Nigeria has its own established Premier League, but its love for the English Premier League is just indescribable. In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, it’s not uncommon to see advertising billboards featuring Premier League stars or buses and walls of pubs beautifully adorned with club stickers. Apart from having their players in the League, locals would tell you that they follow the English Premier League because it’s the most competitive.
As a matter of fact, data show an estimated 276 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa watch the Premier League every year, bringing in financial benefits in the form of partnerships and replica shirts sold. In Nigeria, Arsenal is one of the most popular clubs. The London-based club enjoys a huge following in the West African country dating back to the days of Nwankwo Kanu, who joined the football club in 1999, and recent players like Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom.
It is therefore not surprising that almost every year for the past 15 years, thousands of Nigerians have come together to celebrate Arsenal Day, a two-day celebration of Arsenal football club. Arsenal fans from five local government areas in Nigeria’s Kogi state turn out in the town of Okene in south-central Nigeria annually for the event. They show up in their red and white Arsenal T-shirts with white jeans or trousers to sing, dance, eat and cheer. Banners and posters of players are hung on the walls as well.
“Our reason to start [Arsenal Day] is to celebrate Arsenal club and the players,” Ilyas Abdulsalam, director of Arsenal fans club Ebiraland which has more than 16,000 members, told CNN.
It is believed that Arsenal Day first began when two villages came together to celebrate the London club’s success in 2004, having reached the Champions League final. Others say the festival started following the opening of the Emirates Stadium in 2006. Though the Gunners haven’t won a Premier League trophy since 2004, fans in Nigeria still turn up in their numbers in Okene for the festival almost every year. There is no denying that these fans are expecting a trophy from the club. And although they are yet to get it, they are very patient and hopeful, they say.
With that optimism, Nigerian businessman and politician Orji Uzor Kalu last December revealed his desire to invest in Arsenal. The investment, he said, is inspired by his quest to help the club win more trophies, including the Champions League and the English Premier League. Kalu’s intention to buy shares in Arsenal made him the second Nigerian businessperson to express interest in investing in the club. Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote recently showed serious interest in taking over the Gunners.
Today, even though Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid fans in Nigeria do organize their own festivals, Arsenal Day seems to reign supreme.
A 1982 painting by deceased Haitian-Puerto Rican artist Jean-Michel Basquiat on Tuesday sold for $41.9 million at Christie’s auction house in Hong Kong, The New York Times reported. Titled “Warrior”, the auctioned painting depicts the struggles Black men have to endure in a world dominated by White people.
Though the British auction house said the amount paid for the painting was the highest for an artwork by a Western artist in Asia, that is actually not Basquiat’s most valuable piece of work. In 2017, his “Untitled” painting was purchased for $110 million by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
With sales in the art industry significantly taking a slump over the year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Christie’s was reportedly hopeful the inclusion of Basquiat’s artwork in the auction would help revitalize the market.
“Basquiat is one of the strongest markets coming out of the pandemic,” Christophe van de Weghe, a dealer who specializes in Basquiat’s works, told The New York Times. “It’s worldwide. You can sell Basquiat, like Picasso, to someone in India or Kazakhstan or Mexico. You can have a 28-year-old spending millions on Basquiat and you can have a guy who is 85. He appeals to all kinds of people, from rappers to hedge-fund guys.’’
Though deceased, Basquiat is an important and rising figure in popular global arts and culture. He was born on December 22, 1960, to a Haitian father and a mother of Puerto-Rican descent in Brooklyn.
Basquiat experienced a great deal at a young age; he was in a car accident that resulted in a splenectomy at age seven, his parents divorced at the same age; his mother, who first introduced him to art, was committed into a mental institution, and he dropped out of school by the age of 15. But within a few years, he went from being homeless and unemployed to selling his paintings for $25,000.
Although many people know him for his celebrity status, as he was friends with pop artiste Andy Warhol, wore Armani suits splattered with paint from his work, and dated Madonna, the painter’s work was politic and deserves its own fanfare.
Basquiat was intentional and well versed in the social issues of his time. He once said, “the black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn’t see many paintings with black people in them.”
Basquiat died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose but he lives forever through his art and the impact of his work and influence on American movements and pop culture.
