Whitewashed?

Confusing and troubling definition of whitewashed

“Thanks for coming!” welcomed our hostess cheerfully. I was ushered to her quite large backyard, a 1-acre immaculate lawn for a beautiful outdoor social event. I could sense the vibrant energy emanating from people who are excited about connecting with others finally in person. Just like me, everyone seemed to have missed our human connections that have been lost over the past 2 years due to the pandemic. The sight of scrumptious chocolate-dipped strawberries, crab cakes, and bubbly champagne added more excitement to the gathering.

“I think you are whitewashed,” said a guest abruptly who sat right across me whom I never met before. “Is she saying I am not Asian enough? What does she know about being an Asian woman?” I wondered. Baffled and curious I asked her “what do you mean by that?” She told me that the notion of bootstrapping a startup, the notion of starting a company relying on one’s own human capital and financial resources, originated from Europe therefore, anyone who believes in bootstrapping his/her/their new business is whitewashed. 10 minutes before her confusing and troubling remark, I shared a segment of my journey as a founder of a bootstrapped education startup. “It is such nonsense that white people created injecting their cultural dominance. How is bootstrapping a business even possible?”

Amid failure rates of startups as high as 90%, bootstrapping alone may not be a way to sustain and grow your startup. Extra hands or resources from family and friends and/or angel investors would certainly help. But it sounds unfair for a woman of color to be labeled as “whitewashed” because she made a choice to self-fund her new business relying on her sweat equity. Bootstrapping can be a voluntary or involuntary decision or a combination of both for entrepreneurs. While some prioritize complete freedom over their startup by not seeking external financial resources, others, in particular, women and people of color have been unable to access external capital. When I started my startup, I relied on my sweat equity as well as personal savings to shape my business and its services the way I envisioned.

I didn’t have a chance to tell my story to her. She was intent on lecturing me but was unwilling to hear a different point of view. She was ready to judge others without knowing them or their stories. While I enjoyed the lovely gathering that day, a long-awaited opportunity to connect with others, I didn’t like what we are becoming — a society increasingly unwilling to have a dialogue and intolerant to the diversity of perspectives.