Brandi Collins-Dexter (d. 2025) was an American writer, researcher and policy advocate. She was the author of Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future[1] and the daughter of Jimmy Collins, the American basketball player and coach. She was a visiting fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy of Harvard Kennedy School.[2] The Hill named her a "person to watch" in 2017[3] and The Root named her one of The Most Influential African Americans in 2019.[4] In 2020, she was awarded the Champions of Freedom Award by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.[5]
Brandi Collins-Dexter | |
|---|---|
 Collins-Dexter in 2022 | |
| Died | June 25, 2025 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Agnes Scott College (BA) University of Wisconsin-Madison (JD) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy |
On June 25, 2025,[6] Collins-Dexter died of cancer,[7] The United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry announced plans to give her a posthumous award for work in public interest media.[8]
Career
editCollins-Dexter held a B.A. in history from Agnes Scott College, and a J.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. In the early 2000s, she lived in London, UK for a couple years.[9] She worked at MediaJustice and Safer Foundation in Illinois.[10] She was Senior Campaign Director of Media, Culture and Economic Justice at Color of Change.[11][12] At Color of Change, she led a number of campaigns including getting The O’Reilly Factor off the air and getting R. Kelly dropped from RCA.[13][14] She was also one of the leaders in getting Facebook to undergo a civil rights audit.[15][16]
She testified in Congress on numerous occasions,[17][18] including in front of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce on issues such as disinformation[19] and consumer privacy.[20] She wrote numerous articles on issues including cryptocurrency, retail theft, and surveillance, including in Essence[21] and Wired.[22] She was a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest from 2023-2024, an initiative of The OpEd Project funded by the Macarthur Foundation.[23] In 2022, she published her debut essay collection Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future.[24][25][26][27][28]
Personal life
editCollins-Dexter was the daughter of former Chicago Bull and University of Illinois Chicago basketball coach Jimmy Collins.[29] She is survived by her mother Hettie L. Collins, husband David Dexter, her brother, Kenneth R. Collins, and sisters Erica M Collins and Semaj C. Douglas.
Books
edit- Collins-Dexter, Brandi (2022). Black skinhead: reflections on Blackness and our political future. New York: Celadon Books. ISBN 9781250824110.
References
edit- ^ "Black Skinhead". Macmillan Publishers.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". Shorenstein Center.
- ^ Breland, Ali; McCabe, David; Neidig, Harper; Uchill, Joe; Williams, Katie (8 February 2017). "16 people to watch in tech". The Hill. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
- ^ "The Root 100 - The Most Influential African Americans In 2019". The Root. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023.
- ^ "EPIC - EPIC Alert 27.09". archive.epic.org. Electronic Privacy Information Center.
- ^ "Remembering Brandi Collins-Dexter | Free Press". www.freepress.net. 8 August 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
- ^ "In Memory of Brandi Collins-Dexter". Media Democracy Fund. July 9, 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-10.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter to Receive Parker Award Posthumously". UCC Media Justice Ministry. July 9, 2025. Retrieved 2025-07-10.
- ^ Hendrix, Justin (6 November 2022). "Black Skinhead: A Conversation with Brandi Collins-Dexter | TechPolicy.Press". Tech Policy Press.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". American Economic Liberties Project.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter | Free Press". www.freepress.net.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". Spitfire Strategies. 19 March 2025.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". American Economic Liberties Project.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". Public Citizen.
- ^ Levy, Pema; Riley, Tonya. "Activists couldn't get Facebook to tackle its discrimination problem—until the Russia scandal hit". Mother Jones.
- ^ "Black Lives Matter Activists Say They're Being Silenced By Facebook". BuzzFeed News. 19 June 2020.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org.
- ^ "Brandi Collins-Dexter". GBH.
- ^ "House Hearing on Disinformation Campaigns and Social Media". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
- ^ "Testimony Of Brandi Collins-Dexter Senior Campaign Director, Color Of Change Before The Subcommittee On Consumer Protection And Commerce, United States House Committee On Energy And Commerce Hearing On "Protecting Consumer Privacy In An Era Of Big Data." February 26, 2019. Unclassified. | National Security Archive". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
- ^ Collins-Dexter, Brandi (29 August 2022). "What Did Hurricane Katrina Teach Us About Environmental Racism?". Essence.
- ^ Collins-Dexter, Brandi (16 November 2023). "Satoshi Is Black". Wired.
- ^ "Public Voices Fellows to Shape Discourse on Technology in the Public Interest". www.macfound.org.
- ^ Smith, Mychal Denzel (27 October 2022). "The Kanye Whisperer". New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ^ ""Black Skinhead": Brandi Collins-Dexter's book on Black politics". WYPR.
- ^ "Interview with Brandi Collins-Dexter, Author or Black Skinhead". Celadon Books. 24 October 2022.
- ^ "New Book Explores Perspectives of Black Voters Disillusioned With Democratic Party". WTTW News.
- ^ "Protesting Twitter 'Normalizing Racism,' Activists Call on Social Networks to Ban White Supremacists". Broadband Breakfast. 7 August 2019.
- ^ Collins-Dexter, Brandi (27 March 2018). "NCAA's amateurism rule exploits black athletes as slave labor". Andscape.