What is an investor dataset? Adasina works with Social Justice Partners to create and release data about the behavior of publicly traded companies. We partner with social justice organizations to identify the metrics investors can use to advance social justice movement goals. Where relevant data does not already exist, we work closely with Social Justice Partners to create a new dataset. We then publicize the dataset, integrate it into our own portfolios, and mobilize investors to influence companies and governments to change harmful practices that contribute to systemic injustice. See all of our current Investor Datasets here.
A COMPREHENSIVE DATASET FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Want to work for racial justice? Organize, protest, vote, and spend with intention. And stop giving your investment dollars to companies that exacerbate racial inequities. When publicly traded companies employ these practices, the repercussions extend throughout the financial system.
Our Racial Justice Investor Dataset is a list of companies excluded from Adasina portfolios for failing to meet our Racial Justice Investment Criteria. These companies are believed to contribute to systemic racism through practices identified by social justice movements, such as prison involvement, money bail, surveillance, and other practices. We continue to conduct research with our partners to ensure this list reflects the ongoing insights of racial justice movements.
Below is a list of companies that failed to meet our investment criteria. Each company listed includes the failed criteria name, current company status on the issue, and ways to take action. Beneath the list you will also find:
Data aggregation and list construction performed by Adasina Social Capital, in partnership with YourStake and EQM Indexes.
HOW TO USE OUR INVESTOR DATASETS
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Invest with Adasina!
All of our Investor Datsets are automatically applied to your portfolio.
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Talk to your financial advisor about how you’re invested.
Consider excluding these companies from your portfolio or conducting shareholder engagement to urge them to end this practice.
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Advisors can use YourStake.org to investigate and report on these social justice issues in your portfolios.
A NOTE ABOUT INDEX FUNDS
An index is a list of investments. Many mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) track these lists. As a result, many everyday investors own stock in private prison companies because they are invested in funds that track these indexes (for an explanation of how private prisons participate in systemic racism, see our Racial Justice Investment Criteria below). A sample of these indexes and the major index providers that publish them is below. If you own funds that track any of these indexes, you are probably invested in private prisons.
Dow Jones
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Dow Jones Equity All REIT Capped Index
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Dow Jones US Broad Stock Market
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Dow Jones US Total Stock Market Small-Cap
Invesco
Morningstar
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Morningstar US Market Factor Tilt Index
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Morningstar US Small Cap Target Market Exposure Extended Index
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Morningstar US Small Value Index
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Morningstar US Small-Cap Extended Index - Benchmark TR Gross
FTSE/Russell
Standard & Poor's (S&P)
This list is not comprehensive. Check whether a fund you own holds private prison stock with Prison Free Funds, from As You Sow.
RACIAL JUSTICE INVESTMENT CRITERIA
DEFINITIONS & DATA SOURCES
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Prison Involvement is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, “Racial and ethnic disparities are still a substantial feature of our prison system,” contributing to “Blacks and Latinos comprising 56% of the incarcerated population, yet only 30% of the U.S. population” (The Sentencing Project), while "Native Americans are incarcerated 38% higher than the national average" (Poor People's Campaign).
Criteria Data Source: American Friends Service Committee | Investigate: Action/Research on State Violence.
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Prison Funding is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, “Private prison companies rely on financing organizations to bankroll their operations and expansion. Banks offer CoreCivic and GEO Group, the two largest private prison and immigrant detention companies in the United States, billions of dollars in revolving credit lines, term loans, and bonds that allow them to expand their reach into carceral and correctional industries.” (American Friends Services Committee) Companies are included if they hold private prison stock and/or bonds.
Criteria Data Source: Adasina Social Capital original research, including public SEC filings, with support from YourStake and EQM.
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Prison Labor is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, “people in prison are forced to work for little or no pay in grueling conditions under the threat of punishment. They farm crops, remove asbestos, fight wildfires, clean medical waste, serve on suicide watch, and still more. It’s estimated that more than $14 billion in wages is stolen from incarcerated workers each year.” Worth Rises
Criteria Data Source: Adasina Social Capital original research, including stock exchange market activity, media reviews, and limited data from Worth Rises.
