She is not a politician of pantsuits or tweed skirts.
Those are for lions, already all-powerful to many and who travel in large packs, like Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.
But it’s not for a second-term congresswoman.
Instead, from behind a cherry blossom in Brooklyn’s concrete jungle, a swifter, more energetic, and just as fiercely competitive cat appears – the cheetah.
Donning an animal-print trench coat, sharp Christian Dior eyewear and blood red lipstick, Rep. Yvette Clarke made two points Saturday:
- Not only does she have style, it’s edgy and frankly it works for her!
- And, invoking her inner cheetah, she is on the hunt for constituents slow to return their census forms.
“I believe democracy is not a spectator sport,” told Clarke to a crowd outside a post office in Crown Heights, encouraging them to fill out and mail 2010 Census forms.
Most, if not all, present were Caribbean and African Americans, though Clarke said the post office at Nostrand Avenue and Empire Boulevard was an important location for this initiative.
“This is the nexus where lots of immigrants come,” she told The NYC Delegation. “It’s a hard-to-count district.”
Though national outreach efforts seem to focus on Spanish-speaking communities, they are a small group in this district.
But, said Clarke, there is a high “concentration of African Americans,” another low turnout group.
Indeed, nationally almost 70% of census forms have been returned, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with 51% for all of Brooklyn. Here in Crown Heights and East Flatbush, which have some of the highest black and Caribbean populations in this district, have the lowest return rate so far – as low as 34%.
But across Prospect Park in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, where there’s a larger white population, there’s a much higher return rate for Clarke’s district and for Brooklyn – a percentage closer to the national average.
Clarke said even this number is low for white Americans in her district, though she doesn’t attribute it to antigovernment sentiment, as one report recently indicated.
“This is one exercise that is immune to antigovernment,” she said.
In fact, Census workers said they see feelings of fear toward the government, not feelings against it.
Yvette Mendes, a census outreach worker at Clarke’s event, said Crown Heights and East Flatbush have a “high immigrant community,” so she believed this was a logical location for such an event.
Mendes said such communities might worry about their immigration status and possible deportation, so they don’t participate in the census, even though “they’re secure, they’re confidential,” she said.
Projecting through a megaphone, Clarke told the crowd of about 30-or-so people that by not being counted, they are turning money away for the community, like schools and hospitals, and they are telling Washington: “We don’t need your assistance. Send that check somewhere else.”
She told The NYC Delegation that being accounted for in the census is like an ATM transaction: If we don’t deposit population numbers, we can’t withdraw the federal funds we need.
And, seeing as this is her first national census as a member of the House of Representatives, this leopard-clad congresswoman appears ready to fight for those funds for her district.
“I’m a competitive congresswoman,” she added.
Across the nation, about 300 million people are marking this time of year a special occasion. Unlike Easter or Passover, this holiday is celebrated only once every ten years, and in its spirit everyone’s participation is more than welcomed.