Federal judge orders minority-business agency opened to all races

[Polybius]

Source: Washington Post

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a 55-year-old federal agency created to help minority-owned businesses must now open its doors to every race, siding with a group of White plaintiffs who argued that the agency discriminated against them.

In a 93-page opinion rendered Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark T. Pittman ruled that the Minority Business Development Agency’s presumption that businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos and other minorities are inherently disadvantaged violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. He permanently enjoined the agency’s business centers, which have assisted minority-owned businesses in accessing capital and government contracts, from extending services based on an applicant’s race.

“If courts mean what they say when they ascribe supreme importance to constitutional rights, the federal government may not flagrantly violate such rights with impunity,” Pittman wrote. “The MBDA has done so for years. Time’s up.”

The ruling is the latest blow to government affirmative action programs after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that upended race-conscious college admissions. The decision sparked a broad legal offensive against affirmative action and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the private sector and public sectors. In July, a Tennessee judge ruled that the Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development program’s use of the racial presumption of disadvantage was unconstitutional, forcing the agency to overhaul its program.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/06/minority-business-programs-racial-disadvantage-unconstitutional/

[Freethinker65]

1. So when do the argue the same against veteran programs?

After all, those programs discriminate against non-veterans. Aren't you presuming Veterans can't do it on their own?

And why do fossil fuel businesses get subsidized? Aren't you presuming they couldn't make obscene profits without subsidies? Isn't that discrimination against alternative energy businesses?

And how come only seniors get senior discounts? Shouldn't they need to prove need?


Honestly, I think socio-economic disadvantage and reduced opportunities deserve special programs to level the playing field. Race or gender should not be the only determining factor.

[IbogaProject]

3. Right

Veterans benefits discriminate against those with disabilities and pacifists. I've been a Type 1 Diabetic since 1982, military service was never an option, even though I'm not considered "disabled".

[Farmer-Rick]

2. Yeah...so unfair

It's so unfair that Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos and Harlan Crow aren't getting food stamps. Shouldn't they be getting supplemental SocSec too. What about fixing up Medicare so the filthy-rich can use it too?

It's just so unfair that America means test any available benefits. The filthy stinking Nazis need our tax dollars too.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. I'm a broken record I know

In short order - they will outlaw the AME Church, calling HBCU's HBCU's, the Links, Boulet, Bachelors and Benedict, Black Fraternities and Sororities . . .


Remember - the are going after a VC fund by black women for black women -

Doesn't even look at White Male VC's which ONLY give to White men. . .

That's okay - that's alright . . . because it's all white.

[Igel]

7. Not private; it's a federal mini-agency.

https://www.mbda.gov/who-we-are/overview

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is the only federal agency solely dedicated to the growth and global competitiveness of minority business enterprises.

https://www.mbda.gov/about/history

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Not that one - this

This is private:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/venture-capital-fund-defends-grants-black-women-us-appeals-court-2024-01-31/

Jan 31 (Reuters) - A venture capital fund on Wednesday urged a U.S. appeals court to allow it to resume a grant program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women and reject an anti-affirmative action group's claim that it discriminates based on race.
During a nearly hour-long hearing, lawyers for Atlanta-based Fearless Fund told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it had a constitutional right to express its belief in the importance of Black women to the economy through charity.

Pieces of shit. So selfish that they think they can put their boots on our necks. Same assholes that sued the universities.

I'm telling you - they are coming for us.

We aren't allowed to have anything of our own.

Fuck the public - I could care less!

Its telling black women they can't take care of each other that is the outrage. That's their money, not some snotty white man with a chip on his shoulder because he's a loser -

Leave it alone.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. If it were easy to expose the backwater deals made by predominantely white connected

people and organizations, I could see the point. But, we are still a country that discriminates against minorities, and that always have a negative impact.

[hueymahl]

6. Unpopular opinion

But it is probably time to start transitioning to a fully income/wealth based affirmative action. Affirmative action as it has historically been known is mostly dead by court decree. Income/wealth based affirmative action can accomplish very close to all of the same goals.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. As long as private wealth is left out

I'm thinking of my grandfather taking Separate but Equal to heart, being pissed off at the taxes he paid into America being stolen off his childrens' table - and spending just under 250K to build a beautiful school for the children in his community in Alabama.

A few years later Brown v Board made that contribution to lift the boats left behind irrelevant.

Unpopular opinion - it's my money - and the Republicans enacted a massive theft with Putin and Trump's Tax and Jobs scam.

The black community has seen the writing on the wall for a few years - 1919 not 2019.

Private Equity needs to be left off the table.

The UNCF needs to be left off the table.

The NAACP needs to be left off the table.

Membership in the old back elite organizations need to be left off the table.

HBCU's having the Historic Black stripped from their designation need to be left off the table.

We all know the New Deal was the Raw Deal for African Americans. Fact. We paid taxes to a government that deliberately and maliciously denied us the access to that particular American dream which allowed white Americans to build wealth.

We've already had lower case wealth based Affirmative Action in America and point blank - it was only for White Americans.


If you make it color blind - on my Grand daddy's grave - I will become a tax cheat.