Color Of Change will never back down from fighting Donald Trump and his enablers but as the Executive Director of the organization, I must admit that one thing does scare me: the thought of someone attacking a member of our staff. The atmosphere Trump has created emboldens white supremacists to act upon their hate and just two months ago, in March, a Black man was killed not so far from our office in Manhattan by a white supremacist who traveled to New York with the purpose of killing Black men. These are the types of threats that we as Black people continue to face in Trump's America.
Threats to Color Of Change staff have been on the rise since Trump was elected and with our recent win of getting Bill O'Reilly fired from Fox News the threats have become even more specific. Threats have targeted specific staff members, explicitly writing what they want to do such as "I hope we meet...I will kill you."
We won't sit idly by as people threaten our staff. We are working to beef up our physical security to make sure every team member feels safe at work. We've had an expert who has handled threats against the Southern Poverty Law Center do a thorough audit of our physical security and make recommendations. But I need your help. Keeping the staff safe is something I take incredibly seriously.
To get ready for emerging threats from increasingly bold and energized right-wing extremists we have hired a security consultant to make sure that we are safe by:Developing a detailed threat assessment and identifying our vulnerabilities to each type of threat
Mapping out the mitigation efforts we need to put in place to reduce our exposure and keep our information, programs, and people safe
Training all Color Of Change staff in how to deal with physical security concerns such as Active Shooter threats and terrorism
Developing a comprehensive strategy to our sensitive data from loss, damage or compromise from current and future cyber threats