DINT 79 - The Curious Case of Edward Blum and His Quest to End 'Inequality'

Today’s Friday Feature day and we have an editorial piece for you centered on Edward Blum, the activist attorney seeking to destroy racial diversity initiatives wherever he finds them. For some reason gender diversity misses his radar, calling into question his calls for equality and his focus on disenfranchising Black and Brown people.

Also, we have our daily top five news stories and there are a couple of uplifting stories of hope and solutions for those looking to improve quality of life through tech.

Today’s Top 5 News Stories in Tech, Race, and Gender

1/ Africa’s M-PESA Links with Microsoft to Expand Digital Literacy on The Continent

2 and 3/ European Nations Crack Down on Tech Giants’ Domination

4/ New App Helps Black and Brown Moms Turn to Tech for Unbiased OB-GYN Reviews

5/ Cool Feature on Black Female CEO Leading a Fortune 500 Company

Anti-Affirmative-Action Lawyer Edward Blum Seeks to Destroy Economic Program Supporting Black Businesses - Why?

This week two stories stood out for their common theme and their uncommon media coverage.

At the annual Grace Hopper Job Fair in Orlando this week, male jobseekers flooded the event that was intended for women and non-binary people. The uproar was deafening.

Also this week, Fearless Fund lost in a judicial proceeding causing the VC firm looking to back Black female led businesses to suspend its first contest to grant funds. What I heard in the mass media: crickets.

Enemies at the Gates: Edward Blum Looks to Stamp Out Funding

The Grace Hopper Job Fair debacle featured an enemy: male professional ambition run amok.

The Fearless Fund’s enemy is an activist called Edward Blum, someone who targets the one organization looking to get funding for the group that receives the least of it. (According to Pew Research, Black women-led businesses capture less than 1% of the multi-billion dollar venture capital funds availble to startups.)

The calls for justice appear to be uneven. There are many ways racism and bias plague our world.

It seems the objection of Edward Blum is that the Fearless Fund comes out and says the contest is for Black women only.

Make It Accessible to All - Black Women Will Survive , Maybe

The answer, one might say, would be to simply remove the focus on Black women, make the contest open to all, and ensure everyone has access to the funds.

As we’ve seen at the Grace Hopper event, changing the focus and intent of an initiative created to incite more participation by the underrepresented is vulnerable to those who have no shame and seek to take from those who have the least.

The Unwritten Rules of Venture Capital: Who Has Access and Who Doesn’t and Why History Matters

Now, venture capital firms that back White/South Asian male-led startups don’t advertise that they’ll only fund this demographic. They just do it.

I’ve learned people can always find a reason to put money behind something, even if that reason is seemingly miniscule. Yet Black women remain at the bottom of the venture capital trickle down economy, getting what’s left after other groups have swept up vast amounts of investments.

For years, though, White dominance in the financial and business sectors were fueled by open policies of exclusion. After the Equal Righs Amendment, the birth of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and laws dedicated to “evening the playing field” those open policies no longer exist … on paper.

The policies, as we can plainly see by the funding trends among racial groups, are so intrenched in our financial systems, there’s no longer a need to put them on paper. It’s hard coded into decision making at the highest levels.

It’s not that White/South Asian male-led companies are more deserving of funding. It’s that other groups aren’t given the early support needed to reach a level where they’re attractive to investors. 

Fearless Fund provides that early support. And, for some reason, Edward Blum wants to stop this. He wants to ensure equality for all, he says. That’s a tall order.

• Why didn’t Blum sue the Grace Hopper event organizers for making the event exclusive to women and non-binary people?

• Why start with an organization dedicated to helping those who have the least?

• Why mobilize a mass movement to keep oppressive systems in place?

Leveling the playing field doesn’t mean people who already have advantages will somehow lose them. Group-exclusive initiatives seek to re-wire systems that were designed to funnel funds and opportunities only to White/South Asian men.

Mr. Blum wants this to no longer exist, at least … not for Black women.

What’s Happening in Tech

Gartner IT Symposium,
October 16 - 19, 2023
Orlando, FL

I went to this event last year. It was packed! But there were very frew people of color there. The ones who were there were almost all men. Still, in the midst of 10,000 people any time we would see each other we would nod and acknowledge each other. That love and support does so much when you’re in a sea of otherness. Seeing your likeness, even for a brief moment, heals much pain.

More tech events to check out this month:

Black Tech Fest, London - October 10 - 12, 2023

Generative AI Summit, Boston - October 19, 2023

AI DevWorld, Virtual - October 31 - November 2, 2023

Palate Cleanser

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arlaniah

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