Pressley, Color Of Change to Host Press Conference on the State of the Black Economy

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:36]That's what we got.

[00:00:42]Well, like once you like put your stuff on like put your stuff in, >> I appreciate pretty much.

[00:01:46]Hey. Hey. Real quick.

[00:08:30]All right.

[00:08:31]>> Oh, there you go. Yeah.

[00:08:35]>> Make a quick update.

[00:08:36]I'm a We're going to get started cuz black don't crack but IT DOES BURN.

[00:16:22]>> OKAY.

[00:16:24]>> SO, HEY, >> how you doing? Okay. Let me try to get some room here. Hold on. All right, everyone. I'm going to ask um you to uh introduce the person after you, okay? If you're a part of the speaking program, it's taped here. Okay.

[00:16:41]>> All right.

[00:16:49]>> All right. Well, good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us today. Truly is an honor to partner with Color of Change in this essential fight for black communities, for black families, for black futures.

[00:17:03]families who are bearing the burden of our nation's economic and affordability crisis. I'm so grateful for the incredible leadership and the partnership of the NAACP, the National Urban League, and Joint Center, and to my sister colleagues whose efforts are invaluable in our work to defend black lives. The state of the black economy is under attack. We are plagued by an economic crisis that is a direct result of Trump's reckless financial policies that are precisely targeting black communities who already carry the weight of systemic economic harm and now suffer from the daily impact of this affordability crisis fell from grocery stores to the housing market to the gas pump. While the national unemployment rate is already 4.3% for black workers, it is an even higher 7.3%.

[00:18:05]>> That is a crisis. Trump's attacks on workers rights, the federal workforce, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are costing us black jobs, which we know he never cared about.

[00:18:22]Trump is shamefully and intentionally pushing out black workers who carry with them a wealth of knowledge, innovation, and skill to our workforce. I met with black women in my district, the Massachusetts 7th, who have been harmed by and witnesses to this push out crisis and economic instability. In that room, there was no shortage of degrees. There was no shortage of expertise. There was no shortage of experience. And yet, many of these black women shared their challenges navigating sudden career stops, economic insecurity, and the harmful impact on them and their families lives and livelihoods.

[00:19:07]Black women who own small businesses spoke of struggling to keep their doors open due to affordability challenges under Trump's tariffs and a rising inability to pay their staff, often deepening the unemployment crisis even further.

[00:19:26]We heard from Teresa who worked at a major hospital in my district to ensure that black immigrant, disabled, and LGBTQ plus patients did not fall through the cracks of a complex health system. Her position was eliminated because of Republican cuts to NIH and Medicaid funding. And with that funding elimination, her livelihood and the health and wellness of her patients stopped. This layered discriminatory attack on black lives deepens the economic inequities burdening black communities. But the consequences reverberate far beyond us. And this harm is coming for everyone. And that is exactly why it is up to Congress to advance policies that protect civil rights, expand opportunities for all, and make the economy work for black communities, and in doing so for everyone, like addressing the push out of black women from the workforce, like investing in minorityowned small businesses, like lowering the cost of housing and so much more. And it's up to all of us to actively resist, reject, and condemn this agenda of antilackness on steroids.

[00:20:57]And to fight for black families, for black workers, for black joy, for black progress, for black futures.

[00:21:12]And with that, I'll hear from uh one of my siblings uh in the movement shouldertosh shoulder with me in this fight uh convening us here today. Naen Smith, president and CEO, Color of Change.

[00:21:31]>> Thank you.

[00:21:32]>> All right. Hello everybody.

[00:21:35]>> Uh my name is Naen Smith. I'm the president and CEO of Color of Change and I'm here today because black families across this country are being told to believe in economy they cannot feel.

[00:21:52]I want to uh thank Congresswoman Presley for her leadership and for standing with black families, workers, students, and communities who are doing everything right and are still being pushed further behind. I also want to thank the other representatives who have been meeting with our team today in these hallways and listening to the stories of students of people from across the country who are being impacted by the policies that have caused a black recession in this country. I also want to shout out to the Joint Center, National Urban League, NAACP and others who are standing with us in solidarity in this moment.