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Money Bail Involvement is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, "If people cannot pay the amount set for their bail, which is often put intentionally out of reach for people of color, they remain stuck in jail and lose the ability to work, raise their children and be free as people who are legally presumed innocent.” Color of Change
Criteria Data Source: American Friends Service Committee | Investigate: Action/Research on State Violence.
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Immigrant Detention is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, this practice is “...rooted in white supremacy built on the systemic criminalization, commodification, and dehumanization of Black, brown, and indigenous bodies.” Race Forward
Criteria Data Source: American Friends Service Committee | Investigate: Action/Research on State Violence.
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Citizen & Immigrant Surveillance is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, "As long as publicly funded properties are allowed to install these invasive surveillance tools, Black residents and marginalized communities will continue to be disproportionately exposed to the dangers of unchecked policing, surveillance, and discrimination.” Color of Change
Criteria Data Source: Adasina Social Capital original research, including stock exchange market activity, media reviews, and data from American Friends Service Committee | Investigate: Action/Research on State Violence.
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Occupied Territories is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law, while Israelis who reside in Jewish-only illegal settlements are subject to Israeli civilian law. “Human Rights Watch called this two-tiered system ‘separate and unequal,’ invoking the US legal doctrine that allowed racial segregation under Jim Crow laws in the US, and added that Israel gives ‘preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.’" American Friends Service Committee
Criteria Data Source: American Friends Service Committee | Investigate: Action/Research on State Violence.
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For-Profit Colleges is included in our Racial Justice Investment Criteria because, "The industry specifically targets low-income students, people of color, single parents, and veterans" and "students are left with mountains of debt and without the means to pay for it. For-profit colleges account for 13% of the student population, but 33% of federal loan defaults." Project on Predatory Student Lending
Criteria Data Source: Adasina Social Capital original research, including stock exchange market activity and media reviews.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can you explain more about the choice to include Occupied Territories in your Racial Justice Investment Criteria?
Our commitment to ending racism doesn’t stop at US borders; we work in solidarity with global movements. However, we are aware that this criterion can be controversial. For example, it is important to note that Adasina does not divest from Israel using a boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) framework.
However, based on the Adasina Social Justice Investment Criteria, we include companies in this dataset based on their participation in systems that enable racism globally, and particularly those within occupied territories. This includes companies whose business policies or practices discriminate either between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel or between Israeli citizens and Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation. This discrimination may take the form of:
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Discrimination in public accommodations, such as when a company provides its services to one population but not the other, or when the quality of its services are determined by race or national origin.
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Workplace discrimination, for example in unequal salary or discriminatory hiring practices, unequal safety conditions, or when a company benefits from Israeli unequal labor protection laws.
This criterion was chosen in deep relationship with our social justice partners, unflinching solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, and with extensive research and analysis provided by the American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers) and the United Nations. You can find more information about the data we use at the American Friends Service Committee website, which is our primary data source for this criterion.
My bank is on this list for Prison Funding, but I heard they already ended their funding of private prisons. Why is that?
All companies included in this dataset for Prison Funding are holders of prison stocks and/or bonds. While many banks have made statements about ending their funding of prisons, the American Friends Service Committee provides more information about why they might still be included in our dataset:
“Companies and other institutions involved in the prison industry have been targeted by multiple campaigns calling them to divest from the industry. These calls have intensified during 2018-2019 after private prison companies were exposed as profiting from the incarceration and detention of immigrant youth….
[However] All of these declarations refer to future loans, while the banks will continue honoring their existing financial obligations through credit and loan agreements until their maturity in 2023-2024. None of the banks addressed their ongoing investment in private prison companies’ stocks and bonds.” (American Friends Service Committee | Private Prison Financing)”
You can find more information about private prison financing on the American Friends Service Committee’s website.
Disclosures:
Adasina Social Capital is not responsible for the content, services, or products of third parties. These organizations should not be construed as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship by ASC, nor are they affiliated with or employed by ASC.They are provided for informational purposes only.