The dark money group New Venture Fund spent nearly a billion dollars supporting liberal causes and Democratic politicians in the last election cycle. No doubt, a lot of that money went to people who regularly accused Republicans and conservatives of racism and discrimination.
But now, the Washington Free Beacon has uncovered the uncomfortable facts surrounding two lawsuits filed by female black employees who allege that New Venture Fund doesn’t put its billion dollars where its mouth is. Both women are alleging racism and discrimination by New Venture Fund.
The former employees charge in their suits that the dark money group “paid black women less than white counterparts, and that black employees risked being fired for pushing back against discrimination,” according to WFB.
The suits go on to allege that black women were shouted down by white colleagues when they brought up race.
Both lawsuits accuse New Venture Fund of systematically paying black women less than their white counterparts, and claim minorities risked termination if they dared to blow the whistle on the group’s internal racism. The most recent claim comes from Francesca Weaks, who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against New Venture Fund on Jan. 31. Weaks worked as a racial equity consultant for a New Venture Fund “pop-up” group called the Local Solutions Support Center. She alleges the New Venture Fund looked the other way as she and her diversity, equity, and inclusion colleagues were “subjected to racial harassment.”
“It soon became obvious there was a custom of leaders speaking over Black individuals when they were speaking about race, diversity, and equity,” Weaks alleges in her lawsuit. The lawsuit also describes a June 2021 incident in which a white executive interrupted Weaks during a discussion on “inequities and Critical Race Theory.”
A second black woman, Sarah Walker, also filed a suit “saying she was subjected to rampant racial discrimination and was fired in October 2022 after calling attention to structural racial pay inequities and alleging financial fraud,” according to the website.
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“The progressive public image of New Venture Fund did not translate to a progressive work environment,” Walker alleges in the lawsuit filed late last year. “Ms. Walker faced discrimination during the entirety of her employment, and called out the workplace injustices experienced by her and others.”
The New Venture Fund employed highly questionable fundraising gimmicks of dubious legality that were, at the least, unethical.
Weaks alleges in her lawsuit that her New Venture Fund colleagues duped prospective donors by falsely claiming the organization was partnered with the nation’s most renowned black advocacy organization, the NAACP. Weaks, who once worked for the NAACP, said she was alarmed to learn in 2021 that a white New Venture Fund consultant was trying to trick donors by falsely claiming the charity struck a partnership with her former employer.
When everyone is forced to walk on eggshells in a work environment, watching what they say or do, lest one be accused of being racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or offending any of the left-wing “untouchables” who have hair triggers cocked and ready to scream at any slight — intentional or unintentional — it makes for a highly charged, hyper-sensitive workplace.
I am so glad I don’t work in an office environment with “MeToo” and the anti-racism police running the place.
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