By age 19, Moses Shepherd was working at Sunoco gas station in Detroit and eventually became a manager. While at Sunoco, he ran eight stores and made all of them profitable. Although his work was draining, for Shepherd, it was an opportunity to learn as much as possible.
“I worked 12 hours a day, six days a week for a salary of $375. But it really wasn’t the money at all, it was about what they taught me, so eventually, I could write my own paycheck,” he told Chains Detriot Business.
After nearly four years at Sunoco, Moses left to start a music distribution company where he supplied music to gas stations across Detroit and later, countrywide.
His business became profitable and he decided to expand it. “I had three record stores — one in Pontiac, one in Detroit, and one in Inkster. So, as the market turned, I decided to shutter the stores, and I had an idea to start selling music and electronics to prison inmates,” he said.
He started selling music to one prison in 1996 and by the year 2000, he was supplying 3,500 prisons across the country. “This was the product that I had manufactured in China and shipped over here. And they were transparent, so the inmate couldn’t hide any contraband,” he said.
Everything was going on well for Moses until he became vindictive. Wanting to put an ‘enemy’ out of business, he withheld investment in his profitable prison business and got back into the rack distribution business. “So it goes to show where my mindset was, right,” he said. “And when I did that, I went out of business. It was a flop. So, I lost that business, and I lost the prison distribution business.”
Shepherd lost almost everything he had labored for and he barely could afford anything. He started reading real estate books but couldn’t buy the books, so he had to sit in the bookstore and read them.
His credit was however marginal enough to be able to buy a house and fix it up. “…My books told me that I can buy this house for $50,000. My book said (list) the house for $65,000, and I can pull $15,000 back at the closing.”
With time, he started buying more houses and ended up with a couple of hundred houses over in between the University District, Bagley, and Grandmont-Rosedale Park. He had so many houses that he actually controlled what the rents were, he said. By 2008, he had started buying the entire neighborhood.
After making it big in the real estate sector, Shepherd decided to invest in the fuel business. He launched Ace Petroleum in 2017, starting one of the nation’s largest minority-owned fuel suppliers. In 2020, ACE Petroleum obtained a $27 million contract with Detroit to supply fuel services for the city’s police cars, emergency medical vehicles, fire trucks, buses, and other transportation units. It is a contract for five years.
Black businesses remain largely unattractive to venture capitalists. As such, many Black entrepreneurs source funds through family and friends to launch or expand their business. Although the Black Lives Matter movement has shed some light on the challenges Black businesses experience, not much has changed.
Some social entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to highlight Black businesses through informal meetings and other formal events. Some social media influencers and Black media personnel are also playing their part by bringing to the fore Black-led businesses.
A Sacramento entrepreneur, Chris Lodgson, is also highlighting Black businesses in his region. He is the founder of Facebook pages Sac Black Biz Community, Sac Black Biz United, and Sac Black Biz Market, which are dedicated to Black businesses.
The purpose of these platforms is to bring Sacramento business owners, who are mostly African-American, Caribbean, and people of African descent, together to support one another. Also, Sac Black Biz United has become the first and only online source to finding Black Business and Event information throughout Sacramento.
In all, his group pages feature over 500 businesses and a membership of more than 10,000 people. Lodgson believes the creation of the Facebook business page, Sac Black Biz Community, is his contribution towards supporting Black enterprises.
“We measure ourselves by how well the businesses that we serve are doing and how well those businesses are serving their clients (and customers),” Lodgson tells Sacbee.
Aside from the business pages, the New Yorker has also raised thousands of dollars to support business activities for Black people in Sacramento.
Lodgson first migrated to Sacramento in 2015. “When I got here, I noticed that a lot of the same problems we were having in New York, in terms of Black folks, poverty, unemployment, our economic condition and our social condition too. A lot of the same problems that were in New York were happening here” said Lodgson. These factors pushed him to create his Facebook business pages.
In addition, he has announced a partnership with the app “Local Black Info.” The app enables users to find and support local Black-owned businesses, professionals, and events, according to news. Also, the partnership allows Sac Black Biz to market Black businesses in Sacramento and the U.S.
In the wake of protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, there was a renewed support for local Black-owned businesses. Lodgson said he did not only help in highlighting Black businesses through his group page Sac Black Biz Community, but he was also able to provide a complete Sac Black Biz digital database of Black-owned businesses in the county.
