In a rousing address to media during a press conference on August 10, Arian Simone, co-founder of The Fearless Fund confirmed that the VC firm will be fighting back against the discrimination law suit filed against them earlier this month by right-wing affirmative action opposer Edward Blum.
“Activism is in our DNA,” she stated during the 27-minute press conference held in New York City. “We’re not scared.”
According to a recent report by Reuters, the nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by Blum cited section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a U.S. law barring racial bias in private contracts, to call out that the Fearless Fund is in violation of discrimination laws by making only Black women eligible to participate in the marquee grant competition.
The outlet said the lawsuit alleges that approximately 60 members – white and Asian American – have been excluded from the grant program due to their race.
The claim has drawn the ire and outrage of many, because Black women receive less than .02% in VC funding and are notoriously under-resourced compared to other racial groups.
“When it comes to black women being funded, I never really understood how someone who had a head start in the race would look at those behind them and try to trip them up,” says CBS in the Morning host Nate Burleson to Simone during an interview on August 10, the first media appearance she’d made since the law suit was announced.
“We’re going to fight this,” Simone said later that day during at the press conference while being flanked by representatives of their newly announced powerhouse legal counsel, including high-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump. He recently helped win a landmark settlement on behalf of the estate of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cells were used for years of medical research without her or her family’s permission.
“This is an attack on equity,” Crump said during the press conference.
While it was made clear that the Fearless Fund team is standing firm on their mission to solely fund women of color, particularly Black women, some founders think that may be a losing strategy, especially at a time like this.
Take Promise Phelon, for example. She is the founder and managing partner of Growth Warrior Capital (GWC) and says she is pumping capital into ‘dangerous’ high-growth startups led by diverse founders, but prioritizing product and scalability above all else.
“I’m building the first multibillion dollar multi-stage venture fund run by a woman of color.” she tells ESSENCE. “And I’ve found that using language like diversity fund or one that’s focused on a specific group has a lot of connotation impact for the betterment of these things that are not economically-related. I want to deliver returns to my investors. I want my founders and my CEOs to be wealthy. So, I can’t think about, oh, we need a more diverse landscape. No, I’m going to help you build the best, highest performing company that you can possibly build. Diversity sounds like a program, not a strategy.”
Phelon also shares that LPs shouldn’t be too alarmed by the Fearless Fund discrimination complaint.
“It’s just one lawsuit,” she says. “There are lots of lawsuits that happen in this country.”
Bennitta Joseph, a New York-based workplace discrimination attorney, however, says the lawsuit is the start of something dangerous for us everyone, not just Black women.
“We’re on shaky ground because, unfortunately, I think Black women, just like colleges, are really being used in a calculated attack against equity in general. Just the very notion of a fair and more equitable society is threatening to some, and they are taking aggressive steps to restore and even take us backwards to a time where the imbalance of power was prevalent and less people had a seat at the table. And unfortunately, I think Black women are just the latest in a line of casualty, but it’s not going to stop with us. And that’s where people need to wake up. For decades, the conservative movement has been very disciplined and incredibly focused on eviscerating abortion rights. And they succeeded. This individual who has launched this lawsuit has been relentless and disciplined. He’s, to my understanding, initiated over at least a dozen lawsuits trying to eviscerate affirmative action. And he was finally successful because he had the right mix of conservative judges to help him implement his strategy.”
Joseph points out that the success of the lawsuit signals a looming sinister succession of events that could adversely affect other protected classes.
“It is so dangerous, that if left to our own devices, on any given day, someone’s rights could be violated,” Joseph says. “And without the {affirmative action law} to protect us and reset things in a proper way, discrimination will continue across the board as we’ve already seen with education.” she explains, pointing out that protections against gender, age, and disability discrimination is at liberty to be attacked next.
Tech founder Odessa “OJ” Jenkins, says LPs who are want to solely capitalize Black women founders in post-affirmative action American should prepare themselves to shift the way they present their mission.
“Language matters,” she tells ESSENCE. “When I talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion today, it’s scary. It’s woke, it’s a knife.” In addition to her entrepreneurial endeavors, Jenkins also runs the leadership development platform Bonfire, and regularly leads conversations about what inclusive advancement looks in a time when corporations are pulling back on their DEI commitments.
“When I talk about us being different together and giving her or him or them or they what they need in order to be successful, the same way you got what you need to be successful, it’s more palatable. And it’s okay to be palatable. You got to play the game.”
Joseph, however, warns of the dangers of changing the rules of a game that’s pre-designed for Black people to lose in.
“I think it’s dangerous,” she tells ESSENCE. “I think that anytime you attack a problem by pretending it doesn’t exist, it’s the law of nature, you’re going to expand the problem. And I think instead of the players shifting their strategy, the game itself needs to be corrected.”