Inequality Media’s vision is a United States where active participation by informed citizens restores the balance of power in our democracy and creates an economy where gains are widely shared. Co-founded in 2014 by Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Inequality Media educates and engages the public about inequality through the use of digital media. We deliver this crucial message and catalyze action by creating engaging, shareable videos released through social media. As a nonpartisan digital media organization, we use the power of narrative propelled by technology to mobilize an informed and engaged public.
Our videos catalyze action on the economic and political issues that make a difference in the day-to-day lives of all Americans: white and black, Latinx and native-born, working-class and poor, union and non-union. Our recent video, “Why We Must Legalize Marijuana,” explains why the federal prohibition on marijuana has been a disaster. For decades, millions of Americans have been locked up and billions of dollars have been wasted, deepening racial and economic inequality.
In 2017, more Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than for murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery combined. That’s one marijuana arrest every minute. The costs associated with enforcing this ban—arrests, court costs, and incarceration—reach nearly $14 billion a year. Prohibition also hurts the economy in terms of lost wages. And Americans with criminal records have a harder time finding a job and getting the education they need. This video tells the compelling story of America’s need to legalize marijuana.
Inequality Media’s videos are designed to engage the head and the heart. They are typically three to five minutes in length, and usually feature Robert Reich explaining — and/or drawing — a topic with high-quality motion graphics throughout. Our videos aim to explain current political and economic events, and connect the dots to larger trends and issues, in turn tying them to a larger narrative.
To date, topics have included calls to action around the stranglehold of “big tech” on America’s economy, the injustice of voter suppression, and resisting the current political trend towards oligarchy. We have partnered with over 50 leading organizations to produce and distribute videos. Our videos are distributed by influential partners such as Vox, Upworthy, Huffington Post, Salon, Newsweek, and Alternet, among others, and have been cited by our partners as instrumental to education, outreach, and engagement efforts nationwide.
“Why We Must Legalize Marijuana” takes a critical look at the history and impact of marijuana prohibition in America, drawing parallels to America’s prohibition on alcohol one century ago. Just as with alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, the federal prohibition of marijuana has been unnecessarily cruel—wasting billions of dollars, unjustly harming millions of lives, and furthering racist policies. The video calls on viewers to better understand the ramifications of America’s policy choices, especially as they affect poor people and people of color. Its ultimate takehome is: legalizing marijuana is more than just good economic sense. The video was made in partnership with MoveOn, a progressive public policy advocacy group with over 7 million members.
As of September 2019, Inequality Media’s videos have been viewed over 450 million times. With nearly 4.8 million social media followers from every state in the U.S., Inequality Media has an average weekly reach of over 14 million and an average weekly engagement of over 1 million. Our engagement often rivals or bests people and organizations with double, triple, oven even quadruple our number of followers, including Bernie Sanders and Upworthy. Now in our fifth year, Inequality Media has released over 500 produced and live videos.
In particular, “Why We Must Legalize Marijuana,” has obtained over 800,000 views and 15,000 engagements across all platforms, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Several prominent policy organizations have featured the video in their work, contributing to one of the fastest growing social justice movements in the country. Marijuana laws are changing at a rapid pace across all 50 states. Marijuana is now fully legal in the states of Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and in the District of Columbia. Additionally, since the video's release, Senator Kamala Harris introduced a federal bill to decriminalize marijuana nationally.
