New York, NY March 30, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting every aspect of our society and exposing deep, systemic inequalities that we know will cause Black communities to be harder hit than most. As the news changes minute-to-minute, BET and Color Of Change are teaming up on an exclusive editorial series to equip Black people with the information needed to get help, take action and support the hardest hit in our communities. Penned by Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change, the editorial series will report on a different focus and deliver an action plan each week. Each article will point to real things you can do to make a difference and stay connected to what's happening in Black communities.

In this week’s article Robinson will focus on the importance of the 2020 Census, Census Day – April 1 and it’s link to the pandemic. Read and share the story link below:

How The Coronavirus Pandemic Proves The 2020 Census For Black People Is More Important Than Ever: https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/03/30/how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-proves-the-2020-census-for-black-pe.html?

Top highlights from the article include

Action plans with ways that the Black community can focus on the census during the coronavirus pandemic:
Take the Census digitally, from home
Record a video and post on your social media explaining why your count matters and why you’ll fill out the census using the hashtag #OurCount.
Join an Online Census Party or start one of your own. Filling out the census can be fun!
On Wednesday, April 1 at 7:45 p.m. tune in to Color of Change’s the Coronavirus #BlackResponse Virtual Town Hall at theblackresponse.org
A better understanding of how the census and the coronavirus are directly linked including:
How Census data is used to determine how much emergency funding the federal government sends to each state including housing assistance and food assistance.
How Census numbers were used to determine the number of people who would need funds. Even the location of hospitals and supermarkets are typically based on population density, which comes from Census data.
How Census data is used to determine how many people should be included in Congress’ stimulus package.
How you can continue to help from home by demanding emergency money for people out work, support petitions to free rents and utility payments during the crisis and raise money for the unemployed home care workers, nannies, and house cleaners through the National Domestic Workers Alliance
Mandatory credit to BET.com and link back to:

https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/03/30/how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-proves-the-2020-census-for-black-pe.html?

Rashad Robinson is President of Color Of Change, a leading racial justice organization with more than 1.7 million members that designs winning strategies to build power for Black communities. Rashad appears regularly in major news media and as a keynote speaker nationally. You can find him on Twitter @RashadRobinson.