When Colonisation and Capital collide

This Linkedin post was my Sunday contemplation as it touched on a few topics close to my heart. For context, watch the video in the original post, or at least scan the post, which is about Dragon Den's clip featuring a company that aims to disrupt the bubble tea market.

It is also timely to publish today - Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the US, which began as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day, the US federal holiday that I struggled most to relate to, in the time I lived there.

1?? Honouring cultural heritage and decolonisation

The commentary around this post raised the question:

What is cultural appropriation?

Isn't a healthier version of boba considered an innovation? Why call it cultural appropriation?

Similarly, I’m wary when someone insists they are "blind":

I don’t see race/ gender/ disability.

?? Sidebar - give me a dollar for every time I heard this while fundraising and I'd have a working fund!

Race, gender, disability, neurodiversity.

These are all things we do need to see and keep going:

• past our guilt or saviour mentality
• to give credit to the originators of inventions, practices or ideas
• to surface and acknowledge the injustices and systemic breakdowns that have unfolded and compounded over time
• ultimately, to devise just what we're going to do about it now.?

The prevalence of such questions/ statements underlines the urgency of, and value that comes from, each of us actively decolonising.?

In this particular situation, why should we expect one POC (the South Asian) to align with the other POC’s (the East Asian)? Let’s get real when talking about POC of Asian descent: between India and China lie many more unique peoples and cultures, with their individual history as colonies.?

Simply being a _____ (woman, POC, or ostensibly identifying as any marginalised group) does not make you instantly understand, relate to, or honour the experience of ALL people wronged by history.?

I’ve come to anticipate that sometimes, those of the same group - who are still living in colonised mindsets - can offer the most vocal denials of cultural appropriation or marginalisation.?Or put differently, they can be the worst oppressors.

Decolonising, or recognizing our privilege can be:

• uncomfortable: it is far easier to see what we don't have, than to acknowledge the ways we have oppressed others in the pursuit of alleviating our own lack and fear.?
• vulnerable. We are called to cast off, unlearn, many of the success formulas and ways of coping we have adopted to “do well” in this colonised world. And the new ways are not (yet) widely celebrated.?

However, the rewards are priceless:?

• Being in a whole relationship with ourselves, with our land and all human beings. Isn’t that the point of life and a mark of a well-lived human??
• Directing capital and resources with this in mind, builds equitable businesses and world.
• In unlearning colonial ways, we are also casting off the beliefs that keep us separated, isolated, alone, and “not enough”.

2?? Boba - and a healthy take on it

As a non-caffeine drinker working on lowering my blood glucose, I am a big fan of creating options that cater to broader tastes and are kinder to our health. In VC speak, that multiples the TAM.

My bubble tea options have been limited/ boring until I stumbled upon stores like teapulse in my neighborhood. If there’s anything more enjoyable than the oral symphony of squelchy textures in a bath of sweet flavours, it is when they are low-sugar, asian-flavoured and caffeine-free.?

How to say ‘No’ to naturally-sweetened lemongrass kombucha with chia seed jelly and chestnut pearls?

Even more delightful if the boba pops!

As you can see, I was inclined to like this company Bobba. However...

3?? Venture capital?

I was personally troubled to hear the founder’s Why. Economic opportunity aside, he didn’t articulate “Why Us?” convincingly. It occurred to me as one random person chasing the payoff of a trend, in a "winner takes all" fashion.

When economic opportunity is the primary calling, it is a stretch of not only the imagination but of values to "add and stir" cultural heritage, sustainability, equity or impact to the founder’s guiding principles.?

(But good for him - he probably did choose an investor aligned with his ambition for the company.)?

I was reminded why I don’t watch Dragon’s Den. And why I quit VC. While it was nice to see investors falling over themselves for a company for a change, there was still an all-out, cut throat vibe of warfare that my body shouts “No” to.

4?? Funding what we want to see in the world

In my years as a gender lens investor, I have learnt that none of these makes an instant ally:

• Being a woman
• Supporting/ funding a woman

That’s what led me to wind down a VC for female founders that I created, after several years of angel investing on the same thesis. I found the conversations with LPs, founders and even some of my team to often be at cross purposes, and operating from entrenched colonised mindsets of extractive capitalism.?

I still believe it’s critical to fund founders with diverse backgrounds, and there are other capital approaches that are more supportive. These days, it’s fundamentally important to me to deeply understand a founder’s commitment to building their business equitably. How they utilise their resources and lived experience, and the willingness to be self-reflective, are far more important than their body parts/ skin colour.?

These tell me how decolonised the founder - the primary agent of change - is, and what kind of world my investing $ will go towards building.?

The same approach applies equally to funders and “women’s causes”.?

Hence, I cautiously observe many platforms that ostensibly support women and other disenfranchised groups, and actively engage with a few, who are actively decolonising, as they do the work that has convinced and touched me: Coralus Angels of Impact I'm Soul Inc Narratives Unbound LLC Sacred Matriarch Creative Trauma of Money Common Ground

You can follow them or their founders Vicki Saunders (She/Her) Laina Raveendran Greene Michelle Lee Nafasi Ferrell Ecko Aleck Chantel Chapman Shiao-yin Kuik for deeper insights around their 'How' and 'Why'.

5?? Lastly, Simu Liu .

I do have a soft spot for him, having thoroughly enjoyed watching the entire series of Kim’s Convenience - my first with a predominantly Asian cast after a lifelong diet of American TV. Even so, I would never have predicted that a couple years later my watching preferences are so Asian-heavy. You don't know how it feels to come home until you have.

But I digress... You simply have to watch parts of the 9 minute clip to appreciate his real-life eloquence and willingness to verbalise this issue. I'm thankful for this gracious and respectful model of advocacy, and the use of his fame and personal platform.

I also do agree with him that bubble 'tea' tastes best, fresh!

#decolonising #decolonizing #RestorativeFinance #minority #inclusion #WhiteWashing #Colonisation #Capitalism #Neoliberalism