Amazon to Invest $150M in Funds That Provide Underrepresented Entrepreneurs
businesswire.com
businesswire.com
Are founders supposed to document that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or asexual? What about founders who are in those categories but do not want to put that on their public profiles? A broader question is whether it is right to discriminate against straight cisgendered people, which is what this program appears to do, or against whites and Asians.
I personally don't think this form of discrimination is ethical, moreover its ripe for abuse.
What prevents me (morals aside) from claiming LGBTQIA status? Aside from the T (usually), none of those are observable or provable. Can I claim to be black, or Latino as well, or will that be verified against by a 3rd party? If verified by a 3rd party, how are they doing it? What of Latinos who appear white? Will there be a subset of these minority groups that are denied participation because they look "too white"?
This, along with similar programs and affirmative action measures, is just racism/sexism/bigotry/etc in another form. These sort of programs are always enacted in the name of equity, but select for only the most successful among the claimed oppressed groups. If they were to simply change the criterion to measure economic background and upbringing, the program would have so much more utility. There are a higher % of black Americans in poverty than white Americans. The solution to bring about equity isn't to specifically target the black Americans in poverty, but to target all in poverty regardless of ethnicity, race, or self-identification.
They need this data. How else will you be categorized and targeted as a consumer?