Thread by @Cajsa

While we can all celebrate that Trump was unable to force a citizenship question back onto the census questionnaire for the first time since 1950, the census remains one of the biggest battles of 2020 and not just because it apportions representation in Congress. 1/

2/ The census is supposed to count every person in America. EVERY PERSON! That means counting the homeless and the undocumented. So why in the world would Republicans try so hard to ensure the census will undercount millions of Latinos?
psmag.com/news/experts-s…

3/ Since representation is apportioned by the census, not counting people Republicans do not value means those people do not get represented. Republicans do not value immigrants and other marginalized people. It's all about white supremacy.
slate.com/news-and-polit…

4/ Republicans also want to change apportionment from equal numbers of people to equal numbers of eligible voters, another reason they wanted the citizenship question. Justices Thomas & Alito agree. scholar.google.com/scholar_case?c…

5/ And of course, since the Supreme Court opened the door to partisan gerrymandering, the census is the source of the data they will be using to do that.
npr.org/2019/07/09/739…

6/ The census is also used by state governments to divide up state districts. Likewise, many cities use the census to apportion representation to city or metro councils. It also determines how funding is distributed. econofact.org/why-does-the-c…

7/ You all know Jim Crow laws criminalized Blackness to keep Black people from voting, but prison gerrymandering does more than just keep Black people from voting, it also means Black people are underrepresented and underserved by their government.

8/ There really are not that many urban prisons. They get put out in the country somewhere in rural counties that welcome them and not just because of JOBS, but also because prisoners get counted where they are imprisoned, not where they're from. prisonersofthecensus.org

9/ The prisoners' children may still live in the city where they come from, but the federal tax money for schools, school lunches, Medicaid, for roads and infrastructure, will all be sent to the county where they are imprisoned, not where their family is.

10/ These rural counties get increased representation over the urban counties where the prisoners come from. Sometimes prisoners are sent out of state and the representation and resources then go to the other state
pewtrusts.org/en/research-an…

11/ here in Oregon, Snake River Correctional Facility is in House District 60 and the prison population is 5% of the district's population. That means 95 District 60 residents have as much power as 100 in districts without a prison.
prisonersofthecensus.org/50states/OR.ht…

12/ So it is important for every person to be counted, because only accurate data can make sure people are fairly represented and resources are fairly distributed, but even so, the way we count prisoners will benefit rural counties.

13/ Look at West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana. It has a total population of just over 15,000 and 5,000 of them are prisoners. The towns & cities the prisoners come from do not get representation for them or funding for their children's schools, etc.

14/ But the 10,000 people who aren't prisoners get disproportionate political power and funding from the state and the federal government.
prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2012/08/2…

15/15 This should make clear that mass incarceration does not just keep marginalized people from voting, it keeps them from being counted where they live and robs their communities of resources that are then sent to white communities.