I feel like a lot has gone on this week. Some weeks I’m scratching my head, wondering what I’m going to write about. Yet this week, so much has happened that I’m a little undecided — even as I type this very sentence.

The two things I’ve been thinking about are the closure of the beauty brand Ami Colé and — in what may feel like a distant world away — Diane Abbott’s second suspension from the Labour Party. The worst part is that neither piece of news surprises me in any way, which is sadly telling of how black women are treated in society.

While I never bought a product from Ami Colé, I was familiar with the brand and its founder, Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye’s story. It’s a familiar one — one that all of us as black women either know personally or are closely connected to. She was a black female founder who spotted a glaring gap in the market when it came to serving black women — a gap she knew no one else, no other company, would be willing to invest in, let alone solve. Like so many black founders, she had a great idea but struggled to raise investment until 2020.