“The database became a valuable resource for the community that was easily accessible and allowed people to find everything from Black-owned bakeries, barbershops, restaurants, floral arrangements, home maintenance and repair, plumbers and more,” he said.
Achimota School in Ghana, formerly known as Achimota College, was the school where Zimbabwe’s most iconic citizen, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, attended as a student-teacher to attain his certification to be able to work in newly independent Ghana.
But how many times can you say that Mugabe is arguably not even the biggest element in a given context, such as among alumni of a school? This is because Achimota’s alumni include none other than Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe’s hero and an African political icon. Such is the pedigree of the school currently embattled over its refusal to admit to boys with dreadlocks.
The school’s authorities have said that the two students who had been placed there by a computerized placement system according to results from standardized nationwide exams, will not be admitted unless they shave off their hairs. Both sets of parents of the boys who identify as Rastafarians have committed to going to court for an interpretation of their religious liberties.
The alumni association of Achimota has however issued a strongly-worded letter to the current management of the school to stand by its rules and regulations. This alumni association which includes some of Ghana’s most prominent people is thought to be the reason an earlier Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to the school headmistress to admit the boys was reversed.
That suspicion may not be entirely unfounded. As much as Ghana possesses its own competitive Ivy League rankings of senior high schools, Achimota stands above so many due to heritage, and no annual rankings would change that. Alumni of Achimota has been known to channel millions of dollars into running the school, even though it is publicly funded.
The school was established in 1924 as Prince of Wales College and School through the initiative of a colonial governor of the Gold Coast, Gordon Guggisberg, the20th century African educationist James Kwegyir Aggrey and Rev Alec Garden Fraser, an English Anglican priest and schoolteacher.
It has undergone radical changes including renaming and the introduction of mixed-gender learning in its nearly 100 years of existence. In post-independent Ghana, Achimota, along with other schools founded by Christian missionaries prior to independence and right after, became the preferred institutions for bourgeois Ghanaians.
Most of these schools were founded as colleges but became senior high schools. They have continued to represent upper socioeconomic class, taste, and ambitions, meaning that it is common to see members from well-to-do backgrounds in Ghana attend these schools, mostly through alumni privileges. But since the computerized school placement system was introduced in 2005, many more Ghanaians from underprivileged, if not un-esteemed backgrounds are gaining access to schools previously reserved for the affluent and the connected.
Coupled with the introduction of free and compulsory senior high school education, many more Ghanaians are expected to breach what has been an enclave of wealth and power.
Achimota, for one, has produced more than its fair share of Ghana’s powerful people and continues to do so. The school was just one of many missionary-founded and colonial educational institutions established by the 1930s that now are the academies of prestige.
Jerry Rawlings, the former coup leader-turned-president was at Achimota. So were his two vice-presidents, Kow Nkessen Arkaah and John Evans Mills – who later became president. Mugabe was not the only non-Ghanaian former president who was at Achimota – Dawuda Jawara, the first head of state of Gambia, was too.
The father of Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, Edward Akufo-Addo, schooled at Achimota. The older Akufo-Addo was also a president of Ghana. All of this is not counting for more the hundreds with diverse achievements in academia, politics, law, science, finance, and technology.
The ancient Igbo pyramids are located in Udi, Enugu, Nigeria but have long been forgotten and are probably in ruins.
The Igbo Pyramids taken by British anthropologist and colonial administrator, G. I. Jones
The wonder of the Igbo pyramids started in 1935, when British anthropologist and colonial administrator, G. I. Jones, took pictures of the Nsude pyramids (what is now known as the Igbo pyramids).
Jones in 1935 was building up an extraordinary photographic record of Southeastern Nigerian culture when he stumbled upon the clay formed wonders.
Armed with his Roloflex camera Jones took shots of the 10 circular stepped pyramids. The Nsude pyramids are however yet to be carbon dated, but judging by the black and white photos (taken in 1935), they are 'very old'.
The first base section was 60 ft. in circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft. in circumference. Circular stacks continued, till it reached the top. The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto, who was believed to reside at the top. A stick was placed at the top to represent the god’s residence. The structures were laid in groups of five parallel to each other. Because it was built of mud like the Deffufa of Nubia, time has already taken its toll on it.
