The Chicago Bar Foundation’s Post

“This is a situation that clearly predates all of us. However, it is a problem that we can work together to solve. In fact. it is our hope that we can collaborate to avoid burdensome and costly litigation that has occurred in several states.” Read more… Putting a plan together to make our HBCUs successful for current and future students. #nextgeneration #students #funding #HBCU

Thanks to thought leader, Gillian Marcelle, PhD, for yet another informative, incisive post. The sad, absolute intent of this oxy*moronic* “anti-DEI civil rights” advocacy is to turn back the modest economic inclusion progress we’ve made since the late 1960s. This has been the plan of white supremacist American elements (and their accomplices) since the Reconstruction and Jim Crow periods with continuing repercussions today. It’s just that they wear suits at their convenings now instead of white robes and hoods. Equally and eminently qualified US Black/Brown entrepreneurs still only receive less than 1% of business funding. Black women only get .6% of business funding. Native American women fare even worse and Latinas aren’t doing much better. And when we pool our own resources with those of allies of all backgrounds to level the playing field, it’s some how reverse discrimination? And anyway Fearless Fund supports historically underfunded women of all backgrounds. This is not a Black-only issue. If Fearless Fund loses, all community-based DEI efforts to support equally qualified entrepreneurs, including the thousands of women’s and LGBTQ/IA funds, will be attacked next. Where were these pseudo-equity advocates as economic discrimination and disparity continued to be the norm for Black/Brown women the past almost 60 years? And this doesn’t even mention our deepening oligarchy and wealth disparities. The American Dream is increasingly inaccessible to most US Americans. Wealth, economic opportunity, and upward mobility are more concentrated in the hands of a certain segment of uber-wealthy white men than ever before. They will manipulate race and gender anyway they can to concentrate power. As the funding disparity statistics show, 400 years of deliberate racist and sexist economic discrimination *cannot* be overcome in just 57 years—less than my lifetime. This was never about Fearless Fund’s First Amendment rights. It’s about whether the US really cares about extending the rights of truly free enterprise embedded in our Constitution to everyone. Whatever happens, know this. #NeverForget that when our African ancestors were enslaved, we found ways to pool our time, talent, resources, and voice to free and uplift our communities and our countries throughout the Americas, Africa, and our Diaspora. We will find ways to do it again! We will *always* overcome! Join Black Philanthropy Month 2024 and the world to create new #BlackFundingFutures today at https://lnkd.in/ecaY7-94. #Amandla #Ashe #Ubuntu

Well, as of 2 Jan 2024, I'm no longer a young trustee - just an average aged one! There simply are not enough trustees under 30. Young trustees provide such a rich, different perspective to those who are, let's say, more experienced. Both are absolutely vital. Trustees of all ages should be actively involved in encouraging their boards to include young trustees. We can all play our part. #YoungTrustees #LivedExperience #YouthVoices

Looking for an easy way to tell the PE story and the far-reaching impacts of #PrivateEquity? This tool can help. ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/ePvWawsz Integrate it into your lobbying to connect your campaigns against predatory private equity firms to a systemic analysis of how PE harms different parts of the economy. Usable at local, state, federal levels as leave-behinds in addition to your one-pagers and fact sheets. Introducing the concept of #PrivateEquity in your organizing programs? This coloring book can supplement your political education training sessions and help a broad audience understand what PE is and why we need to fight back against their growing power.

Do you want to save California? Here is exactly how you can help. Here are bold solutions to three specific, winning, nonpartisan issues. Presentation starts at 3:00. https://lnkd.in/gAypdm2R

In her recent piece, Jennifer Swayne Njuguna, Esq. SHRM-SCP helps us zoom out to understand how the recent Circuit Court ruling against Fearless Fund is just one of a larger set of legal and political actions that aim to restrict rights and permanently block any attempt to remedy historic and ongoing race-based harms. A narrow focus will only further harm our ability to secure broad based rights and remedies. In her words, "It’s not that we can’t achieve victory through legal, political, and other tools, but that we have to remain vigilant, readily do the work to immobilize the inevitable recoil that mutes our victories, and actively design and demand the future we want." Read on to see the connectivity of this backlash we are witnessing and for actionable ways we can push forward: https://lnkd.in/gib89jaH #racialbacklash #equitableeconomy #impactinvesting #communityinvesting #communityfunding #economicprogress

On our newest episode on Pod for the Cause: #Brown vs Board of Education at 70: Still Unequal, I spoke with Saba Bireda, co-founder and chief counsel, Brown’s Promise; Hamida Labi, Esq., senior policy counsel, Legal Defense Fund; and my colleague Liz King, senior program director for education equity, about the sobering reality that, 70 years later, American schools remain starkly separate and profoundly unequal. https://lnkd.in/eRQfMekn

TY Bill Ackman 👍 "This is an excellent summary of the serious legal and fiduciary implications to @Penn, @Harvard and @MIT of their presidents’ failed leadership, and why Gay’s and Kornbluth’s continued employment creates substantial additional risk for Harvard and MIT. "In sum, by continuing to employ Gay and Kornbluth, both Harvard and MIT are continuing to endorse managements’ conduct and previous actions, deepening the universities’ liability. "In a corporate context, all three would have been dismissed within minutes of an emergency meeting of the boards. For now, only Penn has acted decisively. "Non-profit boards are often slow to act because they don’t have feedback from a massive stock drop and angry shareholders screaming at the directors. That said, the alumni are certainly screaming and they are shorting their donations. "The proverbial stock prices of Harvard and MIT have dropped more than 50% since the October 6th close, while @Penn" "Penn’s recovery will depend on whether and how its board is refreshed, who they choose as their next president, and whether they make necessary fundamental changes to the institution. "The same holds true for the others." - Bill Ackman Bill Ackman https://lnkd.in/giCeu8_A

“What we are witnessing, once again, is the alignment of white power against racial justice and redress. We now have a legal landscape that takes the very laws created to eliminate the anti-Black caste system and uses them destroy racial justice efforts.” This is an important analysis.