A company long-known for advocating for the advancement of women and minority-owned businesses is fighting to get a historic racial discrimination lawsuit against them dismissed.
Hello Alice, co-founded by former Peace Corps officer Elizabeth Gore and Carolyn Rodz, provided $25,000 grants t0 Black-owned small businesses earlier this year, and is now being accused of infringing on non-Black business owners’ civil rights.
The move comes as a wider campaign unfolds that was enacted by a group of conservatives instrumental in the affirmative action ban, per a report by Press Democrat. The outlet writes that the lawsuit was filed in August in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division by America First Legal, Mitchell Law PLLC and Ashbrook Byrne Kresge LLC.
“The activists at AFL (America First Legal) are using their lawsuit against Hello Alice to support their efforts to fundraise,” the statement that was posted to Hello Alice’s Instagram account reads. “Our values are not ‘gentle-sounding euphemisms.’ These are the pillars upon which we built Hello Alice and guide our mission to drive capital, connections, and opportunities into the hands of small businesses of all types and backgrounds.”
This lawsuit alleges that Hello Alice engaged in unlawful racial discrimination by helping Progressive Insurance award grants to 10 Black owned small businesses.
“Hello Alice strongly disagrees with the legal theory of this lawsuit, which is part of a larger strategy to attack voluntary, private-sector efforts to combat the lingering effects of racism on the American economy,” a Hello Alice rep said in statement shared with ESSENCE. “This lawsuit comes from Stephen Miller, who just vowed, “No company or workplace will be left untouched. Racial-bias training, inclusive hiring practices, efforts to promote women and narrow the gender pay gap: all of that and more is on the line.”
Constitutional attorney Neal Katyal is representing Hello Alice in this case.
The suit comes on the heels of legal action taken against the Fearless Fund, a Black woman owned and led VC that exclusively funds Black woman-owned businesses.
As previously reported by ESSENCE, the nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by right wing conservative Edward Blum cited section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a U.S. law barring racial bias in private contracts, to call out that the Fearless Fund is in violation of discrimination laws by making only Black women eligible to participate in the marquee grant competition. Earlier this year, federal courts granted Blum’s request to temporarily halt Fearless Fund’s grant program. Now, Hello Alice is possibly facing the same fate.
“Hello Alice strongly disagrees with the legal theory of this lawsuit, which is part of a larger strategy to attack voluntary, private-sector efforts to combat the lingering effects of racism on the American economy. We think this case is meritless and sets the nation, and small businesses, back, ” Elizabeth Gore Co-Founder of Hello Alice shared with ESSENCE in a statement. “This lawsuit comes from Stephen Miller, who just vowed, “No company or workplace will be left untouched. Racial-bias training, inclusive hiring practices, efforts to promote women and narrow the gender pay gap: all of that and more is on the line.”
The Hello Alice founders say they plan to fight the suit.
“Hello Alice has administered over $40 million in grants to entrepreneurs who are job creators of all races, industries, genders and geographies,” an emailed statement shared with ESSENCE reads. “Our technology has connected 1.4 million of you with loans, credit, grants or resources to grow your business. Now that AFL has poked the small business bear, we are doubling down, and doing so, as always, in a lawful way that holds true to America’s core values. Apply now or nominate a small business for a potential $1,000 grant at www.ElevateTheAmericanDream.com.”