[00:22:35]And there are few things you cannot lie to black people about. You cannot lie to us about money. You cannot lie to us about our grocery bills.

[00:22:44]>> You cannot lie to us about rent, >> about layoffs.

[00:22:48]>> You cannot tell us the economy is strong when our families are deciding between medicine, food, gas, and keeping the lights on.

[00:22:58]The numbers confirm what we are already experiencing.

[00:23:01]According to the joint center, black employment fell 179,000 workers in April. And I want to be very clear that we are watching the reverse engineering of progress.

[00:23:12]>> We are, you know, there's something about Kevin Roberts, the architect of project 20 25 >> studying in as part of his history degree, African-American history. Mhm.

[00:23:25]>> There's something really insidious about somebody studying how we made progress in order to write the book, the blueprint for how you undo that progress.

[00:23:34]>> Diabolical, >> right? It is diabolical. It's like it's like discovering a man has volunteered at a at a domestic abuse hotline in order to find more techniques for entrapping his spouse.

[00:23:45]>> There's something profoundly evil about that.

[00:23:50]But we want to root this not in what they're doing, but how we are standing up to it, >> right?

[00:23:56]>> And what we are doing across this country because we get to decide what the future looks like.

[00:24:02]>> We get to decide. The reason they fight so hard to come after black voters is not simply to harm us, but they understand that black voters have been the most reliable engine for progress in this country.

[00:24:15]>> Everyone woke up more vulnerable. Anyone who's ever been considered expendable or exploitable in this country woke up more vulnerable when the Voting Rights Act was gutted. We are watching the systematic targeting of the very places where black people, black women have excelled. And that's why you see the the depressionalization of >> That's right.

[00:24:36]>> the in the medical profession and in teaching, >> right?

[00:24:39]>> It is targeted and systematic. This is not an accidental byproduct.

[00:24:44]This is about having priorities completely upside down. It's what happens when you have an administration that works more like a crime family than a governing body.

[00:24:57]>> And so we're here to say enough.

[00:25:01]>> Enough.

[00:25:02]>> We are here to say black families deserve more because Americans all deserve more. Right.

[00:25:08]>> And Color of Change is committed to standing in solidarity with those in the legislature who are willing to fight for us and therefore fight for our entire country. We will have a multi-racial democracy in America. And the only question we have to answer is how soon and how hard will it be? But we will get there. Thank you.

[00:25:29]>> Thank you. Thank you, Madam.

[00:25:31]>> Okay. Summer's not here yet. Okay. So, we can go to bed. I I'd like to invite up from the joint center Derek Asante Muhammad.

[00:25:43]>> Good afternoon. Uh my name is Dedric Asante Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political Economic Studies, America's Black Think Tank. Uh today we're here because the economic warning signs facing black America continue to raise alarms in our day-to-day lives while being little considered in much of today's national political discussion.

[00:26:04]In January 2026, the joint center released the state of the dream from regression to signs of black recession.

[00:26:10]In this report, we noted that that the attacks on programs, departments, and practices that were designed to ensure equal opportunity for blacks in the federal workforce and in the private sector.

[00:26:20]>> Right?

[00:26:21]>> We noted that by the end of 2025, black unemployment had risen to 7.5% compared to national unemployment rate of 4.4% and white unemployment at 3.8%.

[00:26:32]8%. And as as our congresswoman noted, that has not much changed over the last 5 6 months. Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees, the category where most blackowned firms exist, shed more than 62,000 jobs since January 2025. At the same time, we are all facing Christ rising cost caused by military aggression abroad, tariff instability, reduced federal support, and growing uncertainty in the economy. Meanwhile, HR1, or as some people call it, the one big beautiful bill, permanently expands tax advantages that disproportionately benefit the wealthy while simultaneously reducing investments in programs that working families rely upon, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance. And these numbers matter because behind every percentage point are families trying to pay rent, afford child care, that's right, buy groceries, and hold on to economic stability in an increasingly unstable economy. The racial economic inequality that appeared to be increasing in 20 2025 continues along this dangerous track in 2026. Yet in 2026, we now see regression in black congressional representation. It was only in 2021 when African-Americans finally first achieved black representation in the House of Representatives equal to their share of the population. And you guys want to note that was 2021 where blacks finally achieved uh their share of House of Representatives equal to their share of the population. This is over 150 years after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution. 60 years since the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act. And now that the Supreme Court has ruled it legal to gerrymander congressional districts for the benefit of political party but not to protest the represent but not but not to protect the representation of historically disenfranchised communities. We see the possibility that the country might only experience proportional black representation in the House of Representatives for 5 years of the country's 250ear existence. The joint center was founded in 1970 to ensure that political representation translated into meaningful economic outcomes for black communities. And more than 50 years later, that mission remains urgent. Uh Dr. Martin Luther King warned America about the interconnected dangers of racism, materialism, and militarism.

