ACTION ALERT: Reject Media-Driven Armed White “Replacement Theory” Racism
Color of Change Petition
(May 20, 2022) — We are heartbroken for the families and communities of those murdered in yet another act of white supremacist violence in Buffalo this past weekend. Our hearts and minds are with the families and loved ones of those killed, survivors, and the Buffalo community at large as they begin the long and difficult journey towards healing.
We have not been given even a moment to breathe or collectively grieve. Yet already, media corporations, elected leaders and the police are attempting to distract from who and what is responsible. This attack is not the actions of a lone wolf, but the result of elected and corporate leaders continuing to prioritize profiting from the amplification of white nationalism instead of protecting us.
AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon continue to broadcast Fox News into millions of homes, where Tucker Carlson spreads racist lies nightly, including the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that motivated the shooter and is now believed by nearly half of all right-wing voters.
Twitch enabled the shooter to livestream this white supremacist attack, and allowed it to rapidly spread to other platforms. Facebook and Twitter refused to acknowledge for hours that footage of the shooting on their platforms was a violation of their terms of service, allowing it to be viewed millions of times. And leaders in Washington share responsibility for failing to act despite hearing repeatedly about how an unregulated tech industry allows hate to be a profitable business model.
It is long past time these leaders reckon with how they fuel the anti-Black racism that so routinely drives people to violently attack our communities.
Here are several ways you can take action to hold accountable the people and institutions that continue to prioritize profiting from white nationalism instead of protecting Black people.
Tell Cable Carriers: Drop Fox News for Stoking Hate
On a nightly basis, AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are carrying Carlson and Fox News’ racist lies into millions of homes, indoctrinating them into a theory that continues to inspire violence against our communities. These companies are currently paying Fox News two to five times what they pay similar networks like CNN and MSNBC, which means the cable companies are paying extra to broadcast white nationalist propaganda into millions of homes. Demand they immediately drop Fox News from their cable packages.
ACTION: Resist Media-driven Race-based Hate
Cable companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, must take responsibility for amplifying the white nationalist conspiracy theory that inspired the murder of 10 Black people by a white supremacist in Buffalo, NY.
In his nearly 100-page long manifesto, the Buffalo shooter openly praised the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory. This white nationalist conspiracy theory was the key organizing mantra of the white nationalist Charlottesville riot. Now nearly half of right-wing voters subscribe to this white nationalist theory thanks in large part to Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly defended and promoted this white nationalist conspiracy theory to his millions of viewers.
On a nightly basis, AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are carrying Carlson and Fox News‘ racist lies into millions of homes, indoctrinating them into a theory that continues to inspire violence against our communities.
Last April, Carlson doubled down on his support of the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, resulting in white nationalists across the country expressing glee at what they saw as a mass radicalization for their hateful ideas. As a result, dozens and dozens of advertisers boycotted Fox News, but it has barely hurt their bottom line.
Why? Advertising is no longer Fox News’ most important source of revenue, unlike most other new networks. Thanks to exorbitant cable subscriber fees paid by AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, Fox News has insulated itself for advertiser pressure. AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, are currently paying Fox News two to five times what they pay networks like CNN and MSNBC, which means the cable companies are paying extra to broadcast white nationalist propaganda into millions of homes.
Unless the cable companies take action, Carlson and Fox News will continue to not just have a platform, but a means of profiting off of spreading the type of white nationalist views the result in real violence against our communities.
The white supremacist mass murder that happened in Buffalo is on the hands of cable companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon who continue to carry this hateful content. Join us in demanding they immediately drop Fox News from their cable packages.
ACTION: Here is the Petition to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other carriers:
Tucker Carlson, and other Fox News hosts, have been amplifying racist lies like the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory for years. Last April, Carlson doubled down on his support of the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, resulting in white nationalists across the country expressing glee at what they saw as a mass radicalization for their hateful ideas. Since then, Carlson has more brazenly and openly pushed forward this type of white nationalist content.
This weekend, in Buffalo, NY, a white supremacist cited this hateful conspiracy theory in his manifesto right before murdering 10 Black people in a supermarket. There is a direct line between the greater mainstream access of white nationalist propaganda spread by Fox News and this act of racist violence.
For too long, your company has provide a platform and profit for this violent, eliminationist rhetoric that has become real world violence. This isn’t about freedom of speech, it’s about what folks are willing to profit from and amplify. We are calling on your company to immediately terminate your carrier contract with Fox News.
Demand AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon
Drop Fox News from their Cable Packages
That Twitch was able to be used to spread the shooter’s hateful ideology and broadcast his violent acts is just the latest example of how the company has failed to adequately protect Black users and Black people. Black Twitch creators have for months been demanding additional protections as well as more public accountability. Demand a publicly accountable racial equity audit to ensure Twitch lives up to its commitment to Black creators and Black communities.
