A U.S. federal court of appeals panel has suspended venture capital firm Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women business owners amid a racial discrimination suit filed by a conservative detractor.
This marks another successful move for conservative groups aiming to wipe out programs dedicated to narrow the racial wage gap in the US for historically under-funded Black women owned businesses. Businesses owned by Black women received less than 1% of the $288 billion that venture capital firms deployed in 2022.
Per a report from the Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed by the American American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group led by Edward Blum following the Supreme Court’s decision to ban Affirmative Action. As ESSENCE previously reported, on September 30, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta blocked the fund from continuing with its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards $20,000 investments to Black women entrepreneurs. This latest court decision will force the grant program to continue to be suspended.
“The message these judges sent today is that diversity in Corporate America, education, or anywhere else should not exist,” Fearless Fund CEO Arian Simone said in statement. “These judges bought what a small group of white men were selling.”
The suit has set a precedent for larger DEI back-peddling, and have many civil rights groups on high alert. Similar conservative groups have also targeted major corporations, including McDonald’s, Target, and Amazon, in moves widely seen as an attack on affirmative action programs in business.
“The fact remains, though, that Fearless simply —and flatly — refuses to entertain applications from business owners who aren’t ‘black females,’” the court’s majority opinion said, adding “every act of race discrimination” would be deemed expressive conduct under the Fearless Fund’s argument.