Now That All The DEI Money Has Dried Up: Where to Next?
Let’s face it. We’re at a turning point in this country as a people. Those of us prided ourselves on telling stories of resilience, rat and roach infested projects, and being the first to ever do anything in our families, are finding that our stories are falling on deaf ears. The jig is up. Anyone who had so much as a toe let in the door is being asked to show and prove. Where are the results? Where are the systems, the infrastructure, the ROI, and the transference of resilience into results. Yeah, it’s a tough pill to swallow, but someone had to say it.
So what happened…what went wrong? Welp, I’ll say it. I’m used to being the bad guy. I say what no one even has the courage to think–let alone utter out loud. Here’s where we went wrong family:
We’ve been building from:
- Resilience, not vision.
- Narratives of survival, not infrastructure for scaling.
- The pain of exclusion, not the logic of ownership.
And while those stories were necessary — they were not enough.
All that sad rapping and violin slanging may have garnered a few dollars. All a drop in the bucket when you really think about it. What’s unfortunate though, the thing that hurts me the most, is what we lost in the process.
What We Lost in the Process:
- Our institutional memory. There was a time when we had credit unions, banks, schools, hospitals, newspapers, and real intergenerational enterprise.
- Our blueprint-making power. We stopped designing frameworks and started mimicking startup culture — chasing someone else’s blueprint instead of making our own.
- Our God given ambition. We replaced long-game architecture with grant cycles, visibility sprints, and applause-seeking in rooms that could never hold us.
What Happened With DEI (And Why It Failed):
DEI offered visibility without infrastructure.
A seat at the table, but no capital stack, no hiring power, no systems.
It was:
- Performative inclusion instead of real redistribution
- Emotional validation instead of structural access
- Short-term applause instead of long-term ownership
And many of us tried to build inside that window — hoping it would stay open. Here’s the thing though: it was a containment strategy. And now that the pressure’s off–they’re closing the window and walking away — quietly, shamefully, predictably.
So what now?
Now we stop asking.
We stop proving.
We stop trying to convince people of our worth.
Now we build infrastructure again. But this time:
- Rooted in our rhythm, not their rubric.
- Funded through strategy, not sympathy.
- Carried by teams, not martyrs.
- Designed for hiring and inheritance, not hustle and harm.
No more tugging at the sleeves of white guilt. No more chasing visibility instead of valuation. No more businesses that can’t even pay one salary.
I’m calling my people back to:
- Economic institution-building
- Sound capital logic
- Valuation-driven systems
- Team development as wealth strategy
- Architectural leadership, not brand-based visibility