We Need Transparency: Demand A Racial Equity Audit
There is a direct through line between the tech industry’s lack of regulation and their consolidation of power to the anti-Black violence we saw in Buffalo. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have all grown beyond their own ability to ensure our safety. We need to reduce their power to do harm at scale. Any platform with enough power to literally enable a white nationalist coup attempt is a platform that is too big, and that needs federal regulation now.
Demand Democratic leadership quickly move forward with the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act to ban the biggest and most anticompetitive mergers and force regulators to evaluate the impacts of a merger on communities of color.
ACTION: Color of Change Petition
A white nationalist who espoused the racist “great replacement theory” drove hours to a grocery store in a Black neighborhood to murder Black people which he livestreamed on Twitch. From his 100+ page statement posted online, it is clear that this was an explicitly racist act to terrorize Black people and Twitch platformed the violence to the world.
For months, Color Of Change members have warned Twitch that they have not taken their obligations to Black people seriously enough. Black creators created #TwitchDoBetter in response to hate raids from white supremacists on the platform.
In response, we’ve demanded multiple changes to the platform and most broadly a publicly transparent racial equity audit. In our conversations with Twitch, they’ve shared very little about what they’re doing to protect Black people from harm on and off the platform. The company has refused to conduct a racial equity audit claiming they have the issues handled internally and rejecting our request for public accountability to Black people.
After yesterday’s atrocity was streamed live on Twitch, it’s clear that the company is not doing enough to protect Black people. Twitch’s claims that the video was taken down quickly didn’t prevent screen captures from spreading widely across the Internet. Twitch needs to answer for its role as the entry point in an internet ecosystem of harm. A publicly accountable racial equity audit is necessary to ensure Twitch lives up to its commitment to Black creators and Black communities.
ACTION: Here is the Petition to Twitch:
On May 14th, a white nationalist used Twitch to livestream his explicitly racist murder of 10 people at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo.
That Twitch was able to be used to spread his hateful ideology and broadcast his violent acts is just the latest example for how the company has failed to adequately protect Black users and Black people. Black Twitch creators have for months been demanding additional protections as well as more public accountability.
Following what happened in Buffalo live on Twitch, we are calling once again for Twitch to publicly commit to a transparent racial equity audit conducted by an outsider auditor with deep knowledge of civil rights and connections to impacted communities.
Demand Congress Pass the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act
Send a Postcard to Your Legislator!
ACTION: Color of Change Petition
If the Biden Administration, Congress, and corporate leaders are serious about their commitment to racial justice, they will use this moment to transform the policies, practices, institutions and cultures that made this weekend’s white supremacist violence possible.
We’ve watched corporations get bigger and bigger every year. Tech firms buy up smaller businesses, such as Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods. Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and health insurers are merging. Even corporations from different industries are consolidating, such as the pharmaceutical company Bayer merging with seed and agrochemical giant Monsanto. Mergers push Black-owned small businesses out of the market, eliminate jobs in our communities, and infringe on workers’ rights. This consolidation of corporate power has depressed median wages by $10,000.
Consolidated corporate power has also driven up the prices of necessities and costs American families $5,000 per year on average. The cost of insulin, for example, has jumped at least 300 percent between 2009 and 2019, which disproportionately impacts Black people who, due to historical inequities, face higher rates of diabetes. When Walmart is one of the few grocers in town, it has a history of charging higher prices for products. Such consolidated power has also allowed corporations to jack up prices even further during this period of inflation.
We have the opportunity to push Congress to limit corporate power with the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act. In passing the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act, Congress would require that regulators evaluate the impacts of a merger on communities of color, ban the biggest and most anticompetitive mergers, overhaul the merger-review process to allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reject deals without a court order, and strengthen the agencies’ tools to break up harmful mergers.
Continue fighting for antitrust reform, limits to corporate power, and economic justice for Black people! What we need:
- Chair Nadler and Chair Durbin to schedule House and Senate Judiciary Committee markup
- Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer to hold full House and Senate floor vote
- Congress to pass the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act
- President Biden to sign it into law
Add your name and address and we’ll send a postcard to your legislators before the floor vote on the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act. Please add a personalized message sharing how large corporations have negatively impacted your life.
ACTION: Here is the Petition:
To [your senator/representative],
My name is [your name], and I am a constituent from [your city and state]. I am urging you to pass the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act. It is imperative that Congress pass antitrust legislation with a racial justice framework to secure economic justice for Black communities. Massive corporations are getting even bigger by buying up other companies as a way to eliminate their competition and expand their power in other industries. These companies also have a history of putting profits above public safety.
I am concerned that as these companies expand their control of the market, they will have more control to shape our lives. Big Tech forces small businesses to use their platforms while also driving them out of existence. Big Agriculture squeezes farmers by controlling their sources of income. Big Pharma drives up prices of necessary medicine, such as insulin. This market manipulation proves harmful to small businesses, workers, and consumers.
Now is the time to stop and undo the harm of mergers. We are looking at you, Senator/Representative _____, to limit these corporations’ power and protect the futures of your constituents and [your state]’s small businesses.
Until justice is real,
—The Color Of Change Staff