[00:28:53]And today, we see all three colliding in ways that are threatened to deepen racial inequality for future generations.

[00:28:59]>> But we also know this is not inevitable.

[00:29:01]Policy choices created these outcomes.

[00:29:04]different policy choices can change them and we call for a change of policy that can finally bridge the inequalities of the past and create a future prosperity for all. Thank you for these few minutes and let me now bring up uh my colleague Tara Tara Murray from National Urban League.

[00:29:20]>> All right. All right.

[00:29:24]>> Good afternoon.

[00:29:25]>> Good afternoon.

[00:29:26]>> I'm Tara Murray and I'm the executive director of the National Urban League's Washington Bureau. I want to thank Congresswoman Presley, thank Nadian Smith and the Color of Change team for inviting us to be with you here today.

[00:29:41]In our most recent state of black America report, the National Urban League declared a state of emergency facing black America and that's across all fronts.

[00:29:53]And what we are seeing now from the Trump administration, what we're seeing now from this Republican controlled Congress is not just an effort to create deeper hardships, but an intentional effort to actively dismantle and undermine black economic advancement.

[00:30:18]>> Right. Through our affiliate movement across the country, the National Urban League serves more than 4 million people annually through our workforce development programs, through our entrepreneurship support programs, through our education, health, health, and economic opportunity programs. And from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida, from Seattle, Washington all the way to Rochester, New York, from Cleveland, Ohio down to Austin, Texas, and everywhere in between, our affiliates are hearing the same thing. And that is that black families are working harder, black families are paying more, and black families are falling further behind.

[00:31:08]Black communities are experiencing right now recessionlike conditions and because you know this administration is attempting to put forward the farce that its economic policies are working.

[00:31:25]I like what Naen shared when she said people can see clearly with their own two eyes. People can feel it in their pocketbooks and what they feel is a rising cost of healthcare. what they feel is the rising cost of housing. What they're experiencing is the rising cost of gas, the rising cost of housing, and it's getting harder just to stay afloat.

[00:31:48]The black unemployment rate, as has already been discussed, has climbed to levels that we've not seen since the height of the pandemic. Black home ownership has fallen to just 49.3%.

[00:32:02]and young black workers are struggling to find entrylevel jobs while hiring has slowed significantly across the country.

[00:32:12]Black entrepreneurs are being squeezed by tariffs. They're being squeezed by inflation. They're being squeezed by rising operation costs. They're being squeezed by a tightening access to to capital. Right.

[00:32:26]>> And at the same time, the administration is attacking the very pathways that have traditionally proven to build economic stability. Pathways like the federal workforce, which has been slashed by hundreds of thousands of people, and that has disproportionately impacted black workers. We've seen a rolling back of civil rights protections, of anti-discrimination protections. We've seen threatening health care and food assistance through the big ugly bill. And we've seen dismantling of programs that support minority and womenowned businesses and equitable contracting opportunities. We know that this is not economic progress.

[00:33:07]This is economic sabotage, right?

[00:33:09]>> And it is a direct attack on black futures. And I'm just here to say that the National Urban League stands with members of Congress, stands with those who choose not to legislate evil, but to truly advance progress for all communities, in particular, vulnerable communities of color. Thank you so much.

[00:33:30]>> Thank you.

[00:33:32]I would now like to introduce uh Patrice Willoughby from the NAACP.

[00:33:41]Hello everyone. Want to thank Congresswoman Presley, Color of Change, for inviting us at the NACP to be with you today. And you've heard the statistics.

