The Missing Demographic: Black Males

The fairly recent brouhaha over the use of the term "Negro" on 2010 Census Forms was mild compared to the racially-tinged storm that should be currently brewing in Washington in regards to the upcoming counting of all Americans. It seems as if one demographic is already being excluded.

The Census Bureau's very sophisticated website features vignettes of people from all over the country - 30 citizens in all - talking about what it means to be Americans. There is Breanne & Dave (a couple who are into roof gardening), Neme (a nursing student originally from Togo), Grazina (the owner of a Lithuanian restaurant), and Hilba (the manager of a surgery clinic), but one population group is glaring only by its absence: black males... there is not one single black male featured on the entire website. Yet, the Census folks steadfastly maintain they want to count all Americans.

This behavior sort of puts me in mind of an old Randy Crawford song, “Real Life,” in which she sings, “In real life, people say one thing and then they do another … it happens all of the time in real life.”

Jennifer Smits, a spokesperson for the Census Bureau, said that she couldn’t explain the omission, but called back the next day to state these were just the initial stories, and that an African-American male would indeed be included when the next batch is posted. However, she said no timeline has been established for that to occur. An hour later Michael Cook (an African-American), the acting chief for Decennial Media Relations for the Census Bureau, called to reiterate the points made by Smits, but added that they were aware of the omission, and that black males would be added when the site was updated. He made it seem as if the omission was a conscious choice by the designers. But, again, he could not give any concrete details when inclusion would occur. Those conversations occurred back in December of ‘09, and still no changes have been made. One can only assume that for the folks at Census 2010 correcting a glaring lack of inclusion is not a high priority.

Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge said that she is outraged by the omission. “I’m going to make sure that the Census Bureau is questioned hard about this, and that a correction is made as soon as possible. This definitely is not acceptable.”

There are, however, four black females featured on the site. “I guess that is supposed to placate us,” said Ken Lumpkin, an African-American attorney and former Cleveland, OH city councilman, “but the fact remains, black males evidently don’t exist in the eyes of the folks at the Census Bureau. This omission is too obvious, too blatant for it to be accidental. They are now saying that it was planned this way, the plan was to include African-American males at a later date, but I don’t know that I believe them. If no one had raised the issue I doubt that it would have ever been addressed. This has to be intentional on someone’s part, but how they got away with it I don’t know. After all, this is a federal agency, and we are in the year 2010. Why didn’t some high-ranking black person at that Bureau raise a question or complaint about this lack of inclusion … unless, of course, there are no high-ranking blacks working there? A bunch of people obviously are not doing their jobs.”

A spokesperson for Congressman Dennis Kucinich said the congressman was traveling but would look into the matter and write a letter to the Census bureau upon his return to Washington.

One particularly poignant segment on the website concerns itself with the Grand Ronde Native American tribe, which lost its official designation from the federal government in 1954; in essence, it ceased to exist and was disbanded. In the 70s, a few members of the tribe traveled far and wide to locate surviving members and then conducted their own census, thus reestablishing their unique culture and presence. “Their story is illustrative of how the federal government can simply say a race of peoples no longer exists,” said Lumpkin. “While I’m no conspiracy theorist, this is something that should be very frightening to minority groups.”

As for the use of the word “Negro” on the Census Form that inflamed black passions, Lumpkin said, “It’s not what you’re called that matters, but what you’re willing to answer to.”

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier's From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.