Vernellia Randall, “No Data, No Justice: How Government Data Suppression Threatens Racial Equity”, https://racism.org/articles/law-and-justice/38-law-policies-and-race/12851-no-data-no-justice (November 23, 2025) (Appendix: Expanded Recommendations to Protect Racial Equity Through Data Collection and Integrity).  "This article was drafted with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model. All content has been reviewed and edited by Vernellia Randall to ensure accuracy and coherence." 

 

Why deleting health and social data endangers Black communities and undermines civil rights enforcement.

 

vernelliarandall2015Data Erasure Is a Direct Attack on Racial Justice

When the government begins erasing, withholding, or quietly discontinuing data collection, it is not a technical change or a bureaucratic oversight. It is a deliberate assault on the truth. And in a society built on centuries of racial hierarchy, any attack on truth becomes an attack on justice. Data is not just information; it is evidence, memory, accountability, and power. When the government suppresses the numbers, it suppresses the people who depend on their visibility for equality.

I understood this long before I ever entered law school. As a public health nurse, I learned quickly that public health is not about individual patients. It is about communities, populations, and patterns. It is about who gets sick, who dies, who thrives, and who is left behind. Those patterns are invisible without data. Without racial data, the burden borne by Black and Brown communities becomes a rumor instead of a fact—something that can be denied, minimized, or dismissed. Data is the backbone of public health. And for Black communities, data has always been the backbone of racial justice.

The United States has a long history of collecting race-based health information, even going back to slavery. That history is painful but critical. Early public health officials documented the health of enslaved Africans not to advocate for justice, but to justify exploitation. Yet even those distorted records revealed undeniable disparities. Over time, during Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the early civil rights era, the government continued collecting data that exposed inequities in health, living conditions, and mortality. No matter how racism tried to hide itself, the numbers kept telling the truth.

Then came 1985 and the Heckler Report—a turning point in American public health. It was the first time the federal government publicly acknowledged that racial health disparities were not accidental or insignificant. The report laid bare the deadly consequences of structural racism. It did not just give advocates information. It gave them a weapon. For the first time, the government admitted what Black communities had been saying for generations: that racism kills.

That data allowed advocates to build programs, challenge discriminatory policies, and demand resources. It gave racial justice work credibility in rooms where Black truths had long been ignored.

I came to appreciate this even more when I began lecturing abroad. Black communities in England invited me to speak about racial health disparities in the United States and to help them develop strategies for change. Their single biggest obstacle was not lack of commitment or lack of leadership—it was lack of data. Every time they raised concerns about racial inequity, the response from policymakers was the same:
“There is no data to support that.”

Of course there wasn’t. Their government refused to collect it.

For years, England and other European nations claimed that because “there is only one race, the human race,” collecting racial health or social data was unnecessary, divisive, or unscientific. They misunderstood completely. Collecting racial data is not about declaring biological difference. It is about documenting social reality—the reality of discrimination, exclusion, inequity, and structural harm.

This became especially clear at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, where I chaired the NGO health working group. We fought hard to persuade governments to support demographic data collection capable of revealing inequities. Many delegates insisted again, “There is only one race.” It was a shield—an excuse to avoid accountability.

We used the moment to educate. We explained that racism is real, measurable, and deadly, and without data it cannot be confronted. We argued that refusing to collect data was not neutrality. It was compliclicity.

To our surprise, we became one of the first NGO committees to move governments toward adopting a recommendation from our agenda. They did not agree immediately to collect racial data, but they did agree to study the issue and to consider demographic alternatives. That step mattered. It opened a door. And when England began facing alarming maternal mortality rates among Black women, they finally understood what we had been fighting for. They started gathering the data they needed to see—truly see—what was happening to their communities.

This makes the current moment in the United States especially disturbing. While other nations finally recognized the necessity of racial data, the United States is now retreating from it. Suppressed federal datasets. Delayed reports. Discontinued race-based metrics. Quiet decisions to stop publishing key indicators. Manipulated economic figures. Refusal to release information that reflects poorly on the administration.

This is not a step backward. It is a collapse.

When data disappears, inequity becomes invisible. And when inequity is invisible, injustice becomes easier to deny, easier to ignore, and easier to deepen.

Without data:

  • Civil rights laws lose their teeth.

  • Public health cannot identify who is most at risk.

  • Schools can hide racial disparities in discipline and academic opportunity.

  • Police departments can bury patterns of misconduct.

  • Employment discrimination becomes harder to prove.

  • Housing inequity disappears into a fog of “insufficient evidence.”

The most dangerous part?
Data suppression doesn’t just hide the past—it rewrites the present. It creates a false narrative of progress while inequality grows stronger beneath the surface.

