NEW YORK, NY – Today, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Heather McGhee of Demos issued the following statement regarding the preview of the Starbucks’ anti-bias training:
Empirical data showing policymakers, organizers, and progressives that there is clear public support for the notion that racism is a divide-and-conquer tactic creating distrust, undermining belief in government, and causing economic pain for everyone, of every color.
For the last year, we—Demos, Anat Shenker-Osorio (ASO Communications) and Ian Haney López (author of Dog Whistle Politics), —have partnered in an ambitious multi-phase project to build an effective new narrative on race, class, and democracy. The central question we’ve explored is how to engage simultaneously around race and class in ways that strengthen social solidarity, reduce division and scapegoating, and create a viable foundation for progressive policy victories. We crafted, empirically validated, and field-tested a range of narratives and compared these to existing frames.
Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), informed his staff that he would be shutting down the bureau’s Office for Students and Young Consumers and folding it into the Office of Financial Education. In response, Mark Huelsman, Senior Analyst and student debt expert at Demos, issued the following statement:
NEW YORK, NY — Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Heather McGhee, president of Demos released a statement today regarding their participation on the Starbucks Advisory Committee, which is addressing the company’s efforts to prevent discrimination in its stores.
“Along with the majority of the country, we at Demos found the unjust arrest of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia to be yet another disturbing example of the destructive, pervasive bias that people of color routinely face. This bias becomes a force that can change – or end – a person of color’s life when it is compounded with discriminatory, unaccountable policing.
FAIRFAX VA. (FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018) – The coalition of top advocacy and membership organizations and allies – Fairfax For All – issued the following statement after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors barred the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office from participating in the April 3 Public Safety Committee meeting.
FLORIDA – Today, voting rights organizations Demos, LatinoJustice/PRLDEF and 18 other social justice groups sent letters to 13 Florida County Supervisors of Elections, urging them to provide bilingual voting materials for their Puerto Rican residents, as required by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Coalition cheers final passage of bill, calls for full funding and implementation of landmark democracy reform
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Advocates and activists celebrated on Tuesday as Mayor Bowser signed the Fair Elections Act, a major democracy reform that will bring small donor public financing to local elections. The campaign to pass the bill has been supported by dozens of economic, social, and racial justice organizations, as well as the entire D.C. Council.
Indiana—On Thursday, Demos, the ACLU, the ACLU of Indiana and the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, on behalf of Common Cause of Indiana, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the implementation of a new Indiana law that would allow the state to kick voters off the rolls based on flawed data, beginning on July 1.
Under Heather McGhee’s leadership, Demos has grown significantly in size and impact. In the last four years, the racial diversity of the staff has more than doubled, and Demos is now a majority-person of color think tank.