[00:33:52]Everyone can feel the impact of this administration's policies on their pocketbook. But what I have to say is the unrelenting attacks that we're now seeing on not only economy but on voting rights are inextricably connected because out of black political power we have seen the policy frameworks that have created opportunity for black people for other people of color and for anyone who has been marginalized in this country.

[00:34:25]But economic racism and racism in general is a very expensive proposition.

[00:34:32]While we've seen the erosion of the federal workforce, the slowdown in the economy, there's also a calculation of about $16 trillion that has been lost through programs and by focusing not on equity but on racism. M >> it's also estimated that $5 trillion could be added to the US economy in 5 years with a shift back to equity. But that is not what we see from the current administration. While Americans are suffering, this administration has focused on creating a $1.7 billion slush fund at the IRS to bail out the president's friends, family, and the January 6 insurrectionists.

[00:35:20]This underscores the need >> for voting rights >> for people to put their vote and align it with their priorities, economic, social justice, and to rid our government of the corruption that we now see is eroding stability for black Americans and people across this country.

[00:35:43]The NAACP stands strongly on our commitment to shore up voting rights, to effectuate policies that help black people and other people of color. And we call on Congress and the corporate community to reject anti-equity measures. Yes.

[00:36:02]>> And to vote for policies that will improve economic conditions for everyone.

[00:36:08]>> Thank you so much.

[00:36:09]>> Thank you.

[00:36:09]>> Thank you, Patrice. Patrice.

[00:36:11]>> All right. And now we'll hear from Jason Dodson representing himself in color of change.

[00:36:19]>> Thank you Congresswoman Pesley. Thank you Color for Change. My name is Jason Datson.

[00:36:26]Well, Dr. Jason Maurice Datson as of yesterday. So thank you.

[00:36:32]and I'm a licensed mental health and addiction clinician serving black families throughout New Jersey through my work with wellness magician Dodson and my nonprofit Y mental health. I'm here today to make one thing clear.

[00:36:44]Unemployment is not just an economic issue. It is a mental health crisis.

[00:36:50]>> In my clinical work, I see the consequences every day. When people lose employment, they often lose more than income. They lose stability, healthc care access, housing security, and sometimes hope.

[00:37:04]>> I sit with black fathers struggling silently with depression and black mothers carrying overwhelming financial stress while trying to hold their families together. I work with young I work with the youth who are facing anxiety and hopelessness about their future.

[00:37:21]Economic stability fuels depression, anxiety, substance use, family conflict, and suicide ideation. And too many black men continue to suffer in silence. That is why we cannot separate economic justice from mental health justice.

[00:37:38]Today, I'll call for investment in culturally responsive mental health services, sustainable jobs with livable wages, workforce development connected to wellness support, and a stronger investment in black le organizations already serving families in crisis.

[00:37:54]Thank you all. Behind every unemployment statistic, there is a humic life and a family fighting to move to survive.

[00:38:02]One community do not need do not need sympathy. We need action, accountability, and investment. The mental health of black Americans must be treated as a national priority. Thank you.

[00:38:15]>> Thank you, doctor. Thank you. Well done.

[00:38:19]>> And now we'll hear from David Nollie representing himself and also color of change.

[00:38:25]>> All right, David.

[00:38:31]>> Hi, good afternoon. My name is David Nollie and I stand with the color and cha the color of change and asking for enforcement of the 2025 AI civil rights act.

[00:38:43]The AI civil rights act of 2025 was created to fight digital discrimination and ensure that the tech world works for and with us. What we have seen in the advent of AI is how it's generally used and how it works against black communities. Its biased algorithms adversely affect our community because those who design and create those algorithms are most commonly young white males who make up most of the workers and designers in the American tech sector. While they may argue that their algorithms are neutral, data has shown that the resulting effect is frequently devastating to my community. Automated hiring platforms routinely screen out qualified black candidates. Lending models are known to have denied small business loans and mortgages based on flawed data. These factors adversely impact our ability to open our own businesses, acquire good jobs, buy homes, and take care of our families.

