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Color Of Change helps you do something real about injustice.

We design campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward. Until justice is real.

RECENT VICTORIES

  • Tech Justice

#StopHateForProfit Coalition Leads $7B Advertising Boycott Against Facebook

For years, Color Of Change has demanded Facebook stop hate speech, calls to violence, racist lies, and housing discrimination on its platform. We’ve pressed Facebook to do more to protect Black people online and pushed them to release a civil rights audit of their practices. But they continue to put profits above people. So we joined with the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League, and several other justice groups to launch #StopHateForProfit. Together we’ve persuaded more than 200 major corporations to pull $7B in advertising from Facebook during the month of July. And we’re just getting started. With the lies Trump continues to spread about voting fraud, the calls for violence against protestors, and the implications for November’s elections and the pandemic in allowing misinformation to spread, we simply have too much at stake. 

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  • Tech Justice

AirBNB Launches Project to Expose & Reign in Discrimination on its Platform

After a year of Color Of Change working with AirBNB to address housing discrimination online, the company has launched Project Lighthouse—an initiative to expose, track, and stop discrimination by people renting or reserving apartments on their site. Its goal is to figure out how names and profile photos create a perception of a person’s race, then use that information to develop new features that ensure people of color are treated fairly and equally on AirBNB. The company plans to create a tech team whose job is to fight bias, have hosts confirm reservations before seeing guests’ photos, and recruit more people of color to host. AirBNB also set new benchmarks for increasing the number of people of color on their staff and Board of Directors to boost diversity there. 

  • social list opener
  • Economic Justice

Target Raises Minimum Wage, Making COVID-19 Pay Increase Permanent

After Color Of Change sent a demand letter urging Target to pay their frontline employees a living wage, the company agreed to raise its base wage to $15 an hour. That means full-time and part-time employees will benefit from the $2 “hazard pay” increase announced during COVID-19. While Target saw a surge in sales and largely kept stores open during the pandemic, their workers have raised concerns about hazard pay and health benefits. This is part of our ongoing work to show companies pledging to fight racism and injustice how they can start with the way they value and compensate their own employees, many of whom are people of color. Before we spoke out, Target’s salary bump was slated to expire in July—as many retailers are phasing out their pandemic bonuses.

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Color Of Change helps people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, we move decision makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people, and all people. Until justice is real.

IN THE MEDIA

August 10, 2020

Activists Working in John Lewis’ Shadow Warn About Voter Suppression Ahead of November Vote

USA Today reports that voter suppression has increased since 2013, and longer wait times to vote, especially in Black neighborhoods, are a sign that things are getting worse. Color Of Change is using its platform to keep voters updated on registration guidelines and counteract false information online–one strategy to make sure everyone can vote come November. Rashad Robinson says Lewis’ legacy hangs in the balance. “You have to be optimistic to do social justice work, so we’re staying focused on making sure there’s a path toward victory in the fall.”

  • social list opener
August 6, 2020

Facebook Has More to Learn From the Ad Boycott

Read this Q&A with Rashad Robinson on Color Of Change’s five-year history of pressing Facebook to deal with its anti-Black problem — from the days when Black Lives Matter activists were being targeted by users. Wired shares Robinson’s perspective on why civil rights groups cannot be left to police Facebook by themselves. So far, advertisers have pulled more than $7B from Facebook, responding to Color Of Change and the StopHateForProfit coalition’s calls that Zuckerberg knowingly promotes algorithms and policies that foment racism and help hate groups get their message far and wide.

  • social list opener
August 3, 2020

Google Rejects Ad Depicting Police Violence Aimed at Persuading Black Voters

Tech giants are refusing to run a political ad by Priorities USA Action and Color Of Change that calls America a “police state” under Trump. The 30-second ad features a montage of police officers beating, tear-gassing, tasing and running over people protesting racial injustice and includes clips from a June speech from Trump. Hulu and Google have said they object to the “violent imagery” and “disturbing content” regardless of the political value and aims to motivate young and non-white voters distressed with the president’s response to the murder of George Floyd. Decisions to allow or censor content in Silicon Valley are coming under heightened scrutiny as the election nears.

  • social list opener
August 1, 2020

Black Entertainers, Athletes Converge to Deliver Messages of Social Activism

From sports to music, Black influencers are speaking out for racial justice. ABC explores Color Of Change’s #ChangeHollywood initiative, aimed at creating more opportunities for writers, directors and actors of color. COC President Rashad Robinson is quoted, “It’s about power. It’s about the historical aspects of who has gotten to tell stories and who hasn’t, whose stories have been mainstreamed, whose stories have been marginalized. Hollywood does in many ways, have an unforgivable history of stifling Black voices, Black talent, Black creativity and Black brilliance.”

  • social list opener
July 31, 2020

COVID-19, ‘De-funding’ Combine to Slash Police Budgets

This article dives into what cuts to police budgets will mean in cities likes Los Angeles, New York, and Baltimore next year. Right now, many departments are facing major cuts for the first time in more than a decade. Color Of Change’s Sr. Director of Criminal Justice Campaigns Scott Roberts is quoted, “The lack of imagination in public safety has only led to continuing down the same path to investing in more law enforcement.” More and better is possible activists say if cities invest that money in services that truly prioritize keeping people of color and working class communities safe.

  • social list opener
July 31, 2020

How Law & Order’s Dick Wolf Is Reimagining His Shows In The Wake Of The BLM Protests

As the nation ignited with police brutality protests this spring, TV cop shows started to catch a lot of flak. Reality shows that glorify policing, notably Cops and LivePD, were the first to go under sustained pressured from Color Of Change. Then attention turned to Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order. Now the king of the police procedural is scrambling to save one of TV’s most lucrative franchises. Color Of Change continues to call out such shows, saying that the genre spreads dangerous misinformation about our criminal justice system and essentially functions as a “PR machine for the police.”

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Strategic Initiatives

Democracy & Census

Black people have the power to shape our democracy and set the agenda when they speak up and turn out in elections. Through our Black Brunches we have brought together more than 20,000 people across 20 cities—including many new to politics. Going into 2020, we have tremendous opportunities to register new voters, protect voting rights, and make sure our communities are counted and represented in the 2020 Census. We are engaging local leaders and our 1.7M members to help set a progressive agenda around criminal justice reform and boost civic participation in Black communities.

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Winning Justice

No one holds more power in our justice system than prosecutors. They decide who to prosecute, what the charges will be, and routinely make decisions that destroy Black people’s lives. We are ushering in a new era of prosecutor accountability by mobilizing Black communities across the country. Already, we've pushed prosecutors and candidates in a dozen cities make pledges to cut incarceration. We continue to build momentum to end the most unjust, destructive and racist practices in our system from money bail to over-sentencing, over-policing, and sending our children to adult prisons.

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COC Hollywood

TV and film play a profound role in shaping American culture. Yet, when it comes to representation of Black people, culture, and issues, far too much of the content Hollywood produces promotes dangerous misunderstandings that holds back racial justice in the real world. COC Hollywood is our initiative to change the rules in Hollywood by ensuring accurate, diverse, empathetic and human portrayals of Black people onscreen. We consult on film and TV projects, partner with changemakers inside the industry, work to raise standards around hiring and diversity, and elevate Black stories.

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