Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color Of Change:

“Donald Trump and the Republican Party are holding the entire country hostage to advance their racist policy agenda. By refusing to take action to protect Dreamers and TPS recipients, the Trump administration and Republican Congress are pandering to their white nationalist base at the expense of all other Americans. Trump’s government shutdown is part of his ongoing attack on immigrants—including Black immigrants—and will lead to our government deporting more people and separating more families. But, it also has disastrous and far-reaching implications for all Black Americans and all Americans. It threatens funding for critical government services like the Children’s Health Insurance Program and hurricane relief in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. And it means that the federal workforce—including tens of thousands of Black people—won’t get paid and countless families will face difficulty putting food on the table, paying rent, and affording medical expenses. Our country has already paid a high price for Trump and the Republican Party’s cruel reduction of communities of color to political bargaining chips and the government shutdown shows us all how far they are willing to go in pursuit of their racist agenda.

But, Trump and the Republican Party didn’t reach this point without help. Their supporters in the media and corporate America have bankrolled and amplified their white supremacist agenda and these enablers must be held accountable. All of us who reject Trumpism must find ways to isolate this white supremacist administration and its enablers, from calling on Democratic lawmakers to boycott the State of the Union to protest Trump’s vile racism to organizing consumers to boycott corporations that have put their dollars behind Trump.”

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Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by over one million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America. Visit www.colorofchange.org/.