The pyramids are located in Udi, Enugu, Nigeria but have long been forgotten and are probably in ruins just like the great walls of Kano
Strikingly, these pyramids bear resemblance to the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, in Egypt constructed in 2648 BC. More fascinating is the similar replication of Nubian-like pyramids thousands of miles away from the Nubian area in the heart of Igboland.
Evidence like this indicates a strong level of correlation between the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Igbo.
Known to be third largest of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the typical Igbo communities are found in the southeastern part of Nigeria.
And according to oral tradition and many writers of Igbo history, Eri is to the Igbos, what Oduduwa is to the Yoruba.
But unlike Oduduwa whose father is unknown, Eri was the fifth son of Gad, the seventh son of Jacob (Genesis 46:15-18 and Numbers 26:16:18).
He was said to have migrated from Egypt with a group of companions just before the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt thousands of years ago.
Eri and his group were said to have traveled by water and finally arrived at the confluence of Ezu and Omambala Rivers, located in present-day Aguleri, Anambra State.
We were not told how long their voyage took to get to their promised land, what we were told is that Eri and his group was divinely instructed to make the confluence of Ezu and Omambala Rivers their final destination.
They would move into the hinterland and make a settlement in the present-day Aguleri. It was here that Eri lived and died.
Meanwhile, amongst Eri's children was Agulu, the eldest son who took over from his father after his demise.
It was him who appended the name of his father, Eri, to his name and founded Agulu-Eri (Aguleri) by calling the settlement where his father Eri died and he (Agulu) lived AGULERI.
However, apart from the story of how they came into being, the Igbos also shares some similar practices with the biblical Jews. And among the Igbos, these traditional practices predate the coming of the Christian missionaries.
Examples of shared traditional practices between the Jews and the Igbos include circumcising male children eight days after birth, refraining from eating "unclean" or tabooed foods, mourning the dead for seven days and celebrating the New Moon.
Supporting this belief is Daniel Lis, a foremost researcher on Jewish Identification among the Igbo from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
He affirms that there has been a clear continuity of Jewish identity among the Igbo. "It's not just something that happened yesterday," he said.
In addition to the shared practices between the Jews and the Igbos, there is a striking evidence that forces one to see a link between the Igbos and the ancient civilization of Egypt: It is the Ancient Igbo Pyramids, which is also known as the Nsude Pyramids.
The Ancient Igbo Pyramids or Nsude Pyramids is a testimony of ancient civilization among the Igbos.
Nobody knows when it was built, but archeologists have said that the pyramids have lasted centuries and are believed to have been built at the same time the first or second wave of Egyptian pyramids were built by the Nubians.
With similar features to that of the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt, one is forced to contemplate on the mystery behind their resemblance.
And without exaggeration, it can be suggested that the knowledge of one must have led to the building of the other.
Be that as it may, it should be stated here for the purpose of clarity that the word Ndi Igbo/ Ndigbo mean the "Ancient People." And according to them, the British called us IBO or (Heebos): A word synonymous to Hebrew.
There are other interesting arguments, with regard to the topic of this article, that has been presented by concerned Igbo scholars.
Notable among them is the claim that the following Igbo words/phrases were used in the bible.
1. Jee na isi isi (Genesis)
Known to be the first book in the bible, some Igbo scholars believe that the word is a corrupted version of the Igbo phrase "jee na isi isi" which when translated in English means "go to the very first".
2. Detere nu umu (Deuteronomy)
Known to be the fifth book in the Bible, the word “Deuteronomy” is from Latin Deuteronomium, from Greek Deuteronomion and originally from Igbo phrase "detere nu umu".
The Igbo phrase, "Detere nu umu" means "written down for the children". And actually, the book of Deuteronomy was words written down to serve as laws for the children of God.
3. Asaa bu taa (Sabbath)
According to the biblical story of creation, God rested on the seventh day. Sabbath is a day set aside for rest and worship. The word is said to be thesame with the Igbo phrase "asaa bu taa" which means "today is seventh."
4. Chere ubim (Cherubim)
Described in the Bible as a winged angel and represented in ancient Middle Eastern art as a lion or bull with eagles' wings and a human face, Cherubim is regarded in Christian angelology as an angel of the second highest order of the nine-fold celestial hierarchy.
