Civil Rights Goes Digital by Corey Binns

Field Report Civil Rights Goes Digital By Corey Binns

Stanford Social Innovation Review Winter 2016

Stanford Social Innovation Review www.ssireview.org Email: [email protected] Stanford Social Innovation Review / Winter 2016 15

VOICE FOR CHANGE: The % hip-hop artist Nas speaks at a protest organized by Color of Change at the offices of Fox News in New York City.

Coca-Cola was the first to respond. Within five hours of Robinson’s announcement, the Civil Rights Goes Digital soft-drink maker withdrew its ALEC mem- In both online and offline venues, activists atC olor of Change bership and issued a statement: “Our involve- are pursuing the fight for racial justice at Internet speed. ment with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage By Corey Binns taxes, not on issues that have no direct bear- Change sent an email to its members that ing on our business.” Kraft and nearly 100 highlighted the role of ALEC in passing not other corporations—including Best Buy, CVS only stand-your-ground legislation but also Caremark, John Deere, Hewlett-Packard, and n 2012, soon after George laws that resulted in voter suppression of MillerCoors—followed suit. The loss of funds Zimmerman shot and killed minority groups. The email invited members forced ALEC to shut down its Washington, Trayvon Martin in Sanford, to sign a petition that called on corporate ex- D.C., office. For Color of Change, the success IFla., protesters hit the streets. At ecutives to stop funding the lobbying group. of this campaign led to a spike in member- Color of Change, meanwhile, activists turned In just a few hours, Color of Change gathered ship. “All of that happened because we have instead to their computer keyboards. In his de- more than 80,000 signatures. The initial mes- a unique model, and we are able to pivot our fense, Zimmerman cited Florida’s stand-your- sage to members withheld company names in audience quickly,” Robinson says. ground law, which gives citizens the right to order to give executives an incentive to pull use potentially lethal force against people who their funding of ALEC quietly. MOBILIZING MATTERS they believe threaten them. Color of Change— At the same time, Rashad Robinson, Color of Change was founded in 2005. Fol- the nation’s largest online African-American executive director of Color of Change, met lowing Hurricane Katrina, the civil rights civil rights group—had been tracking sup- behind the scenes with people at several advocate Van Jones became frustrated by the port for such laws in state legislatures for companies that were funding ALEC. “They way that advocacy groups such as MoveOn several years. Activists at the group knew that would say, ‘We give money to both sides [of .org responded to the disaster. Instead of the American Legislative Exchange Council the political aisle],’ but there’s not really two demanding action from President George W. (ALEC), a conservative lobbying group, was an sides to black people voting,” Robinson says. Bush and other political leaders, those groups important backer of stand-your-ground laws. He gave the companies a limited amount focused on raising money for Katrina victims. They also knew that ALEC received funding of time to withdraw their support from “I couldn’t help but think: If there were tens from Coca-Cola Co., Kraft Foods Inc., and ALEC before Color of Change would pub- of thousands of white grandmothers stuck many other large corporations. licly disclose their names and call for a boy- on rooftops and dying while the whole world With the controversy that surrounded cott. The deadline passed, and Robinson watched, would the government not have a Martin’s killing as a backdrop, Color of released the names. stronger response?” says Jones, president and founder of Dream Corps. “Why were there no calls for marches, demonstrations, or sit-ins at fed- eral buildings across the country to force Bush to do something?” James Rucker was frustrated, too. He’s a veteran organizer of online campaigns, and at the time he worked at MoveOn.org. After watching the response (or lack of one) to Katrina, he resolved to direct his talents toward racial justice issues. Together, he and Jones launched Color of Change. Rucker became the group’s first executive director and took the lead in building

photograph by mary altaffer/associated press altaffer/associated mary by photograph the organization. 16 Stanford Social Innovation Review / Winter 2016

Corey Binns is a journalist based in Northern California. She writes about science, health, and social change for NBCNews.com, NPR’s Science Friday, and Popular Science.

