Medias – Color Of Change

Archives: Medias

Black Women on Team USA Have to Play Two Games

Slate interviewed 7 powerhouse Black women from Team USA on the racism they’ve endured — and how they are pushing back to move professional sports forward. Gwen Berry set off a firestorm for raising her fist on the podium of the Pan American Games and is sponsored by Color Of Change. She says, “We can start off with the corporations because, you know, they were the ones donating the most money… I feel like we haven’t seen enough. The problem is people care when it’s relevant, but they will move on after 48 hours or after a month or two, they don’t care about the actual results. Now, the reason that I work with Color of Change is that they have literally been doing everything in their power to make sure we see some type of changes we’ve been advocating for.”

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#ChangeMusic & Diverse Representation Launch Black Music Exec Pipeline Program

As part of its #ChangeMusic initiative, Color of Change is partnering with Diverse Representation to launch the Black Music Executives Pipeline Program to increase the number of Black executives in the industry. While nearly 50% of professionals artists are Black, less than 10% of music executives are. T change this, the Black Music Executives Pipeline Program will select 12 participants for a three-month training program that will provide them with the tools and resources needed to build a successful career later this year. Ryan Butler, DEI Director at the Recording Academy is quoted. “As leaders in the music industry, it is up to us to usher in a new age in vision and set a new tone.”

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Grammy Awards Will Have Inclusion Rider to Ensure Diversity in 2022

The Recording Academy announced next year’s Grammy Awards will be produced using an inclusion rider, an important step toward making the awards more diverse. An inclusion rider is a contractual requirement designed to ensure equity and inclusion at all levels of production. Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson, who helped created the #ChangeMusic initiative and is promoting the new inclusion rider, is quoted. “There are a lot of unwritten rules in the entertainment industry that create racial exclusion, and at Color Of Change, we know that to change society you have to change the rules. This inclusion rider is a written rule that will change the culture of hiring at the Grammys, and will make inclusion the norm.”

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Facebook’s Frustrated Critics Take the Fight to Washington

After years of getting next to nowhere with Mark Zuckerberg, rights groups like Color Of Change and the Anti-Defamation League are shifting strategy – turning from corporate engagement toward legislation to stop hate and misinformation on social media. Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson says years of conversations haven’t led Facebook to make substantive changes, and there is “nothing worse than to go and beg a billionaire to stop hurting us.” So now advocates are increasingly pushing Congress and the Biden administration to force tech companies to take more aggressive steps to moderate their sites for bigotry, misinformation, voter suppression and discrimination, rather than pleading with the companies.

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Black Women Leading the Fight For Voting Rights

Alarmed by a wave of bills sweeping state legislatures and a Supreme Court decision many say will dismantle voting rights, Black women are taking courageous steps to fight back. Over four days of collective action, leaders held a town hall, rally, and protest on Capitol Hill. After being arrested and released, some of the women sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris about the “moral” and “spiritual” imperative to protect voting. Rep. Jackson Lee underscored that the filibuster was not part of the Constitution – and instead was created specifically to block equal rights and voting rights as far back as the 1800s. Color Of Change continues to lead a campaign to get rid of the filibuster, which has been invoked time and again to stop laws affirming the rights of Black and Brown people.

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Rep. Hank Johnson Arrested at Voting Rights Protest

Congressman Hank Johnson was arrested with Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson, and Cliff Albright, founder of Black Voters Matter for protesting the Senate’s failure to protect voting rights. Their protests are meant to direct attention to the For the People Act, Democratic legislation blocked by Senate Republicans as GOP lawmakers in a number of states pass a series of voting restrictions. Rashad is quoted, “It was worth the risk to use our power to demand voting rights protections for Black people, and all communities, in our country.” Seven states have passed laws to expand officials’ ability to purge voters from registration rolls or put voters at risk of having their names improperly removed – all swings state where Black people turning out has changed the outcome of elections.

