Ezekiel Edwards

Exaggerated Exodus?

On Monday, the New York Times reported that New York City's black population was on the decline, according to the Census Bureau. The article cited a handful of causes: a slight drop in the black birthrate; reduced influx in the number of Caribbean and African immigrants; increased migration of New York City blacks to other more affordable cities, particularly in the south, in order to save money and live in calmer surroundings. Amazingly, however, the article never mentioned the fact that the Census Bureau does not count as city residents African Americans from New York City incarcerated upstate --- rather, it considers them residents of the upstate counties in which they are imprisoned. This oversight was particularly noticeable when the article cited recent Census figures showing that New York City is home to 30,000 fewer black residents in 2004 than it was in 2000, since the number of black people incarcerated upstate (most of whom are from the five boroughs) is also, I believe, around 30,000. If, for instance, a greater number of African-Americans were imprisoned upstate since 2000, or if fewer were released than in previous years, this would effect the Census Bureau's calculations of the number of black residents in New York City.

This is not to suggest that the black population of New York City has remained constant, or that blacks are not moving out of New York in greater numbers because of rising costs, gentrification of neighborhoods, a desire for a change of pace, etc. However, given the misleading population counts that result from the Census Bureau's insistence on counting prisoners as residents of their prisons' counties, and the particularly gross distortion this method creates on population numbers in New York City and in upstate prison counties, it is peculiar and ultimately misleading for an article devoted entirely to the subject of the waning black population of New York City (based on Census figures) to ignore this phenomenon --- even if simply to explain that, in spite of the Bureau's method of counting prisoners, a black exodus from New York is nonetheless occurring. It is akin to having a discussion about the movement of people (especially minorities) from New York City to upstate New York in the 1990's without referencing the fact that 30% of those people the Census Bureau counted as having relocated upstate were prisoners.

There is an easy way for the Census Bureau to end such confusion while also restoring integrity to our system of democracy: start counting inmates as residents of the counties from which they come, and to which almost all of them will return.

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Posted at 7:45 AM, Apr 06, 2006 in Criminal Justice | Democracy | New York
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