Rashad Robinson is the Executive Director of Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. As a force driven by over one million members, Color Of Change moves decision makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people, and all people.
Rashad leads the Color Of Change team in developing strategies powerful enough to change the rules of the many systems that affect Black people’s lives. Color Of Change campaigns have won justice for Black people hurt or killed by anti-Black violence, putting local authorities on notice for their abuses. They have prevented attempts to suppress the Black vote, and eliminated certain voter intimidation tactics from the conservative playbook. Long-term strategic initiatives targeting corporate industries have, for example, forced news and entertainment outlets to represent Black people accurately and fairly, and acknowledge their role in creating dangerously widespread implicit bias. Under Rashad’s leadership, Color Of Change continues to seize opportunities for advancing the power, freedom and wellbeing of Black workers, students, families, farmers, immigrants and others, wherever their freedom is limited or threatened.
Since joining Color Of Change in 2011, Rashad has greatly expanded the scope, voice and impact of the organization. He opened three new offices (in New York, Hollywood and Washington, D.C.). He grew the membership of Black people and allies across the country invested in moving society forward, and vastly increased the number and type of opportunities for members to participate in making real change.
Rashad led Color Of Change in a national campaign against the secretive, right-wing policy shop, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). After exposing ALEC’s involvement in passing discriminatory voter ID laws—and deadly Stand Your Ground laws—Color Of Change pushed over 100 corporations to end their financial support of ALEC. Rashad similarly emerged as a game-changing new voice in the national fight over net neutrality, convincingly reframing the technology issue as a major civil rights issue, and leveraging the moral authority of Black communities across the country to win a free and open Internet for all.
Rashad has appeared in hundreds of news stories, interviews, political discussions and as an op-ed author in media outlets including ABC, CNN, MSNBC, BET, NPR, The Root, The New York Times, the LA Times and Huffington Post. He was recently selected as one of EBONY Magazine’s Power 100 honorees for 2015, and for the past six years, The Root has named Rashad to “The Root 100” list of influential African Americans under 45. In 2015, Fast Company named Color Of Change the 6th Most Innovative Company in the world, and in 2016, the Stanford Social Innovation Review profiled Color Of Change for its strategies in “pursuing the fight for racial justice at Internet speed” in both online and offline venues.
Rashad is a the proud recipient of awards from several organizations, including ADCOLOR, Center for Community Change, Demos, Americans for Democratic Action, and an honorary degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Prior to his work at Color Of Change, Rashad served as Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD, where he led the organization’s programmatic and advocacy work to transform the representation of LGBT people in news and entertainment media. Before GLAAD, Rashad worked on racial justice and voting rights at the Right to Vote Campaign and FairVote.
Rashad currently serves on the boards of Demos, the National LGBTQ Taskforce and the Hazen Foundation. He lives in New York City.
