Under the glimmering lights and the hum of soulful celebration at this year’s ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Rashad Robinson, former president of Color of Change and longtime civil rights strategist, shared a serious and sobering sentiment: in between our rebellious joy, we must remember that the stakes for Black America have never been higher.

“ESSENCE Fest is such an important cultural moment,” Robinson told BOSSIP in an interview on-site in New Orleans. “It’s a moment where we are coming together to celebrate, but we’re also facing so many challenges.”

As thousands flooded the Superdome to enjoy music, art, and community, Robinson shared that Black joy is a declaration of resilience, despite struggle.

“Black joy is not the absence of pain, but it’s the presence of aspiration,” he said. “It’s not just what we’re fighting against, but what we’re fighting for.”

Robinson’s appearance came just weeks after the controversial passage of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that critics argue rolls back hard-fought gains for marginalized communities, particularly Black Americans. While supporters have branded the bill as a “win” for national security and rural America, Robinson sees it as a dire warning.

“There’s a saying: when America gets the cold, Black people get the flu,” he said. “This bill is meant, it is targeted, to destroy so many of the gains and wins that we’ve fought for. We are heading into an authoritarian period that will look like no other most of us have ever experienced.”

Robinson, who led Color of Change through landmark campaigns on criminal justice, corporate accountability, and tech regulation, is no stranger to sounding alarms. But his presence at ESSENCE Fest this year felt more urgent, more personal.

He pointed to the erosion of protections achieved through civil rights legislation, many now threatened by legislation like the Big Beautiful Bill, and stressed the importance of community cohesion in the face of encroaching political threats.

Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty

“We’re going to need each other. We’re going to need to be aligned, and we’re going to need to build in new ways,” Robinson said. “In the midst of the pain, in the midst of the challenge, hopefully we can build something new.”

Despite the political climate, Robinson insisted that optimism remains central to the movement. He finds Black joy, he said, not only in celebration but in strategy, sustenance, and solidarity.

“I find joy in coming together with people and winning campaigns,” he shared. “I also find joy in cooking, in good food, in laughter with my people. But so much of that is under threat right now.”

That threat, however, does not eclipse the work or the will to keep pushing forward.

“My friend Nikole Hannah-Jones said on a panel here, ‘We have to be good ancestors.’ So part of this is doing the work so that the people coming behind us inherit something better.”

For Robinson, ESSENCE Fest is more than a weekend of joy. It is a movement, a megaphone, and a mission that he’s hopeful will have a positive outcome.

“There’s not much to feel hopeful about right now,” he admitted. “But I’m an optimist. I believe we can win. And in doing so, we just might build something better than what we had before.”

The post From Soulful Sounds To Black Joy & Sobering Truths: Rashad Robinson Speaks Strategy At ESSENCE Fest [Exclusive] appeared first on Bossip.



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