When to engage, when to walk away; census:
You don't have to stay in the game if you can get out, but you and the people you care about need to be in the position to make choices for dignity to happen as you make and gather players for your own until enough people can step out without becoming dependent.
I personally prioritize a census over any presidential election because so many resources, so much intelligence, and decisions can be generated from it.
Here's where we're at:
Even if/though the US school system+DPS is failing lots of youth and families, the money for them would still legally be required to be allocated to Detroit--so if a group like the Boggs School were to apply, we'd still have access to the funding. Same with hospitals, roads (pothole repair), possibly water infrastructure, and even development for homes etc. leans on census data for justification and funding. I seem to recall a lot of agencies and aid programs are legally tied to allocating aid/resources based on Census numbers.
Census data also informs where election districts/electoral college lines, federal resources, and agency funding are supposed to go for the next 10+ years (folks will still use Census data from several decades ago to look for patterns, trends, etc. and forecasts)-- so there's a big window where the Trump administration won't be in place.
All of diasporic Detroit is not yet ready to operate independent of the federal dollar and most aggregated (including federalized) systems. The Boggs School, Alkebu-Lan Village, and pre-takeover Charles M. Wright Museum aren't enough to service the community's youth and adults in the way they work at this time either. In ten years, comfortably they could do it with good leadership + engagement from folks like us, yes.
But they'd need whatever support as buffer in the meanwhile and the Village and Wright Museum also take some funding that connects to Census data in some way as well, and I've personally used census data to articulate grant-quality content to prove the case for local populations affected by air quality issues around Alkebu-Lan, SW Detroit on workforce/economic development, or briefly with Peace Zones for Life to inform support for returning citizens that still informs my priorities for outreach today.
Funding for private foundation grants that you benefit from using to leverage for the communities you care about often hinge on data from US Census numbers too if we dig deep enough into where and how the granting organizations procure and allocate funding.
The obvious part--numbers and population count are used to draw federal-level election districts, funding allocation, etc.is stuff that's not something we have a strong connection to unless there are lots of people from the community working+influencing that level of federal operation.
But the Census also informs data for things like disease control response, etc. --used by local advocates who definitely don't have capacity/influence to coordinate this kind of assessment at scale and use the data to inform impact.
Maybe saying too much for here but here's a milestone to ask and watch for before we get to the 10 year mark:
When will mutual aid and community organizations can glocalize (defn/charzn: integrate local support with global resources and relationships as I define it--Baba Wayne might have a different angle on the word but likes using it too) and effectively support and scale out something like the Sinai Grace Hospital worker strike + labor shortage without strain, working without any federal/state resources? Absolutely operating independent of a census will probably be less than beneficial until then.
........
You don't have to stay in the game if you can get out, but you and the people you care about need to be in the position to make choices for dignity to happen as you make and gather players for your own until enough people can step out without becoming dependent.
I personally prioritize a census over any presidential election because so many resources, so much intelligence, and decisions can be generated from it.
Here's where we're at:
Even if/though the US school system+DPS is failing lots of youth and families, the money for them would still legally be required to be allocated to Detroit--so if a group like the Boggs School were to apply, we'd still have access to the funding. Same with hospitals, roads (pothole repair), possibly water infrastructure, and even development for homes etc. leans on census data for justification and funding. I seem to recall a lot of agencies and aid programs are legally tied to allocating aid/resources based on Census numbers.
Census data also informs where election districts/electoral college lines, federal resources, and agency funding are supposed to go for the next 10+ years (folks will still use Census data from several decades ago to look for patterns, trends, etc. and forecasts)-- so there's a big window where the Trump administration won't be in place.
All of diasporic Detroit is not yet ready to operate independent of the federal dollar and most aggregated (including federalized) systems. The Boggs School, Alkebu-Lan Village, and pre-takeover Charles M. Wright Museum aren't enough to service the community's youth and adults in the way they work at this time either. In ten years, comfortably they could do it with good leadership + engagement from folks like us, yes.
But they'd need whatever support as buffer in the meanwhile and the Village and Wright Museum also take some funding that connects to Census data in some way as well, and I've personally used census data to articulate grant-quality content to prove the case for local populations affected by air quality issues around Alkebu-Lan, SW Detroit on workforce/economic development, or briefly with Peace Zones for Life to inform support for returning citizens that still informs my priorities for outreach today.
Funding for private foundation grants that you benefit from using to leverage for the communities you care about often hinge on data from US Census numbers too if we dig deep enough into where and how the granting organizations procure and allocate funding.
The obvious part--numbers and population count are used to draw federal-level election districts, funding allocation, etc.is stuff that's not something we have a strong connection to unless there are lots of people from the community working+influencing that level of federal operation.
But the Census also informs data for things like disease control response, etc. --used by local advocates who definitely don't have capacity/influence to coordinate this kind of assessment at scale and use the data to inform impact.
Maybe saying too much for here but here's a milestone to ask and watch for before we get to the 10 year mark:
When will mutual aid and community organizations can glocalize (defn/charzn: integrate local support with global resources and relationships as I define it--Baba Wayne might have a different angle on the word but likes using it too) and effectively support and scale out something like the Sinai Grace Hospital worker strike + labor shortage without strain, working without any federal/state resources? Absolutely operating independent of a census will probably be less than beneficial until then.
........
Returning for a clarification re: informed consent--the idea of "by any means necessary" is still important for the collective (and sort of in terms of how evolution tends to happen--there's always a beneficial behavior/trait in the right environment), so it isn't necessarily to/on you to do the census if it's not where you're at.
But to flip extractive/co-optive systems, I (and that may be different from most people) think it's important for having the ingredients to make those choices clear and available for others to decide on rather than say "you have everything needed to make a cake, that's your job"--when in reality you know what's needed for you+the realities of the folks that you touch most directly could benefit more from using those ingredients to make bread.
It's like people's bodily sovereignty (my body, my choice) or other things where the reasons for letting people make informed choices with their own consent matter most.
Even when we do our "performance" /storytelling/education/
It's one thing to tell people what's needed and to take action with no rationale/explanation--and that's important in it's on place on the landscape.
It's another to bring out within them that they have and can create choices to navigate future situations with their own sensibilities.
It's another to bring out within them that they have and can create choices to navigate future situations with their own sensibilities.
One can create quick results, another can bring out the leaders within us. Both are necessary tools.
But on the far end to those dualities:
Telling folks what "must" be done as if it's the only way without letting them consider their choices becomes a kind of coercion and is typically how propaganda winds up functioning in toxic ways.
Leaving folks amid lots of choice and possibility without the granting guidance with one's wisdom from reliable truths is a form of negligence.
So at the end of the day, do you.
But for those who look up to you+those you care about as peers and elders, clearly communicating your action among those you're willing to trust adds to the collective benefit.
As long as the folks who are working toward the same cause know what's on the landscape and what it tends to mean +why/where we're coming from, I like to believe things tend to turn out well.
If they don't and it's important that they do, that's where work shows up for growing relationships too.
I hope that's not too much, been thinking about a lot of the stuff you asked and haven't been able to speak with anyone to unpack until you made the space with the root post.
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