Big companies are using data to preserve the power imbalance that keeps them rich. This economic model is rooted in chattel slavery and relies on the extraction and commodification of data.
This Black History Month (and into March), workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse have the power to keep making history by voting for their union.
"Black and Latinx borrowers [are] more likely to be denied credit than white borrowers and more likely to be charged higher interest rates [...]. [O]ne of many ways the financial deck is stacked against Black and brown consumers.”
Today, nearly 60 years removed from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech during the March on Washington, countless barriers remain between his dream and America’s reality.
An economy that ultimately lives up to our country’s promise will require us to invest in public goods and health infrastructure, break up concentrated economic power, and ensure equitable access for Black and brown communities.
We need to continue to demand a government committed to protecting Black and brown communities in this moment, and need to continue to push for bold, transformative change.
From March through May, New Florida Majority Education Fund surveyed over 21,000 Floridians to ask how the pandemic was affecting their lives and well-being. This report presents our findings from those surveys.
If we are to survive this crisis—and imagine a more equitable, dynamic economy to come, we must start with a recommitment to the value of universal, inclusive public infrastructure.
Our analysis of voter turnout in Ohio’s primary finds large disparities in absentee ballot request rates and voter turnout between predominantly white and non-white neighborhoods.
"Imagine any financial transaction you make and someone says the price of this thing is $100,000, but you are very likely to pay nothing, but first you have to fill out all these forms."
States must now take swift action to design racially equitable voting systems—including dramatically scaling up vote by mail, while also maintaining accessible in-person voting—so communities are not disenfranchised this fall.
"To say that people post-crisis, as they try to rebuild their lives, have to carry the impact of this is just another round of disadvantage and discrimination.”
“The agreements we won in this case will protect Black and brown voters and all Floridians, ensuring they have multiple safe voting options and can be heard this November.”
The COVID-19 crisis has cast into stark relief what has always been true: the wealth and prosperity of the U.S. economy rests on the labor, and the lives, of black and brown communities.
"The reforms we need in the midst of this pandemic are the same changes we’ve long needed to dismantle the structural barriers locking Black and brown voters out of full participation in our democracy."
Private credit reporting companies should be replaced by a publicly run credit registry that operates in the public interest and that automatically corrects for events like natural disasters and global health crises.
“The data is clear. The troubling gap in voter turnout among racial groups indicates an immediate need for lawmakers to address the issues, both historic and current, that continue to silence Black and Brown voters.”