We Will Not Allow the Weaponization of COVID-19 Data Read the report from the Data for Black Lives Movement Pulse Check

We Will Not Allow
the Weaponization of
COVID-19 Data

Read the report from the Data for Black Lives Movement Pulse Check

Dear friends,

One month ago we convened a roundtable to serve as a pulse check for our movement. Over 800 people tuned in live to hear from Black epidemiologists, policymakers, organizers and activists about how we are coordinating, organizing and mobilizing in this moment of tremendous loss of life and economic upheaval.

Today we release the Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Roundtable Report. In this report, we have put forward demands for the ethical and just collection and use of COVID-19 data. We ground these demands in the voices and experiences of the roundtable speakers, but also Black communities across the country who are bearing the brunt of this pandemic.

Read the Executive Summary
Read the Full Report

The COVID-19 emergency is happening at a pivotal moment for our movement -- the scaling of our operations and the expansion of our Policy and Research work. Our Director of Research Jamelle Watson-Daniels led the efforts to produce this report. We are also excited to announce our newest hire, Nicole Triplett, Director of Policy. You can learn more about her below.

Many people have used the word apocalypse to describe the sudden changes we are experiencing. By definition, apocalypse is Greek for disclosure, or a revealing. And if there is anything this crisis has revealed is the urgency and necessity for us to build on the work we have been doing for the last three years.

This report is only the beginning of our efforts to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its political repercussions. It also scratches the surface of the policy and research work to come. We believe that if there is any call to action right now, it is to make this moment about more than temporary reform, but long-term structural change.

Thank you for being a part of what we are building. The love and care I have for you all is infinite.

With love,

Yeshimabeit Milner

Join us in welcoming the newest addition to our team

Nicole Triplett is the Director of Policy at Data for Black Lives. She previously worked as Policy Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU), where she led the organization's criminal justice decarceration work, coordinating its policy and research agenda on criminal justice and related privacy and racial justice issues. She co-led a statewide coalition's legislative work in its fight for pretrial justice (bail, discovery, and speedy trial reforms) and led the ACLU affiliate in its opposition to the mandatory use of pretrial risk assessment tools. There, she sought to build on the work that exposes the shortcomings of constitutional protections for Black people and people of color and the importance of movement building. Prior to the NYCLU, she clerked for U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bernice Donald and briefly worked as an associate at a law firm. Before law school, she worked for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee as its Communications Director, managing messaging on a wide range of civil rights issues including reparations, voting rights, and sentencing reform. She received her BA with honors in Finance and her JD from Howard University.