The Latest On The Fearless Fund Ruling: When White Men Fight To Keep The Status Quo

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals just dealt a blow to the Fearless Fund, and it's a blatant attempt to drag us back to the days of unchecked inequality. Edward Blum and his crew at the American Alliance for Equal Rights have the audacity to claim that supporting Black women entrepreneurs is discriminatory.

Let's get one thing straight: the current system is rigged in favor of white men. Black women start businesses like nobody's business, but when it comes to getting funding, they're left with the crumbs. Black women are creating new startups at the highest rate of any demographic in America, including white me. And yet they are least capitalized businesses. This isn't about capability; it's about deep-rooted biases in the funding world.

Adam Smith, way back in the 1700s, theorized that an “invisible hand” theory assumes that all market participants have equal access to resources, capital, knowledge and opportunities. Conceptually then, governmental regulation inhibits free market forces where capital naturally flows to the best founders and their ideas. The invisible hand imagines a society with economic freedom in which everyone makes rational economic decisions. 

However, racism and sexism aren’t rational. Diverse-led firms, studies show with regularity, tend to be more profitable, innovative, productive and capital-efficient than monoculture companies. Thus, in a rational market, more capital would flow in the direction of the highest performing companies. But for some strange reason, the opposite is occurringBlum loves to talk about how the marketplace should be open for everyone, but that's just a fairytale when the game is fixed. The Fearless Fund is in the business of actually leveling the playing field. Equity and diversity oriented funds like Fearless Fund exist for the sole purpose of addressing a market failure head-on, and that's what has the old guard shaking in their boots.

It's time to face the facts: white men are swimming in venture capital while Black women are left high and dry. That's not a free market; that's a distorted reality. If merit was the only factor, we'd see a whole lot more funding flowing to Black women entrepreneurs.

So, what's Blum's big solution? Tear down programs like the Fearless Fund and then what? Crickets. He wants to maintain a status quo that doesn’t say the quiet part out loud of a tradition that pretends to be equal and rational but is really open to only a few. [Insert Joh Doerr] This keeps the privileged in power, plain and simple. Saying you are open to all with a portfolio comprised solely of white male founders flies in the face of rational economic decision making given the facts we’ve already stated.

At The Impact Seat Foundation, we're not backing down. We stand with the Fearless Fund and everyone fighting to break down systemic barriers. It's time for real solutions, not empty talk.

Our goal is an America where programs like the Fearless Fund aren't needed anymore—not because they've been shut down, but because we've rooted out the inequities they're addressing.

If you believe in equity and justice, stand with us against this discriminatory lawsuit. Juneteenth reminds us that the conspiracy to exploit the labor of people of color while underutilizing their full talents has not abated.Together, we can build a future that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.