From the day of the settlement forward, she said she would not cower nor change her mission of economic inclusion and freedom for women of color founders. Instead, she said she would expand her work to close those funding gaps, not just in the U.S. but across the globe for the Black diaspora.
Cutting DEI programs isn’t just a setback for underrepresented workers—it’s a costly mistake that weakens morale, stifles innovation, and exposes companies to legal and financial risk.
In mid-May, Verizon followed the course of over a dozen major U.S. companies in rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion practices—eliminating DEI from key tenets of their operations, including erasing DEI references from training material, ending bonuses and goals related to increasing the percentage of women and minority workers, and downsizing their human resources department.
Alphonso David is the president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum and was involved in some of the tour’s initial conversations. “This tour is a grassroots movement that is seeking to amplify Black voices and create an environment to demand systemic change,” he said in an interview with NPQ.