By:  Saidah Nash Carter for Genius Guild

December 2021 

This year we emerged from our lockdowns into the continued uncertainty of a global pandemic, and holding a deeper resolve to be better humans.  We spent 2020 shell shocked, reflecting, recalibrating, and working out our plans both to survive and to make the change the world needs.  For some, it was an opportunity to build empathy and to develop  a new understanding of racism and capitalism.  For others it was a rallying cry to accelerate  an age-old quest for equity and justice.  When 2021 showed up, we were ready to put plans into action, to implement learnings and unlearnings, and to show up differently.  A seminal and transitional year in many ways and a calling to level-up.  

Genius Guild  launched in April with the very clear intention to apply an anti-racist lens to venture investing in Black communities.  The always pioneering Kathryn Finney, realized her vision to  build a venture capital fund specifically designed to fund companies whose business models work to end racism in the many ways it shows up.  The Genius Guild approach blends three investment frameworks in order to center racial equity while building and investing in  new businesses:       

This blend in investment approach is also a reflection of Genius Guild’s overall value set.  It’s working.  In less than a year, Genius Guild has built an incredible portfolio of Black-led,  tech-enabled businesses ranging from a digital platform connecting BIPOC women with culturally sensitive healthcare to a mobile social video platform for anime.  The studio is building a values-aligned community of Black innovators and charting a course for economic empowerment and development in Black communities. Innovation drives empowerment.    

While on this journey together, our brilliant colleague, Taryn Miller-Stevens, shared learnings and reflections on her journey as a member of the Genius Guild launch team, and as an active ally in the mission for racial equity overall.  She highlighted the mixed emotions and discomfort that often comes with deeply engaging racial equity work from the vantage point of white privilege.  Her journey through guilt, nervousness,and self-doubt ends with her own authentic path to impact.  We are here for it.    

In the face of  pledges and platitudes,  many have stepped up to show that allyship is an action word. And it shows up in many ways.  I was trolled on LinkedIn this year for the first time.  The troll was responding to a post referencing some well known Citibank research. The headline was that racism has stifled economic growth in the US to the tune of $16 trillion since 2000.   Before I had the  chance to respond, an old colleague  stepped up in my defense.  He shut the troll down both quickly and summarily.  Nic Fulton and I worked together building news products for Reuters Media  back in the day.  It was ages ago when I last spoke to Nic, and it was such a wonderful  surprise to reconnect in this way. I thank Nic deeply for his allyship.   

Significant work remains to move beyond the pledges and press releases.  According to Fortune Magazine, American companies pledged $50 billion toward racial equity following George Floyd’s murder, however, only $250 million has actually been spent or committed to a specific initiative.  We need our allies in Corporate America and elsewhere to help break down the racist systems and processes blocking fund disbursement. Black and Brown communities have been most negatively impacted by racism and capitalism and these companies need to put their money where their mouth is.   We need our allies to help move  these funds from corporate bank accounts into the bank accounts of the communities who so desperately need and deserve the funds.  

Speaking of big problems that require collective action at scale, just how far has Genius Guild and our global community of changemakers been able to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals this year?  2020 began the final decade’s march to the target date of 2030.   Sadly and perhaps unsurprisingly,  the SDGs were off track even before COVID-19 hit the scene.   To be fair,  progress has been made in poverty reduction, maternal and child health, access to electricity, and gender equality.  However, progress has stalled or reversed in areas including reducing inequality, lowering carbon emissions and tackling hunger.  We need more of the bold action we saw this year.  More collaboration, more co-creation, more learning and more unlearning.  I hold hope and believe that change is afoot and gaining momentum.  While it is unlikely that we will achieve all seventeen goals in the next 8 years, we must keep our collective foot on the gas. I’m also hopeful that when the next United Nations goal setting committee comes together to assess progress and to set the next goal framework, they will build on the spirit of Goal #16 and make eradicating racism an explicit goal.      

In closing and in the spirit of gratitude, I want to thank our elders and our ancestors and to acknowledge the lessons of both 2020 and 2021.  These years gifted us with wisdom through struggle and reflection. As we look forward to 2022, we are ramping up with more resolve, more knowledge, more tools and more allies.