Democracy's Data by Dan Bouk

This is yet another look at the systemic racism in the United States--the book focuses on the 1940 census for some in-depth reporting but has a sub-text of the whole process of the census. It this is a powerful bit of protest against centuries of Black people being misidentified, undercounted and downright erased from the public record. The author is a historian who has also studied computational mathematics, and he believes passionately in the ideals of the census, but reveals in abundant detail how badly it has failed society. Native Americans were long excluded and ethnic classification abetted among other horrors the roundup of Japanese Americans to internment camps and the deportation of Mexican immigrants. In theory, counting the population seems so basic, so neutral: a math problem that requires meticulous attention to detail. But the numerical is political, with representation and resources at stake, so of course it has been manipulated. Bouk shows how, from its beginnings, the census has been subject to partisan interests, which continues up to and including the last census. I am reminded of the quote that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest. It is a messy business when you look at it closely and it is miraculous that it works at all.