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‘I Won’t Shut Up.’ Team USA Hammer Thrower Berry Talks Protest & the Olympics

Olympian Gwen Berry says her actions are often misunderstood. Berry believes her intentions are misunderstood. By raising her fist or turning around during the national anthem, she says, “I’m not saying I’m not proud to represent America. If anything, I am being extremely American by stating my rights. By exercising my constitutional right to say, I believe in freedom and justice for us all. I am protesting for America to be good for everybody. And just not for the elite or the white supreme.” After the 2019 Pan American Games, Berry lost her sponsors – and the majority of her salary – for speaking out. Recently, with help from Color of Change, Berry got a $15,000 sponsorship from Puma.

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Gwen Berry’s Podium Protest Shows the Olympics Are About More than Sports

Gwen Berry has a track record of speaking out on injustice. Two summers ago, after winning gold at the 2019 Pan-American Games in Peru, she raised a fist on the podium and was slapped with a yearlong probation for violating international rules that prohibit protests inside stadiums and during ceremonies. It cost Berry her sponsors, including Nike. Color of Change eventually stepped in, pressuring companies to support Berry so she could continue being a professional athlete. Puma recently backed her with a $15,000 paycheck, equipment and apparel, and a campaign called “She Moves Us.” When this year’s Olympic track and field trials kicked off, she greeted the crowd with a raised fist and a t-shirt reading “athlete activist.”

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America’s First Black Billionaire Calling for $14 Trillion in Reparations

Robert L. Johnson, America’s first Black billionaire, is calling on the federal government to pay reparations, saying over the last 200 years, “Black folks have been denied $13-15 trillion of wealth.” He urged lawmakers to pass a decades-old bill that would set the stage for reparations, HR 40, which would create a commission to study and develop proposals for reparations for descendants of slaves. Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson is quoted. “HR 40, when it’s passed, will not actually provide reparations for anyone, but what it will do is move us on the road to be more truthful and in direct conversation about what happened. We’re also seeing local communities have these conversations.”

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Color of Change & Diverse Representation Start Black Music Executives Pipeline

As part of #ChangeMusic, Color of Change has partnered with Diverse Representation to launch the Black Music Executives Pipeline Program. The program will help record labels, publishers, video production companies, streaming services and touring companies to quickly identify and hire Black executive. The idea is to bridge the gap between the high number of Black artists in the industry and disproportionately low number of Black executives representing them. Color Of Change’s interim Chief Marketing & Storytelling Officer Amity Paye is quoted. “The Black Music Executives Pipeline Program is a crucial step in the ongoing fight to end the music industry’s decades-long history of discrimination and exclusion of Black professionals.”

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PODCAST: Rashad Robinson Is an Intersectional Leader Fighting for Equity and Justice

Columnist Jonathan Capeheart sat down with Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson – who he calls “a civil rights leader you should be paying more attention to” – for Pride month. Rashad calls what’s happening now “a deep cultural shift in America” and explains what it is means that racial justice has become a majoritarian issue in America. “It was racial justice that moved people to the streets, moved people to action, led to upticks in voter registration. You saw white folks in a Starbucks taking out their cellphones and filming a police interaction because of our engagement.” He talks about how to transform the presence of Black people into real power, and what cues we can follow from the LGBTQ movement.

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Philly DA Krasner Trounces Police-Backed Challenger

Four years into his experiment with reforming Philadelphia criminal justice, Larry Krasner overwhelmingly won his primary race for reelection as district attorney. Since 2017, Krasner has become a symbol of the movement to elect reform-minded prosecutors. But his reforms also sparked a serious backlash – making him a target for law enforcement groups and prominent Republicans. Scott Roberts, Color Of Change’s senior director of criminal justice campaigns, is quoted. “With all the noise that goes on, the attacks, we know that the agenda is still very popular. People want to see these prosecutors’ offices being focused on bringing down incarceration rates, and holding police accountable. And they’re actually looking for other solutions for violence, they’re not willing to buy into the narrative that they hear from police unions and conservative politicians.”

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