Fearless Fund CEO and founder Arian Simone won’t go down without a fight. Her Atlanta-based venture capital fund administers resources to Black women in business, trying to level the playing field. But in June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit suspended its $20,000 grant contest. “These judges bought what a small group of white men were selling,” says Simone. Here’s what she means.
Conservative groups have been targeting corporate diversity programs, which received more attention following the 2020 uprisings. They went after Fearless Fund claiming it violated section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act - legislation created to protect formerly enslaved Black people from business contract discrimination.
The court ruled that this argument would likely work in the lawsuit against Simone brought by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, led by the same conservative litigant, Edward Blum, who was behind the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the overturning of affirmative action.
This isn’t the first time legislative wins for previous Black generations have been attacked, criticized, or grossly perverted. Clarence Thomas recently attacked Brown v. Board. In North Carolina, legislation protecting Black Americans from the KKK was flipped to prey on masked protesters.
When the system’s foundational anti-Blackness remains, even laws claimed to benefit Black people can be turned against us. But just because the system can’t offer us the rights and freedoms we need doesn’t mean they aren’t worth fighting for.