Pictured:
14th
Amendment
violation
Maintaining
a
business
can
be
difficult
—
about
half
of
them
fail
within
the
first
five
years.
But
you
know
what
can
be
even
harder?
Starting
the
damned
thing
as
a
Black
woman.
The
venture
capital
firm
Fearless
Fund
created
a
$20k
grant
specifically
for
Black
women
starting
businesses.
In
doing
so,
they
targeted
a
woefully
underserved
community:“[F]irms
started
by
Black
women
received
only
.0006%
of
VC
funding
raised
by
startups
between
2009
and
2017.”
Empowered
by
the
Supreme
Court’s
history-blind
reading
of
the
14th
Amendment,
Edward
Blum
sued
Fearless
Fund
for
daring
to
equitably
address
the
massive
underfunding
of
Black
business.
AJC
covered
their
recent
settlement:
In
a
2-1
ruling
in
June,
a
three-judge
11th
U.S.
Circuit
Court
of
Appeals
panel
ruled
against
Fearless
and
issued
a
preliminary
injunction
against
the
grant.…
“The
American
Alliance
for
Equal
Rights
encouraged
the
Fearless
Fund
to
open
its
grant
contest
to
Hispanic,
Asian,
Native
American
and
white
women
but
Fearless
has
decided
instead
to
end
it
entirely,”
Edward
Blum,
the
president
of
the
Alliance,
said
in
the
statement.
Blum’s
statement
is,
of
course,
posturing.
Even
if
Fearless
Fund
licked
their
wounds
and
opened
up
the
grant
to
a
broader
audience
of
women,
the
next
suit
would
argue
that
the
grant
discriminates
against
men
and
we’d
be
back
at
the
Chicago
Bears
square.
The
setback
hasn’t
dampened
Fearless
Fund’s
purpose
of
“helping
and
empowering
women
of
color
entrepreneurs
in
need,”
but
it’s
unclear
how
they
will
do
so
with
Blum’s
Brigade
at
the
ready
to
sue
over
targeted
means
of
ameliorating
systemic
inequality.
Atlanta
VC
Firm
Ends
Business
Grant
For
Black
Women
After
Discrimination
Lawsuit
[AJC]
Earlier:
Got
A
Scholarship
For
Women?
Prepare
For
Trouble.
The
Slippery
Slope
Of
Ending
Affirmative
Action
Has
Moved
On
To
Its
Next
Target:
Women
And
‘Proxies
For
Diversity’
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.