Contact: media@colorofchange.org

Date: March 11, 2021

Color Of Change’s Rashad Robinson ‘There is a culture of denial around what we clearly see in front of our face’

Washington D.C. — At the House and Financial Services Virtual Hearing: Justice for All: Achieving Racial Equity Through Fair Access to Housing and Financial Services, Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson outlined how the cycle of racism from predatorial financial instruments and banks has led to unmitigated disaster for the Black community. 

During his opening testimony and throughout the Q+A session, Rashad delivered insights about how a culture of denial regarding systemic racism prevents Congress from understanding how to move the country forward. He also noted the importance of applying an appropriate framework to an interrogation of the issues at hand: including how any discussion about the violence waged against Black communities from banking institutions and other systemic barriers requires the use of an active voice.

“This conversation about how we move forward, about how we invest, the enforcement, and how we have diversity in the enforcement, is critical to getting results that provide opportunity for everyone. Right now our system has produced sets of inequalities that have been manufactured. The choice for Congress is: how do we use the tools of policy and enforcement to move this country forward?”

“There is a culture of denial around what we clearly see in front of our face, which is a situation that produces time and time again different outcomes, and then we search as a country for reasons to explain it that are outside of the things that sit in front of our face. We will also explain the problem the wrong way. We will say: ‘Black people are less likely to get a loan from the bank,’ rather than, ‘Banks are less likely to give loans to Black people.’ Thereby concentrating on what’s wrong with Black people rather than dealing with the structural challenges that exist inside of our banks.”

Rashad’s full remarks and testimony about the need for racially just policymaking is available here.