Democracy's Data Quotes

“The decisions the census informed -- in war or peace -- could not overcome the limits of the society the data described. Democracy's data is only as good as the democracy it serves.”
― Dan Bouk, Democracy's Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them

“Douglass's story reminds us that names are things we use, as well as things that others use to grasp and hold on to a sense of us. Names don't spring forth fully formed from the platonic ideal of our identities. Names are social technologies, built and negotiated through extensive social systems.”
― Dan Bouk, Democracy's Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them