This is why data suppression is a racial justice emergency. It weakens every tool we have to expose discrimination. It undermines every fight we have waged for fairness. It silences the truth our communities risked so much to speak.

We must act before the numbers disappear completely. Because once they’re gone, so is our ability to prove what is happening to us.

Data is more than information.


Data is survival.

 

Appendix: Expanded Recommendations to Protect Racial Equity Through Data Collection and Integrity

Below is a fully expanded set of policy recommendations, with structural context and specific mechanisms for implementation.

 

Federal-Level Recommendations

1. Enact a Mandatory Federal Data Transparency Act

This law should:

  • Require all federal agencies to publish core datasets on a fixed, public schedule.

  • Protect race-based breakdowns for health, education, policing, housing, and employment.

  • Prohibit discontinuing datasets without public notice and congressional review.

  • Establish penalties for intentional data suppression or manipulation.

  • Require permanent public archives for historical datasets.

Transparency must not depend on who occupies the White House.

2. Reinstate and Strengthen Civil Rights Reporting Requirements

Restore and expand mandatory reporting in:

  • school discipline and suspensions,

  • special education placement,

  • policing and incarceration,

  • health outcomes,

  • employment discrimination,

  • housing complaints,

  • public program access.

Deny federal funding to agencies that refuse to report.

3. Create an Independent Federal Data Ombudsman

This independent office should:

  • conduct investigations,

  • issue public findings,

  • have subpoena power,

  • audit agencies for compliance,

  • enforce transparency requirements.

It must operate free from political interference.

4. Strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

Modernize FOIA to:

  • require proactive release of civil-rights-related data,

  • mandate release of raw datasets,

  • speed up response deadlines,

  • penalize political appointees who obstruct release,

  • improve access for researchers and community advocates.

5. Add a Civil Rights Data Protection Clause

Discontinuing, altering, or concealing racial data should be legally defined as:

  • a civil rights violation,

  • a barrier to equal protection,

  • actionable through enforcement and private lawsuits.

6. Protect Federal Statistical Agencies

Guarantee the independence of:

  • the Census Bureau,

  • CDC,

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics,

  • National Center for Education Statistics,

  • Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Shield them from political pressure.

7. Establish National Standards for Data Disaggregation

Require uniform categories for race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and geography to ensure consistency across states and over time.

State-Level Recommendations

1. State Data Transparency Laws

State laws should require:

  • quarterly reporting of core datasets,

  • racial disaggregation in every major domain,

  • public dashboards,

  • raw data downloads,

  • community participation in setting data priorities.

2. Strengthen School Discipline and Education Reporting

States should require detailed reporting on:

  • suspensions and expulsions,

  • subjective vs. objective offenses,

  • chronic absenteeism,

  • special education referrals,

  • access to advanced coursework,

  • restraint and seclusion,

  • racial and disability disparities.

States should intervene if districts fail to comply.

3. Establish Police Accountability Data Portals

States should collect and publish:

  • all stops,

  • use-of-force incidents,

  • arrests,

  • traffic enforcement,

  • demographic data,

  • misconduct complaints,

  • officer discipline.

4. Annual Racial Equity Impact Reports

Governors or independent commissions should issue statewide reports tracking disparities in:

  • health,

  • education,

  • criminal justice,

  • economic opportunity,

  • housing,

  • environmental conditions.

Reports must include action steps and progress measures.

5. Ban Data Erasure Through Public Records Safeguards

States should require:

  • permanent retention of historical data,

  • independent review before retiring datasets,

  • public comment for proposed changes in methodology,

  • annual audits of data integrity.

Local-Level Recommendations

1. City and County Racial Equity Dashboards

Local governments should publish real-time, public dashboards on:

  • police stops,

  • arrests,

  • school discipline,

  • neighborhood health outcomes,

  • evictions and housing instability.

2. Mandatory Local Police Data Reporting

Cities should require:

  • monthly stop-and-frisk data,

  • demographic breakdowns for all enforcement,

  • use-of-force reporting,

  • body camera compliance,

  • tracking of officer misconduct.

3. School District Transparency Rules

Districts should publish:

  • racial discipline disparities,

  • achievement gaps,

  • AP/honors course access,

  • teacher qualifications,

  • school-level resource distribution.

4. Sunshine Policies for Data-Collection Changes

Local agencies must hold public meetings before changing:

  • data categories,

  • reporting schedules,

  • definitions,

  • data-collection methods.

Communities must know what is being counted—and what is not.

 

5. Community Oversight Boards With Full Data Access

Oversight bodies should have authority to:

  • access raw datasets,

  • subpoena records,

  • conduct independent investigations,

  • publish public reports,

  • recommend corrective action.

Oversight without access is merely symbolic.

 Vernellia R. Randall, Professor Emerita of Law, University of Dayton School of Law.