Wealthy extremists attacking funding for Black Women Entrepreneurs are Desperate to Preserve Systemic Inequality

“In the face of persistent, systemic discrimination against Black people and all people of color arising from our country’s long history of racism, Ed Blum and his recently-created front group are bent on dismantling programs benefiting the Black community.

- Marc H. Morial

They seek to kneecap any effort to undo entrenched racial inequalities and further cement the status quo of inequitable market access.” -- Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In recent years, women entrepreneurs of color have started companies at more than four times the rate of the overall population.

In 2021, 17% of Black women were in the process of starting or running new businesses, compared to 10% of white women and 15% of white men.

While Black women represent 14% of the female population, they account for 42% of net new women-owned businesses.

Black women business owners who apply for funding are rejected at three times the rate of white business owners. Only 3% of black women-owned companies mature and survive longer than five years. Last year, only 0.1 percent – one-tenth of one percent – of venture capital funds went to Black and Latino women founders.