However, the name is believed to be a distorted version of the Igbo phrase "chere ubim" which means "guard my home." And of course, angels are guardians.
5. Nta lite kuo ume (Talitha cumi)
According to the book of Mark 5:41, Jesus was storied to have raised from death- the daughter of Jairus. And "Talitha cumi" were the words he used.
"Talitha cumi" or "Talitha kum" or "Talitha koum" is an Aramaic phrase and believed to be an Igbo phrase "nta lite kuo ume" which means "little child wake up and start breathing".
Dr. Sheryl Victorian has been named the chief of police for the City of Waco, Texas. With her wealth of experience and education, her appointment was a no-brainer for City Manager Bradley Ford as he recommended Victorian.
As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, her historic appointment makes her Waco’s first Black and first female police chief.
Victorian began her law enforcement career as a police cadet in Houston in 1993. In 1995, she was recognized as the 100 Club of Houston’s “Rookie Officer of the Year”. She worked with the Houston Police department for 28 years, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief. On February 16, the Waco City Council voted unanimously to confirm Victorian as city’s police chief.
She was one of four finalists for the position after the department received 43 candidates from 17 states.
Of her nomination, she said, “It is a privilege and honor to have my name forwarded to the city council. Maintaining the trust of the community, adopting, and improving our department to meet the changing needs and demands of policing, and keeping our officers and citizens safe are my objectives from day one if council approves my selection.”
“It would be an honor to lead the department and I look forward to working proactively to keep Waco a great community to work, live and raise a family.”
Many gathered at the Waco Convention Center on the day of her swearing-in to witness a historic moment as Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, her former boss, pinned on her new badge.
“I will push to become the model city for public safety, and police-community partnerships, and building trust and legitimacy in policing,” Chief Victorian said to the crowd.
Not only does being the first Black female chief bring diversity to the role, but Victorian’s innovation over the years in whatever capacity she has served is also always in tandem with her community’s vision and she always delivers.
“Sheryl’s depth of hands-on management experience, her educational background, and her support for innovative programs all stood out,” Ford said.
“Sheryl shared our community’s vision for a leader who embraces continuous improvement, community policing, and a commitment to serving and protecting all of our citizens.”
Victorian holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Affairs from Texas Southern University, a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from The University of Houston, and a doctorate in Administration of Justice, also from Texas Southern University.
Aside from heading the City of Waco police department, Chief Victorian is also an assistant professor at Southern New Hampshire University where she teaches Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice, Ethics, and the Graduate Capstone course, according to the city’s site.
Talk of a decorated police chief, Victorian is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and numerous nationally accredited leadership programs. She holds a Texas Master Peace Officer’s license and has received numerous awards and commendations over her career with Houston PD, reports.
Waco NAACP President Dr. Peaches Henry did not miss the swearing-in ceremony because she has openly supported Chief Victorian not just because she is Black and a woman but because she has all the experience and qualifications to head the City of Waco’s police department.
“The fact that she is African-American, and female is wonderful, but without all of her outstanding qualifications, it would be meaningless. So, we are delighted to see her,” Henry said.
Chief Victorian is now the 28th police chief heading the department with 266 commissioned officers and 100 civilian staff. She’s going to be a blessing. I’m so happy for her and Waco,” Houston Police Chief Acevedo told news.
At his first gaming competition, 11-year-old Jamaican Dominic Darby became one of 17 winners out of the more than 3,000 people who participated in the XPRIZE Connect Code Games competition last year. This was his first attempt at creating his own video game. In addition to his win in the junior division, he was named “Best in Class”.
The St. Catherine native also took home $1,000 after entering the California-based competition with 70 participants also from Jamaica. The more than 3,000 competitors were aged between 10 and 18 and the winners were announced at a virtual event held last month.
The competition was put together in partnership with video game developer E-Line Media and supported by Endless Network, which aims to enhance lives through technology.
Darby is not new to coding. The 11-year-old first encountered MIT’s Scratch coding software at the age of six after attending a summer program held at the University of West Indies, his mother Shellian Darby said. Also, his coding knowledge is largely self-taught from watching YouTube tutorials and reading books about coding which is practically one of his hobbies, Darby’s mother added.
