OPINION: The question isn’t whether DEI initiatives are necessary—the data screams that they are. The real question is: Why are some folks so scared of a level playing field?
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Even though Black people aren’t the primary beneficiaries of so-called DEI policies, we are the target of campaigns to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion. Let that sink in. We live in a country that is so steeped in anti-Blackness that the masses are upset at the thought of “equity” for Black people. Enough so that they will hurt other groups to keep us in our place. When they say “DEI,” I hear the “n—-r” loud and clear.
These DEI lawsuits, executive orders, and outcries flooding our headlines? They’re not about “discrimination against white people” or “merit-based decisions.” They’re about maintaining the chokehold on Black economic progress. As someone who’s moved through elite spaces as a lawyer, founded and sold a successful tech company, and now leads a venture fund, I know tech is the new frontier for wealth creation. They know it too, which is why the anti-DEI movement is so focused on tech.
And it’s not just Elon Musk. Tech bros have cultivated a false myth of meritocracy in the tech, venture, and startup spaces because it makes them feel good to explain their success in these terms instead of being steeped in the same white privilege that slave-holding ancestors leveraged to build extractive wealth (which they also claimed was accumulated by “pulling themselves up by the bootstraps”).
For example, Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, said at an event last year, “If you think of the woke DEI whole coalition as a combination of true laborers and useful idiots, and, you know, from the capitalists or people who are in some corrupt racket, that’s probably a far more powerful coalition.” Would you be surprised to learn that Peter Thiel was born in West Germany, lived in apartheid South Africa as a child, and then went on to Stanford University and law school? Like Musk, who is South African, the ideas they are espousing aren’t stemming from a commitment to talent and meritocracy over everything else. It’s a deep-seated belief in white superiority, such that any advancement of Black people (and pathways that facilitate that advancement) is intolerable.
Here are tweets from Paul Graham, co-founder of the pre-eminent Y Combinator startup accelerator:
Are these folks really out here pretending that Black founders getting 0.4% of ALL venture capital funding is somehow…too much? When I founded my first startup in 2019, I saw firsthand how the deck is stacked against Black entrepreneurs. I never raised venture capital for that company, but I successfully bootstrapped it to acquisition, selling it to Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2021.
“But what about merit?” they cry, while conveniently ignoring how Black-founded companies consistently deliver higher median returns compared to their white-founded counterparts. A Boston Consulting Group study found that businesses founded by Black entrepreneurs generated about $1.4 trillion in revenue and created approximately 4 million jobs. Yet here we are, watching lawsuits trying to shut down the few funds explicitly working to close this gap. Data has shown that when minority startups are funded, we actually have better outcomes. Of course, those are not the meritocracy numbers that the mainstream chooses to focus on right now.
While manufactured outrage machines are suing Black-focused venture funds for “discrimination,” the actual discrimination happening in venture capital is astronomical. The same people clutching their pearls about DEI initiatives are real quiet about how Black founders received less than half a percent of the $288 billion in venture capital deployed in 2023. They’re silent about how Black women founders got just 0.123% of venture capital funding between 2021 and 2023. Because that’s what they think is natural, based on what they believe we deserve and also what our abilities are. It’s why “DEI” is the go-to when they see us excelling—they cannot fathom that Black people have the merit that they stress so much when they scream meritocracy.
This isn’t about protecting anyone’s rights. This is about protecting white privilege’s monopoly on capital. When I founded Fictive Ventures, focusing on both Black founders and investors, it wasn’t because we wanted to exclude anyone. It was because the existing system has been excluding us since forever, and we’re done waiting for permission to build wealth in our communities.
These attacks on DEI initiatives aren’t happening in a vacuum. They’re happening right as Black Americans are finally gaining a foothold in corporate America, right as we’re building our own tables instead of begging for seats at theirs. The timing isn’t coincidental – it’s tactical. Why was Fearless Fund, which invests in women of color, sued for racial discrimination, but the Female Founders Fund, led by a white woman, was not sued for gender discrimination?
“But shouldn’t everything be colorblind?”
Wealth in America has never been colorblind. Not when billions in wealth were accumulated by working and leveraging enslaved Black people. Not when Black families have about $0.13 for every dollar of wealth held by white families. Not when redlining’s effects still impact Black homeownership. And certainly not in venture capital, where Black entrepreneurs are still fighting to get crumbs from a hundreds-of-billion-dollar table.
What we’re seeing now is an all-out offensive to maintain the status quo by people who see racial equity as a threat to their privilege. The question isn’t whether DEI initiatives are necessary – the data screams that they are. The real question is: Why are some folks so scared of a level playing field? It’s because they don’t want us “DEIs” to have anything.
We’ll take it anyway.
Khadijah A. Robinson has led an impressive career as a lawyer, entrepreneur, innovator, and investor. In 2019, Khadijah started The Nile List, an online discovery platform for Black-owned e-commerce brands. In 2021, The Nile List was acquired by Combs Enterprises and Empower Global, and Khadijah served as CEO of Empower Global for 2 years, leading all fundraising, operations, and development. Khadijah consults and coaches with a wide range of entrepreneurs personally and as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Black Ambition. She served as the Chief Operating Officer for The Majira Project, a business accelerator, backed by Boston Consulting Group, for underrepresented founders. She currently leads the LIFT Incubator program for STEM startups in Atlanta with the Center for Black Entrepreneurship in addition to serving as a General Partner at Fictive Ventures, the first venture fund focused on early stage Black led startups as well as Black investors.
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