The Pursuit of Being Equal
With this Sunday being International Women’s Day, now seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to address the issues concerning not just gender equality in the workplace, but also background inequality.
What does “Each for Equal” mean to you. Tomorrows a historic day for women worldwide, but the modern-day African Entrepreneur is seeking an explanation as to why every other minority group is entrusted by western investors from the onset of a pitch deck or introduction, but trepidation lingers against the unknown African Entrepreneur from the original motherland.
Talent has no gender or race i strongly believe wholeheartedly. This International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate how far women have come, but still, highlight our biases against what we know and what we are afraid to be enlightened upon. He looks like Mark Zuckerberg, he has the audacity of Evan Spiegel, he’s very tactical and charismatic like Jack Dorsey, so the chance and the belief is placed upon them to make a change. Off our looks, qualifications, background or even pigmentation?
Equality means belonging “no matter what my gender is, my race or my economic standing.” ~ I was told.
While great progress has been made for many serial entrepreneurs from other backgrounds who dropped out of school before actually creating a single product with tangible traction, the same cannot be said for others who come from a different walks of life. Old attitudes and thinking still prevail mightily, attitudes that are unhelpful to everyone including women and others of minority backgrounds.
Working environments that do not lend themselves to work-life balance and cultural assumptions about limitations based on background or gender should be things of yesterday.
We need a culture shift this year and onwards, an African American friend of mine who got his Ph.D. at Stanford, once told me, the western world isn’t ready to enlighten by folks that look like us. I strongly disagree, for entertainment and athletics aren’t the only way people of color should be chosen to show their unique talents, but the case still remains true as African American founders are the least funded entrepreneurs.
Startups need more capital to maintain and sustain on their proverbial runway. Investors want more deals. So what’s the issue about we are unsure about African Heritages and gender biases? We need to change the way we invest to create more successful returns and world-changing organizations that are not just in consumer electronics.
The problem is simply watching investing patterns recognition and obviously funding biases, “In 2016, the Center for Global Policy Solutions reported that due to discriminatory financing practices and a bias towards companies primarily operated by white males, America is losing out on over 1.1 million minority-owned businesses, and as a result, foregoing over 9 million potential jobs and $300 billion in collective national income.”
Pattern recognition has enabled VC’s to mitigate financial risks, but it has also limited their profit potential and created an inherent funding bias. Partnership & Collaboration are key to changing biases at the top and equitably increasing investment readiness at an early stage for most minorities.
Although entrepreneurs are expected to raise friends and family rounds in the early start-up face, this expectation is born of bias. African-Americans have an average net worth of $11,000 compared to $144,000 for white Americans. With this lack of access to early capital and generational wealth, most family members and friends can not invest, regardless of how great the idea is. Go get a real job in the valuetainment industry!
“Equal for equal” simply means more than just gender equality in 2020. We can achieve a culture where we’re investing and partnering together in diverse teams regardless of gender, background, race, class, sexual identity, and position station in life. This is more important in today’s world, for as we ushered in the year 2020, we have had to deal with the coronavirus and ongoing changes to our climate
We should all be advocates for diversity, mixed with a lot of inclusion, for those two simply reinstate equality. We normalize our history too much until a pandemic hits then we realize we are made from the creator. We value what we see every day, but every tall attractive creative African American doesn’t always want to make a living on stage dancing and shocking and jiving. The real question is do we even care to see what we value if our eyes have never been open to something very dynamic and differentiated from the pack.
My best advice? Take a chance on something new by stepping out of your comfort zone! We’re so much better when we work together.
Embrace partnership & collaboration over pattern recognition, modern day VC Funding Bias. And when you see bias — both in your own behavior or someone else’s, call it out. We need to educate each other to be better.
Do good things, and more great things will happen for you.
All Items worn in video crafted and sold exclusively @ https://www.edikanmoses.com/collections/ek-her