[00:39:41]When black families and communities thrive, America thrives. We can pump more money into the American economy by creating jobs, by purchasing homes, paying taxes, and diminishing the need for government assistance. When black families and communities prosper, America prospers. That's right.

[00:40:01]>> My brother is a shining example of how a small business owner can inspire others around him to believe in themselves by investing in their success. AI algorithms created by Silicon Valley tech bros would not see the potential success in having 100 individual hair stylists all operating out of one single facility. They don't know the black community and their algorithms reflect that lack of vision. Because my younger brother knows his community and the value of his community's work ethic, he invested in it and he created opportunities for hundreds of young entrepreneurs.

[00:40:44]In less than 10 years, his Cilantro Select Suites grew from one location in the western part of Baltimore County to seven successful locations throughout Maryland. From Brandy Wine to Laurel, from Owens Mills to White Marsh and more, he helped these young entrepreneurs create wealth for themselves and their respective families. His vision isn't something that can be replicated by an AI algorithm unless and until more minorities are seated at that table where these algorithms are created. But until that day comes, we are asking for enforcement of the AI Civil Rights Act of 2025. Thank you very much.

[00:41:26]>> All right. Thank you.

[00:41:28]>> All right.

[00:41:30]>> Okay. Thank you everyone.

[00:41:33]Any uh on topic questions?

[00:41:37]>> Oh.

[00:41:39]>> Yes, please.

[00:41:40]>> Um obviously you're talking about a lot of issues that matter to black murders and we're in this era of black garbage and that representation partially getting eliminated the next Congress.

[00:41:52]How do you think that's going to impact um looking forward to issues that matter in those?

[00:41:59]>> Well, it would have devastating implications, but I also refuse to accept it as an inevitability. Um that's exactly why you see so many uh more than 160 grassroots organizations um that have uh uh initiated a mass mobilization effort. I participated in the one in Montgomery, Alabama. Uh the next one will be in Mississippi. So, you know, we are not uh taking this as an inevitability. Uh we have to fight. Uh voting is still my black job. And um and uh and and so far as what are the implications? Um when you don't have uh black representation at policy and decision-making tables and in the corridors of power, it impacts the questions that are called. Uh the reason why the entire country knows about the black maternal morbidity crisis is because of the congressional black caucus. Uh the reason why there is a uh a national movement that has been um carried by activists and states and taken all the way to the federal level for reparations is because of the Congressional Black Caucus. The reason why you know about the harm caused by federal highways in separating uh black communities and decimating black wealth um is because of the congressional black caucus. The reason why you know about uh algorithm bias in AI is because of the congressional black caucus. The reason why you know that more uh black uh women are vulnerable to eviction is because of the congressional black caucus. The reason why you know about the push out crisis and the criminalization of black children in our schools is because of the Congressional Black Caucus and I could go on. The point is who you vote for can determine who wins and who wins determines the policies and the policies determine who lives and who dies.

[00:43:56]Period.

[00:43:58]>> Um, and not only is that a disservice to black America, that is a disservice to all of America. The reason why they are working so hard to erase black history is because that blueprint is actionable in the work of the future. They don't want people to to be able to reference what has worked in the past when every movement in this country that has advanced progress has borrowed from the architects of progress, the patriots and defenders of democracy, which has always been black people.

[00:44:27]>> Come on now.

[00:44:28]>> There are no American families without the black family because there would be no America, >> right?

[00:44:34]Yes. All right.

[00:44:40]>> Control changes after November. What would be the top priority in terms of economic policies to address racial disparities?

[00:44:48]>> Well, it's some of what I enumerated um you know, including um you know, massive investments in um the building of affordable housing. You know, it it would it would mean uh restoring the roll backs on the progress that was made in student debt cancellation and forgiveness because we know that is a racial justice issue. It would mean restoring agencies and grants that have been dismantled and defunded that specifically support um blackowned uh businesses. Um it would mean uh addressing the algorithm biases. It would mean a restoration of all the federal jobs that black workers were denied. I want to say this, Haitian migrants were never after your black job. It was always Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And they have taken a complete um you know uh sledgehammer uh to the infrastructure of our federal workforce.

