Three years ago I wrote a blog post on becoming consciously unbiased in which I stated that many of the problems that women of color entrepreneurs face are rooted in unconscious bias. I guess I was still hopeful that at our capitalist core, green was what mattered most and that changing the game for women of color was mostly a matter of getting more investors and other influencers to understand the economics of investing in black and Latinx entrepreneurs, especially women. We set out on a path to change that by making sure that the entrepreneurs selected for our Women of Color Connecting initiative pilot launched in February 2019 were seen and that we were introducing investors to them. We developed a strong community of champions and allies who rolled up their sleeves to support this effort. Our Summit in February 2020 grew to include increased participation of white women angel investors and we even had a panel called “Unpacking Privilege: A Conversation with 4 White Guys,” which was an important conversation that got everyone thinking, especially the panelists. We were all set to build on that and then COVID struck.
With everyone home in 2020, people had time to focus on current events. Through that focus, people (who are not black) finally paid attention to the fact that an all too frequent cause of death for black people is, well, engaging in normal daily activities while being black — the legacy of our history. I call it the “awakening.” This awakening was long overdue and just what we needed. In fact, I thought it was great that people were finally acknowledging that problems exist and that black people are not always treated fairly (understatement). I was excited to think that armed with this knowledge we would finally be able to address the barriers that keep women of color entrepreneurs from full participation in the capitalist economy. We were getting increasingly more interest in Women of Color Connecting and I was more hopeful than ever.
It was when I started seeing all the big announcements by major companies about the small-dollar grants they would be doling out to black-owned businesses that my hopefulness turned to anger and then disappointment. When I think about all the money