ATLANTA — Representatives of Atlanta investment firm Fearless Fund spoke publicly for the first time Thursday about a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court last week.
“We are not scared. We are fearless,” said Arian Simone, president and co-founder of Fearless Fund, during a Thursday press conference in New York City, according to reporting from the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
The American Alliance of Equal Rights (AAER) filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleging that a Fearless Fund program providing grants to Black women to grow their businesses violates federal civil rights law.
AAER is backed by conservative activist Edward Blum, who also founded the group behind the lawsuits resulting in the Supreme Court's June ruling barring affirmative action in college admissions.
Blum’s latest lawsuit appears to be part of a movement against the use of race-based policies in many aspects of American life, including business. The Fearless Fund aims to address racial and gender inequities in venture funding by investing in women-of-color-owned businesses.
Fearless Fund leaders and lawyers said they are certain they will beat the challenge.
“We look forward to demonstrating the simple fact that it is not illegal to support economic opportunity for women of color,” said Mylan Denerstein, a partner at Los Angeles-headquartered law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which will serve as lead counsel.
The lawyers for the Fearless Fund declined to provide a timeline or details of their legal strategy during the Thursday press conference.