Activism has always been the center piece for Color Of Change President Rashad Robinson.

Advocacy Was In His DNA

Within his family home during his upbringing, his parents would often discuss issues faced by their eastern Long Island community. The family even once skipped out on a family trip to Six Flags in New Jersey due to his parents allocating the funds to support Jesse Jackson’s second run for presidency in 1988.

“I remember really early on getting involved in protests and activism and knocking on doors with candidates well before I could even vote,” he told AFROTECH™. “So it’s always been part of my DNA… There was something about that I was always drawn to about social change and about the idea that I could be part of making the world a better place, making things better for my family, making things better for my people, making things better for myself.”

To no surprise, Robinson’s community work also take root in Long Island, an area which he says had a small population of Black individuals who were tight knit. This meant there was a greater fight among the larger white community to ensure equal and fair treatment. Alongside his parents, he became active in the Eastern Long Island NAACP.

“I learned so much in Long Island about what does it mean to fight for something bigger than myself. And learned a lot about organizing, about power and about race. It’s so many of those lessons are lessons that I have today,” he mentioned.

Leading Color Of Change

Robinson is now serving as president of Color of Change, deemed the “nation’s largest online racial justice organization” with 7 million members, its website stated. Prior to his post, he was familiar with its efforts through campaigns and their use of technology to drive progress. However, it would be the murder of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman that would catalyze his direct alignment to Color of Change.

“I just felt like we were heading backwards some in some ways on racial justice. And I felt like I could inject something new into the movement,” he expressed. “When I took the job at Color of Change, it was a very different time. It was a different time for an openly gay person leading a Black civil rights organization. There were a lot of doors and a lot of places and spaces that were not welcoming.”

He continued, “There was a lot about the innovation and the way that Color of Change was operating that was new, and I think there was a lot of pushback and maybe some skepticism from the legacy civil rights groups. There wasn’t a lot of welcoming or warmth there as well. What we had to do was chart our own territory, prove that we could win campaigns, show our value at taking on the issues that were impacting the community. And since 2011, we have done really incredible things with our campaign work and forced things to happen that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.”

Corporate Accountability

Among Color of Change’s contributions includes its push to hold corporations responsible. This recently includes Meta and Coca-Cola, which was as a result of their pushbacks on DEI, he states in an Instagram video.

Furthermore, the organization continues to refrain from accepting corporate dollars to ensure their focus never becomes compromised.

“Color of Change is the only national Black civil rights organization that doesn’t take corporate money, that isn’t beholden to corporate interest. And civil rights requires us to be able to hold government accountable and corporations accountable and media accountable, and all the other entities that exist that impact our lives. We’re very unique, and we hope that through our work, what we do by holding companies accountable, that we open up more space and possibility for people who are gonna work in those companies that look like us. For people that need those companies to serve our communities, for people who need to engage with those companies in all different ways, that when those companies recognize that there are powerful entities watching and pushing and challenging, hopefully their response will be better,” he mentioned.

AFROTECH™ Conference

You can check out more from Robinson as he will be speaking at the upcoming AFROTECH™ Conference being held in Houston, TX, from Nov. 13 to 17.

 

To buy your tickets click here.