For his winning game entitled “How To Fall”, Darby used the MIT Scratch coding software to create a game character that moves through multiple levels while getting away from obstacles, according to jamaicans.com. After months of trials and errors, Darby finished his first-ever game and entered the XPRIZE Connect Code Games: A Global Game-Making Challenge, facing off with pros and rookies alike.
The Wolmer’s Preparatory School student said he never expected to win. “When I realized I won, I felt good and I wanted to tell everyone, but I couldn’t at the time. This is my first time entering an international competition and to win it feels amazing,” he was quoted by The Gleaner.
When he is not studying or coding, Darby, like every kid his age, enjoys playing video games particularly Roblox and Minecraft. He hopes to be a computer science engineer soon.
Brian Brackeen, founder and former CEO of Kairos, was fired by his company’s board of directors in 2018.
The successful entrepreneur raised $13 million for Kairos and garnered national attention for his groundbreaking facial recognition technology. But Brackeen’s refusal to sell his company’s technology to law enforcement may have led to allegations against him that eventually pushed him out of the company. A year later, the legal battle between Brackeen and the Kairos board ended in Brackeen’s favor.
Now, Brackeen is returning to Kairos as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. All parties involved in the 2018 debacle have departed. Kairos’ new leadership team has voted to bring Brackeen back to the company to continue his mission and goals for Kairo.
“We are delighted to have Brian back at the company, now more than ever the world needs to address fairness and inclusiveness in AI and Kairos continues its mission with Brian on board to deliver bias-free face recognition software to the world,” said E Jay Saunders, Chairman of Kairos, in a statement. “We look forward to having his insights and working with Brian to grow the company worldwide.”
Leading Kairos to Success
Brackeen is the brains behind Kairo. He worked as a senior project manager for Apple Inc. and senior managing consultant for IBM before launching his masterpiece.
Kairos is a human analytics company that uses facial recognition to help companies better interact with their stakeholders. It blends together social science and technology, allowing businesses to obtain data that impact consumer decision-making in real-time.
In 2016, Brackeen was the recipient of the Innovator of the Year award at the BLACK ENTERPRISE Tech Summit. During the event, he spoke about the team’s remarkable accomplishments.
“In the last 12 months, we processed 250 million faces. We’ve grown revenue 200% year over year and we’ve declined marketing spend on that time. Also, last quarter was our best quarter ever. Last month, was our best month ever. We just continue to trend upward and up. Kairos is Greek for the most opportune moment. We really believe that this is it.”
Nearly three years after his departure, Brackeen is returning to Kairos to bring his expertise in algorithmic bias. As chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, he will continue his work to address and eliminate racial bias from the technology.
“In my first action in this role, I’ve directed the company to focus on a new API— the “Bias API”, which will allow firms all over the world to detect and fix biases in their algorithms.” Says Brackeen. “We intend to do deals with the big players like AWS, Google Cloud, and others to expose our service in their clouds to their customers, as well. Kairos will cement its place as a leader in this space, right at the correct time. We have learned so much over the last nearly 10 years, it’s time to use that knowledge for good beyond Kairos’ walls.”
Brackeen’s Battle to Keep His Company
Brackeen’s disputes with his board raised questions about white investors and their treatment of Black founders.
Brackeen encountered a series of problems from the board and investors after refusing to sell his technology to law enforcement.
The Kairo board accused Brackeen of using company funds for unauthorized trips, meals, and expenses. Brackeen denied the allegations and filed a countersuit. In a letter to his investors, he shared that the board filed an exaggerated lawsuit against him to justify termination. He also believed they used it as leverage against him to force him to work for free.
Brackeen filed a lawsuit against the Kairos board. It alleges that an investor pressured Brackeen to reconsider selling the company’s tech to law enforcement. It reveals that a “fundamental clash” ensued. This fueled the board and investors’ mission to “push Brackeen out of Kairos.”
In 2019, Brackeen and the Kairos board reached a settlement in court. The Company and Brackeen agreed to part ways. They also agreed that Brackeen would continue to be recognized as founder and remain a shareholder.
“Founders of color and women are under-invested in,” he shared. “We are either not getting great representation or we don’t have VC’s (venture capitalists) on our side. For those that are able to overcome that huge hurdle, they are then squeezed from the other side.”
There is a long way to go to achieve funding parity and remove racial bias from decisions. But Brackeen is using his voice and capital to level the playing field.