Census trying to fix history of undercounting minorities

As Congress grapples with national changes to police policy and other systemic problems tied to race, another government process is struggling to include minority communities: the 2020 census.

Prior census efforts have undercounted minority populations, shortchanging them on the funds for programs that can help them find stable housing or employment training, changes that make them easier to count in the future, said Anna Gassman-Pines, a Duke University public policy professor.

“If you couple those things together, then that can accumulate over time and that can be part of the disparities we see in terms of race,” she said. “There are these structural problems that are compounded by more structural problems.”