The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Power is the ability to change rules, not just gain visibility
“Presence is visibility, awareness, retweets, shoutouts from the stage. Presence is not bad, but when we mistake presence for power, we sometimes think we've done things that we haven't actually done. We mistake a black president for thinking that we are post-r…”
Passive language protects financial institutions from accountability for systemic inequality
“When you say black people are less likely to get loans from the bank, people ask themselves, well, what's wrong with black people? Maybe we should give them financial literacy. If we say, you know, banks are less likely to give loans to black people, then we a…”
Charity fails to solve structural inequities, like sending water to Flint
“When we Deal with sort of charitable solutions to structural problems. What ends up happening in our public policy is folks sending water bottles to Flint and stopping short of actually cleaning up the pipes, doing service days at inner city schools, instead o…”
Cosmetic victories like Black billionaires mask a widening racial wealth gap
“The systems that we are fighting are durable and strong, and they were made to be durable and strong, and sometimes they will create space for Us to have cosmetic victories that aren't actually progress, right? We can have more black millionaires and billionai…”
How Color of Change forced Hillary Clinton to return private prison money
“A campaign back during the 16 election, we ran and we went back and forth with the Clinton campaign to give back their private prison donations. And we went back and forth, right? So we sent two emails to the Clinton campaign. One was like a smiling Hillary th…”
Robinson: Activist leadership means building platforms, not acting as spokesperson
“I fundamentally believe that leadership in activism is not being a spokesperson for people who are not heard, but about building the vehicles and the infrastructure so that people can be heard for themselves.”
Robinson: Color of Change avoids campaigns lacking clear theories of change
“So you're not going to see a campaign from Color of Change that says, tell Mitch McConnell to stand up for affirmative action. As much as we may want Mitch McConnell to stand up for affirmative action, there's no amount of Color of Change members signing a pet…”
Robinson: Movement infrastructure is essential to retain victories against systemic backlash
“Infrastructure gives us the ability to not just achieve big things, but to hold on to those big things, but also to then face down the forces that really stand in the way of change.”