While at GLAAD, Robinson served as Senior Director of Media Programs, leading the organization's advocacy and major media campaigns.[7] He led dozens of campaigns pursuing criminal justice, voting rights, racial equity, gay rights and economic reform.[11]
In 2011, Rashad Robinson became the president ofColor of Change,[11][12] an advocacy organization founded afterHurricane Katrina with the purpose of assisting black communities in America.
Robinson organized many of the organization's initiatives, including a campaign to pull funding from theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council and the Black Tech Agenda, which works to create racial justice tech policies and prevent algorithm discrimination.[13][14] Color Of Change helped protect the principle ofnet neutrality by pushing theFCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service.[15] The organization's Winning Justice campaign pushed prosecutors to reduce incarceration, end the use of money bail, and change sentencing schemes under which hundreds of thousands of Black people are imprisoned in the US.[16] The group has also persuaded businesses, includingMastercard andPayPal, to stop accepting payments from white nationalist groups,[17] to refrain from sitting onPresident Trump's Business Council. Color Of Change is credited with working withSilicon Valley companies, includingAirbnb,Google andFacebook, to improve diversity inside their companies and address policies that harm Black users.[18]
In 2020, Robinson launched the advertiser boycott ofMeta Platforms and worked on police reform campaigns that resulted in assisting 8 million people.[19][20] That June,Lady Gaga gave him access to her Instagram account in order to discuss racial justice, in honor ofJuneteenth.[11]
In September 2024, Robinson resigned as president after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Color Of Change violated federal labor law.[21]
From 2010 to 2014, Robinson was selected as one of "The Root 100," a list of emerging and influentialAfrican Americans under the age of 45.[22][23][24]
In March 2015,Ebony magazine called Robinson one of several "breakthrough leaders who have stepped up and are moving forward in the perpetual fight for justice."[30] In May 2015,Huffington Post included Robinson in a series highlighting "some of the people and issues that will shape the world in the next decade."[31] The same month, Robinson received an honorary doctoral degree fromSt. Mary's College of Maryland.[32]
Robinson grew up inRiverhead, Long Island, and graduated from Riverhead High School in 1997.[6][34] He began practicing activism as a high school student when he led a protest against a local convenience store that barred students from entering the store during their lunch break.[35][36] He also became involved with theNAACP while in high school.[34]
