We met during the idyllic summer of 2021. Here's how we’re staying radically hopeful in the face of the anti-DEI backlash

(Credit: Courtesy of Aaron Long and Tynesha McHarris)

In the summer of 2021, amidst a wave of activist movements and social justice uprisings, we found a serendipitous connection through a matchmaker. It was a time of possibility and tension—the perfect backdrop for the launch of the Black Feminist Fund, Tynesha and her co-founder’s decade-long dream to support and fund organizations advocating for change. At the time, we didn’t realize how fortuitous our relationship would turn out to be.

The in-between times