Bronx Residents: Complete the 2020 Census for the Money, Power, Respect We Deserve
To many, the U.S. Census is an obscure part of our government’s traditions: it only happens once a decade, and unlike voting for your preferred candidate or protesting at City Hall, it isn’t entirely clear how your action in that moment will have an impact politically—at the end of the day, you’re just filling out a form with basic information and fewer questions than those at the doctor’s office.
But for historically undercounted Black and brown communities like Parkchester, filling out the census is a subversive political act. To be counted in the census is to tell Trump and the forces that be that our needs cannot be ignored or pushed to the margins any longer; that we demand our share of the federal money, political power, and respect as people that have been owed to us for decades.
In many ways, my own story is the embodiment of an undercounted community. My mother suffered from poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, and untreated trauma, and the community I grew up in didn’t have the funding or systems in place to prevent her from falling through the cracks. In the end, her substance abuse was not treated as a public health issue but one of criminality; that choice resulted in parental termination and family separation, sending me through a cycle of foster homes and family shelters.
These inequities pushed me to further my education and devote my career to advocating for community investment over incarceration. I’ve been a social worker, educator, and activist for over two decades, and am running for City Council in 2021 so that Bronx youth like my son are supported by the system, not punished by it as my mother and I were…