism through a variety of indicators, the importance of race data for civil rights enforcement and the deeply problematic nature of racial categorization. Enslaved people and the Constitution, Native Americans, Arab Americans, "some other race", more than one race, and more.
Latinx -- Race vs. ethnicity, who counts, how it changed over time.
Poverty -- What "poverty" measures, poverty thresholds and program eligibility, poverty over time, Bay Area Displacement Project.
Immigration (legal and not) -- Citizenship question, historical and current immigration trends.
Funding -- Census bureau data used to distribute $675 billion per year -- who gets what.
Representation - Why it matters, Redistricting
Gender and sexual orientation - When women didn't count, same-sex couples, struggle for equality
Abuses of the census: Japanese Americans and post 911.
Special populations: homeless and incarcerated (Prisoners of the Census)
Contact Information
For more information, and to discuss possible collaborations on Power and People: The U.S. Census and Who Counts please contact Susan Edwards, Head, Social Sciences Division, Berkeley Library, at seedwards@berkeley.edu