I shared an email with Varuna’s investors and advisors a few days ago and the response was positive enough that I realized it was time to share it with a larger group of people. The responses were along the lines of

‘What can I do because I didn’t know, haven’t used my voice or wasn’t listening before?’.

So we’re sharing a list, which we will continue to update, that helps them start to do the work towards equity and justice for black people in America. Find below

1. An opportunity to Sign up here and commit to hiring more black employees or funding more black founders.
2. An extract of the email, laying out what needs to happen for us to move forward towards an equitable and just society for black people.
3. Resources to read, donate, watch, and actions you can take to help the fight for equity and justice.

#blacklivesmatter

Email We Sent To Our Investors/Advisors

In light of the racist events and protests in the US, some of you have reached out to check in on Jamail and me. For that, we say ‘Thank You’. We truly appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Sadly, the incidents last week are par for the course being black in America. Part of the shock is that even during a pandemic/record unemployment/societal panic, black bodies are still being violently policed. Some friends/colleagues have shared that it’s awkward for them or they don’t know what to say. My response has been to highlight that you can

• demand justice/equity for black people,
• love America,
• support the police/forces

all at the same time. If it’s awkward for them, it’s dangerous for us. I’ve also offered this MLK speech from 1968 (which has been thoroughly cherry-picked over the last few days) where he offers that

1. We admit that this country is racist. The country was built off the back of an assumption that black slaves were less than and needed to be policed. Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became police departments, were designed to monitor and punish minorities (native Americans and slaves).
2. Make a collective change of heart now. To know this and continue to be silent is to be complicit.
3. Legislation, policy, and, true societal accountability will work where the heart isn’t willing to change. Some of you have the clout and the wherewithal to impact the policy and legislature. Especially at the local level.
4. Economic inequality is a big part of the problem. ‘Pulling yourself up by bootstraps’ only works when you have shoes. Put your money where your heart is with a recognition that the financial system is not working well for black and minority groups.
5. Our collective fate, the fate of this country, is dependent on getting justice and equity for black people/minority groups.

Doing the work above in no way diminishes your own personal comforts and rights. Staying on the sideline ‘because this is not my fight’ or ‘it is inconvenient’, that is the real problem.

This morning I shared a similar email with the team and thought to share it with you our investors and advisors. We’d be remiss if we didn’t speak up. It’s emotionally tough times but our families are staying positive and prayerful. This punctuation in our evolution will knock us out of the stasis we’ve been in…and on the other side, we truly believe things will be better.

And find below our initial suggestions on where you can go and educate yourself and what you can do. This is about seeing black people as equals. On the evidence of the last several hundred years, there’s a lot of work to do.

Resources

Educating yourself

• As mentioned above, there is an economic angle to where we are and we will need to rectify that to get equity and justice. Color of Money, by Mehrsa Baradaran, clearly articulates where we’ve gone wrong with our financial systems and the impact on black communities.
• And ‘Boss’ on PBS dives into black entrepreneurship and the barriers systemic racism have put on it https://www.pbs.org/wnet/boss/video/boss-the-black-experience-in-business-nguxge/
• Read James Baldwin‘s’ The Fire Next Time. And watch this short 1971 video that could have been recorded this morning.

• Read Audre Lorde: Sister Outsider Speeches and Essays or a Burst of Light
• ‘The New Jim Crow’ by Michelle Alexander is one that gave me a true understanding of the prison industrial complex.
• Angela Davis has been doing this work for decades.
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.
• Melody Hobson proposed we should be color brave https://www.ted.com/talks/mellody_hobson_color_blind_or_color_brave/up-next#t-342513
• The comprehensive anti-racism ally list.
• In the video below, Toni Morrison speaks about the LA riots. Again, it could have been today and her essays ‘The Source of Self-regard’ add more context to the struggle.

• ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’ by Isabel Wilkerson about the great black migration.
• Ava Duvernay’s 13th is a visual representation of Michelle Alexander’s book above. It will stay with you. And you should take action every time it bubbles up in your consciousness.
• I shared 1619 in my newsletter and if this is the first thing and the only thing you read, you’d have done well. It’s an interactive set of essays that explore how slavery is embedded in every US system/structure.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates’ ‘Case for Reparations’ talks about redlining and segregation in our cities. Chicago, a city that is dear to me and features heavily in this piece, is an example of most cities in the US.
• Toni Morrison makes the case that the fight for black justice and equity has been seen as directly correlated to this seeming loss in white identity. A false correlation that has led to the political state we are in.
• ‘So You Want To Talk About Race’ by Ijeoma Oluo.
• ‘How to be An Anti-Racist’ by Ibram X. Kendi: Are you (subconsciously or consciously) assimilationist, segregationist, or antiracist? Or some duality within those buckets?
• Systemic Racism Explained

• Lolita Taub is also compiling a similar list here in this LinkedIn post.
• Brene Brown sits with Ibram C Kendi to talk about anti-Racism.
• Watch ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ to truly understand race and inequality.
• Mariela Alfonzo, of State of Place, lays out the data on how black people have been systematically oppressed in the US.

Donating/Spend

• Contribute to George Floyd’s daughter's official fund here. We have.
• The Minnesota Bail Fund was inundated with donations and started directing interested donors to the list of organizations here (compiled and updated by Reclaim the Block).
• Donate to http://Lynchingsitesmem.org
• Reach out to your alma mater to get a sense of how they are addressing inclusion and equity issues. My friend (Dr. Malik Henfield) put out this statement for Loyola University Chicago.
• Some tech folk are matching donations. Here is a list here.
• 85 Black-owned businesses you can buy from in LA.

List of People to Follow on Twitter

To hear more than from just the bubble we are in/echo chamber and get a different perspective.

• @WesleyLowery
• @nhannahjones
• @SorayaMcDonald
• @AdamSerwer
• @jelani9
• @marthasjones_
• @ClintSmithIII
• @Karnythia
• @michele_norris
• @prisonculture
• @barnor_hesse
• @soledadobrien
• @alexi
• @rgay
• @rolandsmartin
• @chaedria
• @rochelleriley
• @aminatou
• @panamajackson
• @VerySmartBros
• @staceyNYCDC
• @jemelehill
• @Yamiche
• @ReignOfApril
• @AprilDRyan

Tech Companies with Black Founders/Hiring Black Talent

• Because equity starts when you write checks for black founders like you write checks to white founders. For the investors amongst you, here is a list of ~300 black venture-backed (i.e. vetted) startups. If the venture capital calculation holds true — of 10 investments, 1 will return the fund, 1 will provide a decent return, 3 will return the investment and five will fail — that investment you make in a ‘pattern fitting’ founder might as well be invested in a black founder. Give us a chance to ‘fail’ fast too.
• A subscription to Sherrell Dorsey’s The Plug Insights will fill you in on all the goings-on in #blacktech.
• Hire diverse and qualified talent, through Wesolv, because the pipeline is not the problem.
• And the pipeline is also not the problem if you need black consultants. Here is a list of ~200.
• Or hire one of these ~420 designers and creatives of color for your next project.
• And this is not about charity as well stated in ‘The Myth of Blackness in Venture’.

Just some initial thoughts here, It’ll be a living article. Jamail and me (and a few friends) are planning some conversations with some of the folk who’ve been doing this work (activists, investors, political leaders) and have some creative ideas about moving the needle (the way we know-how).

#blacklivesmatter.