For their first project, Jones and Rucker flew to the city to meet with criminal justice his colleagues must take care in choosing sent out a mass email that asked people to officials. This past July, an African-American which battles to fight. To meet that chal- sign a petition that demanded political action woman named Sandra Bland died in unusual lenge, they have structured their team like to confront the devastation caused by Katrina. circumstances while she was in a Texas jail. a news organization. The group scans infor- “This was all new stuff in 2005,” Jones says. (She had been detained following a traffic mation channels continuously to spot stories “You could use email to mobilize people, and stop.) Afterward, Color of Change worked that fit well into a black frame. The team yet the best people in the world were mainly with Bland’s family not only to bring atten- then crafts messages that not only inform using it for charitable [purposes].” Few people, tion to her case but also to raise funds to hire members but also guide them on what they he adds, were “using the super-weapon of a private investigator. “It’s a tragedy that can do immediately to make a difference. email to make government act right.” these killings occur, but it’s also a tragedy “One of the things that I love about Color Since that first email, the organization has that without the actions of organizations of Change is that it combines public educa- grown considerably. Today it has more than like Color of Change, we may not ever hear tion with strategic action,” says Alexander. 1.3 million members, and it employs about about them,” Ward says. Keeping up with the flow of activity on 30 people. Like the civil rights movement of Unlike many other civil rights organiza- the Internet poses a challenge for Color of the 1960s, Color of Change uses the power of tions, Color of Change does not take money Change. Stories emerge and evolve quickly, the media to call attention to the daily injus- from corporations or political groups. Since and the Color of Change team has only a tices that African-Americans experience. But 2010, it has received about $4 million in short period in which to communicate with the model that Jones and Rucker developed funding from the Ford Foundation, and ad- members and to channel their energy into relies not on broadcast and print media, but ditional support has come from the Arca meaningful action. “We have to be able to on digital tools. “What the technology does Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the show our members that their actions lead to is amplify this work in ways that are quicker Public Welfare Foundation, and the Wallace real impact. Otherwise, people become dis- and more efficient,” says Robinson, who suc- Global Fund. The group also receives small engaged and hopeless,” says Arisha Michelle ceeded Rucker in 2011. donations from its members. “With an un- Hatch, managing director of campaigns. The work of Color of Change centers filtered voice—unfiltered by the money that One risk associated with online advo- on mounting campaigns that ask people we get—we can stand up to powerful op- cacy is that people may come to believe that to sign petitions, to write letters or make ponents that push for issues that put our clicking a “send” button or signing a digital phone calls to officials, and to post or tweet membership in harm’s way,” Robinson says. petition is enough to create change. Building their concerns on social media channels. In a movement for justice requires real human 2009, the organization launched a campaign BUILDING A “BLACK FRAME” connection, Alexander argues. “We have no against the television personality Glenn Over the past decade, Color of Change has hope of creating a thriving and equitable Beck that generated 285,000 signatures and become a leader in the civil rights advocacy multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy if pressured nearly 300 advertisers into pulling community, according to MichelleAlexander, we remain disconnected from one another, their spots from Fox News, the network that a civil rights lawyer and activist. “Very often, stuck in our comfort zones,” she says. “On- broadcast Beck’s show. Ultimately, the net- when a criminal justice crisis occurs, one line advocacy, by itself, will never overcome work removed Beck from the air. In another of the first questions that advocates ask is, disconnection. In fact, social media can ac- successful effort, Color of Change persuaded ‘Can we get Color of Change involved?’” she tually deepen our feelings of disconnection.” the producers of Saturday Night Live to add says. Color of Change is able, in a matter of But Robinson says that critics of online black women to the show’s cast. minutes, to mobilize its members to take advocacy are wrong to dismiss it merely as Online campaigns aren’t the whole story, action on issues that have received little “#activism.” He and his colleagues regard however. “Color of Change doesn’t simply or no attention from the media or from the Color of Change online presence as only a manifest on the Internet. [It operates] in mainstream social justice organizations. platform. They don’t assume that galvanizing the real world as well, dispatching staff, re- The team at Color of Change has found members to sign a petition will accomplish sources, and technical assistance to support that using digital technology enables them much on its own. Their strategy—the vision communities responding to horrific events,” to apply a racial justice lens to the emerg- that lies behind the technology—focuses on says Eric Ward, a program officer at the Ford ing narrative about an event or issue. Inter- motivating people to make phone calls and Foundation who focuses on racial justice is- nally, they refer to this practice as creating to show up at rallies. “We are engaging our sues. Last spring, for example, amid protests a “black frame”—a way of discussing an members in very strategic ways where we that occurred in Baltimore after a young event that focuses on how it affects African- have a clear theory of change,” says Robinson. man named Freddie Gray died while in po- Americans. Racially charged incidents hap- “That’s very different from sending out a

lice custody, Robinson and his colleagues pen every day, Robinson points out. He and tweet and hoping for the best.” n intergénérations of esdes courtesy juliane dubois, by photograph