Questioning the Questions of the U.S. Census

How much thought have you given to the Census? While most people know that the U.S. government conducts a census every ten years (the last was in 2020), many people have never thought about the relationship between the census and race in the U.S. Understanding how census questions about race have upheld white supremacy for over two centuries can offer a valuable window into U.S. history and the persistence of systemic racism today. This program will give you a framework to consider the census’s past—and present—and the potential to use it for justice in the future.

This program is supported by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of the NEH’s “A More Perfect Union” initiative.

Karen Gaffney, PhD, is the author of Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox (Routledge 2018), an accessible introduction to race and racism with tools for action. She’s an English professor at Raritan Valley Community College, where she teaches courses on composition, gender, and race. She facilitates anti-racism workshops in the community and at conferences, and she runs a blog with resources, Divided No Longer, which works to call out white supremacy, understand it, and dismantle it. Find it here: https://dividednolonger.com