[00:45:44]And so when they go after the Southern Poverty Law Center, when they go after the Congressional Black Caucus, when they go after black voters, when they go after black workers, they are coming for black infrastructure. They are coming for the black family, they are coming from the black worker, from the black for the black voter. So this has been a systemic, coordinated, unrelenting attack. And I'm calling on every person of conscience, independent, Republican, and Democrat, to give a damn. and especially my own party when black people are the base of this party to speak stridently and unapologetically to our issues.

[00:46:24]>> On the Trump administration's establishment of this $ 1.7 billion uh weaponizations fund for those convicted in the January 6 attack in the context of what this means in terms of the broader uh fight for economic justice for black Americans who have been by the government and what it says about power and how swiftly it can be used to uh enact financial compensation when there's a will to do it.

[00:46:51]>> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, not one promise has been kept to black Americans in this country when every bit of prosperity you enjoy was built on our backs. 400 years of labor uh for free.

[00:47:04]Um and we never got our 40 acres in a mule. And we are still uh you know um harmed by practices like redlinining and appraisal bias. Um and so uh we are long overdue for reparations. I'm proud to be the lead sponsor of HR40. Um black folks are certainly uh deserving of redress and uh repairerative work and one bill will not undo centuries of harm. But we cannot let the hypocrisy stand of this taxpayer funded uh slush fund without uh calling on everyone to in this moment uh become co-sponsors and to support HR40 and moving that bill through Congress and getting it to a vote. It's just pure hypocrisy.

[00:47:53]>> Hi, I'm Alexander with Black Wall Street and I wanted to know what is the Congressional Black Caucus doing to mobilize the state and local leaders, governors um called voting rights acting rights laws at the state and local level.

[00:48:15]I just want to get your thoughts on that and then also how can we make foreign policy work for black America. Um as you know we've had an over focus on Ukraine and Israel within our civil rights um legislation.

[00:48:29]>> Did you say your name is Alexandra?

[00:48:31]Okay. So, first of all, I just want to just say how beautiful your crown is.

[00:48:35]And we also need to pass the Crown Act and ban race-based hair discrimination.

[00:48:38]So, let me just let me just add that um to the to the roster here um in terms of our priorities. I'm not going to give sighteline into every strategic conversation that the CBC is having um because we don't need to give everybody that access into our strategy. But, of course, we're working closely with the National Conference of Black State Legislators. We are working with our community- based organizations.

[00:49:00]um because they're trusted voices on the ground and I continue to advocate for those organizations to be invested in um in in meaningful ways because the ROI on that is is justice, is equity, uh is fairness, is the upliftment uh and the very preservation of of black people.

[00:49:18]So, we're working closely with our our colleagues and our partners on the state level. And I should add that this attack um to um this decision, this Louisiana Cala decision um not only has devastating implications for the Congressional Black Caucus, there's a domino effect that will also see realized um in our state representation um because ultimately what they want is instead of voters picking their representatives, they want the representatives to be able to pick their voters. So when um as my brother uh Congressman Frost said so eloquently, when they rig democracy, that allows them to rig the economy and to advance policies that support the enriching of them. Uh not just an emboldening of white uh of white supremacy, but the enriching of them. And that's what Donald Trump has been doing, enriching himself uh and his friends. Uh to your point about uh foreign policy, um I do believe that we have to be united in the work of the broader uh diaspora. Um, and if black lives are truly are to matter, then that must mean that um the lives of our brothers and sisters in Haiti matter in the Sudan matter uh in the Congo matter uh matter from Massachusetts to Mississippi to Memphis.

[00:50:34]>> Sure.

[00:50:35]>> Last question here.

[00:50:36]>> Sure. Well, um uh I've been in Congress now for eight years and in that time I've always served on the financial services uh committee. uh his legacy and his imprint is an indelible one. His leadership and DoddFrank and he was a trailblazer uh showing up as his full self every day uh which soften the ground for others uh to do the same. Uh and so uh we we're grateful for his service and again his legacy his legislative legacy uh will endure.

[00:51:06]>> Thank you everyone.

[00:51:07]>> Thank you.

[00:51:09]>> Thanks everybody.

[00:51:11]>> Thanks family. Thank you.