California’s Senate President pro Tempore,
About Census 2020 and the Iranian American Community
Ali Sadr- Senator Atkins, on behalf of members of the Persian Cultural Center, our readers, and the Iranian American community at large, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for your participation in this interview. This interview is about Census 2020 and obstacles preventing minorities like us from actively and fully participating. Please allow me to give you a little background about our community and what I think those obstacles are. I would then ask you some questions that I have received from some of our readers. We would like to see—as one of the highest-ranking officials in the State of California—what you would suggest in gaining people’s trust to have a complete count of the Iranian American community.
The Iranian American community is a relatively young ethnic community in the U.S. A good majority of us have moved to the U.S. in the past 40 years and chose this country to be our homeland. Our level of education and economic participation is among the highest in the country. Yet when it comes to the census, there is mistrust. According to the federal classifications, Iranians are considered “white.” However, practically, government agencies and society at large do not consider people with Iranian descent “white.” We are being scrutinized and discriminated against at the border, in TSA lines, in workplaces, etc. We are considered a minority without benefiting from minority rights. We understand that this is mainly due to the behavior of the current government of Iran. But that government is one of the main reasons we are here. There are estimates of between one to two million Iranian Americans in the U.S. No one knows the exact number because people are reluctant to indicate their real origin when participating in the census. They are afraid that, like Japanese Americans during World War II, they will be rounded up and put in a concentration camp. Unfortunately, the policies and the behavior of the current administration haven’t been helpful.
With this background, here is my first question:
Is the census safe? If I answer the census and give my race or nationality, could I be the subject of scrutiny from local, state, and other federal entities?
Sen. Toni Atkins: Yes, and you will not be subject to any scrutiny from any other government authorities. Responding to the 2020 Census is safe and secure, and individual responses are confidential and protected by law. It’s a short questionnaire that asks about who lives in your household, how they are related to one another, and the age, race, and ethnicity of each person. The U.S. Census Bureau does not share your information with any other local, state, or federal entities. It does not ask for financial information or your Social Security number, and there are no citizenship questions on the 2020 Census.
Ali Sadr- Even if, as an Iranian American, I want to indicate my actual race and origin, none of the boxes on the census form represents me. What efforts are being done on state and national levels to finally include a category for “Iranian” or even something close like Middle Eastern and North African descent?
Sen. Toni Atkins: The Count Me 2020 Coalition, of which I am a member, is a non-partisan group of more than 150 civic and community-based organizations from San Diego and Imperial Counties. Member organizations are committed to ensuring a complete and accurate count of the 14 populations identified by the State of California as “hard-to-count” – this includes the Middle Eastern/North African population. When responding to the race/ethnicity questions, we are encouraging anyone of Middle Eastern/North African descent to mark “some other race,” then write in your family’s origin (for example, Iranian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian, etc.). If you identify with any other race included on the form, please mark that as well. Above all, though, remember to write in where you or your family are from. This will send a clear message to the federal government that they need to expand their categories to explicitly include Middle Eastern and North African nationalities.
Ali Sadr- Persian Cultural Center and many other Iranian groups suggest that members of the community mark any of the race categories in Question 9 of the census form, but write in “Iranian” in the space provided. Is the census going to count and report these?
Sen. Toni Atkins: Yes. The Census will count these answers in the “other” category.
Thank you so very much for your time. It was a great honor for me to have this conversation with you.
About Senator Toni Atkins
Toni G. Atkins was born and raised in southwestern Virginia, the daughter of a miner and a seamstress, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va.
In 1985, she moved across the country to San Diego, California, to help care for her sister’s young son while her sister served in the U.S. Navy. In San Diego, before becoming involved in public service, she worked as director of clinic services at Womancare Health Center.
Atkins served as an aide to San Diego City Councilmember and LGBT trailblazer Christine Kehoe, and, in 2000, was elected to replace Kehoe as the council’s District 3 representative. During her eight-year tenure, Atkins provided steady leadership as interim Mayor of San Diego amid a challenging and tumultuous time at City Hall.
“Throughout her career, Atkins has been a champion for affordable housing, the natural environment, healthcare, veterans, women, and the LGBTQ community.”
Elected by voters to the state Assembly in 2010, Atkins served there for six years. In 2014, her colleagues selected her to be the Speaker of the Assembly – she became the first San Diegan and the first lesbian to hold the position. Atkins counts a major $7.5-billion water bond and creation of the state’s first Earned Income Tax Credit among her proudest accomplishments.
In 2016, Atkins was elected to represent the 39th District in the state Senate and was appointed to the prestigious Rules Committee, in addition to the committees on Transportation and Housing, Health, Labor and Industrial Relations, and Natural Resources and Water. Among the bills she got passed and signed was SB 2, which created a permanent source of funding for affordable housing, a signature piece of legislation she had worked on for seven years.
In January 2018, after just one year in the Senate, she was elected by her colleagues to be the next Senate President pro Tempore. In March 2018, she was sworn in, becoming the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to lead the Legislature’s upper house.
