Mimi Onuoha is an artist and researcher who keeps a running list of data that should exist but doesn’t: poverty statistics that exclude people who are incarcerated, people excluded from public housing because of criminal records, Muslim communities surveilled by the FBI. She also built a physical library of the same, shelves holding what’s been left out of society.
One entry on the list is crossed out. Civilians killed in encounters with police. A note reads: “update: this is no longer a missing dataset.” Journalists filled it in eventually. Onuoha is quick to point out that this didn’t end police brutality. I think that’s the most important thing she says.
Onuoha’s point is that “missing” isn’t a neutral word. It implies something should be there. And the gaps on her list tend to share a common thread: whoever would be best positioned to collect that data had reasons not to.
Have a good weekend.
