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Megan Sayles
afro business writer
msayles@afro.com
Progressive Insurance and Hello Alice, a Houston-based small business resource platform, are in the middle of a legal battle with America First Legal (AFL) over a subsidy program targeting Black businesses. A conservative nonprofit law group has issued a lawsuit in August that awarded $25,000 to 10 Black entrepreneurs for the Small Business Promotion Grant, calling the program racist. filed a class action lawsuit.
credit: Photo courtesy of Hello Alice
On December 13, Hello Alice filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In it, Hello Alice argued that the lawsuit was “false in all relevant respects.”
“Hello Alice’s mission is to support small businesses across this country, and Hello Alice stands firmly against racism. In fact, Hello Alice’s core mission is to support small businesses across this country. It’s about combating the impact that vicious racism has had on America’s capital infrastructure. Federal law allows purely private activists like Hello Alice to choose how and to whom to donate their funds. It does not force us to turn a blind eye to centuries of insidious racism that have created existing and substantial racial inequalities in access to capital.”
On December 20, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Hispanic National Bar Association, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice filed a court brief supporting dismissal of the case.
This is not the first time AFL has filed a class action lawsuit against companies that allocate grants to underrepresented entrepreneurs. In July 2022, the company sued Amazon for diversity grants that give Black, Latino, and Native American business owners $10,000 to cover startup costs.
Nathan Roberts, an Ohio trucking company owner, is at the center of the AFL’s lawsuit against Hello Alice and Progressive. Roberts, who is white, received an email about the Driving Small Business Forward grant program and began filling out an application before realizing it was only for Black entrepreneurs, according to the complaint. Once completed, I closed the application.
“All Americans should be free from racial discrimination, but major corporations across the country have implemented racial considerations into every aspect of their business operations and hiring practices. Our client, a small business owner struggling to build a better life for himself and his family, is offered $25,000 to purchase a new truck simply because: “He was denied a potential contract with Progressive because of the amount of pigment in his skin,” AFL Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton said in a statement. “Progressives’ racist arrangements run counter to American ideals, and we will fight to defend his rights and the rights of all similarly situated Americans.”
credit: Photo courtesy of America First Legal
in Statement regarding XHello Alice executives Elizabeth Gore, Carolyn Roz and Kelsey Rugger called the lawsuit baseless and said it was a setback for the country and small businesses.
“Hi Alice, we strongly disagree with the legal theory of this case, which is part of a larger strategy to attack voluntary private sector efforts to combat the lingering effects of racism on the American economy. ”
“This lawsuit alleges that Hello Alice engaged in unlawful racial discrimination by helping Progressive Insurance award subsidies to 10 Black-owned small businesses,” Hello Alice executives said. I wrote it in a post. “Hi Alice, we strongly disagree with the legal theory of this case, which is part of a larger strategy to attack voluntary private sector efforts to combat the lingering effects of racism on the American economy. ”
In response to this lawsuit, Hello Alice launched a new grant program that allows individuals to nominate small businesses they believe are visionaries of the “American Dream.” The winner will receive her $1,000 in funding, access to the small business accelerator, and media coverage.
“Hi Alice, we have managed over $40 million in grants to job creator entrepreneurs of all races, industries, genders, and geographies. Our technology has helped 1.4 million people receive loans, credit, , grants, or resources to grow their business,” Hello Alice executives said in a statement. “Now that the AFL has taken advantage of the small business weakness, we are stepping up and, as always, doing it in a legal way that stays true to America’s core values.”
Megan Sayles is a member of Report for America.
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