Exploring US Census Data in Clackamas County, OR

The Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) is an organization that addresses the socioeconomic disparities, institutional racism and inequity of services experienced by our families, children and communities; and to organize our communities for collective action resulting in social change to obtain self-determination, wellness, justice and prosperity.

The CCC wanted to create maps to better understand the experiences, needs, and desires of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) residents of Clackamas County and to demonstrate to Clackamas County, BIPOC experiences through a diverse geospatial/landscape lens.

Using maps to help define urban, suburban, rural, and wild regions of the county

Visualizing the intersection of racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, along with the county's physical geographic diversity

In 2022, the Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) collaborated with Matt Foley, a student enrolled in the GIS Certificate program at Portland Community College (PCC), to create maps of Clackamas County using 2020 Census data along with other federal and state data sources. These maps were created to support CCC’s  Research Justice Study  in Clackamas County as well as to help inform countywide programmatic and EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) efforts. Researchers at the CCC worked with Matt to identify specific needs that included mapping the following:

• Concentrations of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) households in the county

• Geographies defined as urban, suburban, rural, and wild/frontier in the county

• Concentrations of households with limited English language speakers

• Median household income

• Regions with higher and lower housing densities

Maps using mainstream quantitative data (e.g., Census, American Community Survey, administrative data) are tools that can facilitate awareness about population-level trends, including inequities across a range of topics (e.g., race/ethnicity, income, language) ( Plumer and Popovich, 2020 ). Insights gleaned from maps have the potential to positively inform policies and programs designed to meet community-based needs. However, maps have also been used in ways that harm communities, and their improper uses have had devastating consequences for already marginalized communities ( Schwabish and Feng 2021 ). This disclaimer is meant to avoid harmful uses of Clackamas County GIS maps.

Redlining is one of the most salient examples of maps being used to harm communities of color. Maps of neighborhoods with majority non-white residents were marked with red, which signaled to mortgage lenders that these neighorhoods were undesirable and too risky for loan approval ( Mapping Inequity ). This practice was replicated all over the United States and has led to devastating consequences for communities of color due to continued segregation and divestment ( Best and Mejia, 2022) . Maps have been used to dispossess Indigenous communities of their land by visualizing land as “empty” and “wild” ( Nelson 2020 ). Maps have also been used for surveillance and tracking of certain populations including migrants and undocumented residents and workers ( Stewart et al. 2016 ).

Mapping is limited by the accuracy of its data, so our maps should be used with a few considerations in mind:  

• The primary data source for these maps is the 2020 Census, which has a history of chronically undercounting certain populations, such as communities of color and rural/frontier communities ( Wines and Cramer 2022 ;  Gold and Su 2019 ). 
• Maps do not present neutral or objective data. The creation of these maps relies on the selection and interpretation of data by the data analyst (in our case, both Matt and CCC researchers made decisions about which data to use and how to interpret these data; see the footnote below for Matt’s disclaimer about using data sources to define different geographic regions in Clackamas County*). 
• Maps using Census and administrative data tell only a partial story – one that often perpetuates deficit narratives about already marginalized communities ( Vermeulen et al. 2020 ).
• These maps do not provide adequate context for answering why certain trends appear. 
• Our maps alone should not be used to make final decisions about resource allocations, for example, and need to be used with community member perspectives. 
• Mapping certain communities like immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities may lead to targeted physical violence and legal harm.
• Our maps are not created via community-led participatory mapping methods.

*“Although this dataset was created by data provided by Metro, Clackamas County, and other State and Federal agencies, it remains prone to subjectivity when defining what is considered to be an urban, suburban, rural, or wild region.”

Community mapping, especially community co-constructed mapping, has been incredibly influential for advancing racial justice by offering alternative spatial perspectives on community realities. Black cartographers have used the practice of counter-mapping to illustrate the atrocities of white supremacy and the resilience of Black communities ( Alderman and Inwood 2021 ). Community-made maps are a powerful tool for reclaiming and maintaining Indigenous land sovereignty in the face of extractive corporate and state practices ( Kidd 2019 ;  Fox, Sryanata, Hershock and Pramono 2005 ). 

•  Do no Harm  (Urban Institute)
•  List of interactive maps on Racial Equity  (Harvard University)
•  Mapping communities ethics, values, practice  (East West Center)
•  Ethical Mapping Guidelines: Now Not to Map  (EthicalGeo)
•  9 Ethical Considerations in Participatory Digital Mapping with Communities  (ICTWorks)

US Census 2020 and ACS 5-Year Estimates

Tigerline, Metro, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Clackamas County

GeoRegions Urban Criteria: “Urban Areas for the 2020 Census-Proposed Criteria” https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/19/2021-03412/urban-areas-for-the-2020-census-proposed-criteria

Click the link below to see the Federal Gov. criteria used for defining "urban" areas

Exploring BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and

Non-English Speaking Populations in the defined GeoRegions

Analyzing what defines a geographic region in any given area has led me to believe that more areas in the US are either becoming more urban with the increase of development, deforestation, and population growth, or the Federal government is changing what we define as an "urban" area, as they are including more otherwise excluded areas to fit the criteria.

After looking at a plethora of US census data and ACS 5 -Year Estimates, it is very clear that although often considered a rural or suburban county, Clackamas County does indeed contain diversity. It's BIPOC populations and communities are primarily located in the more urban areas, but we see pockets of BIPOC populations in more rural parts of Clackamas County as well.

Moving forward with research focused on creating a call to action for the BIPOC communities in Clackamas County, I think it is imperative to continue to dissect and explore the US Census data that primarily revolves around housing, income, education, health, and employment and these topic's relationships with BIPOC communities, in order to better understand the experiences, needs, and desires of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) residents of Clackamas County.