All language subtitles for Th3 B4rber of L1ttl3 R0ck

Economic justice is actually having the opportunity, a real opportunity.

How you create generational wealth.

How do you teach others to create generational wealth?

The racial wealth gap is not a million dollar problem.

It's not a billion dollar problem, it's a trillion dollar problem.

It's been a never ending story.

It is a challenge when you can't put gas in your car. When you can't buy food,

you can't pay your light bill, or you can't pay your rent.

Life is going on, life is happening. You know,

trying to put a bandaid and stop the bleeding on the effects of generational

poverty,

investments and resources that are meant to get to these communities

haven't gotten to 'em.

There has to be economic warriors in the community to create economic

justice. Hey, what's going on man? Everybody, everybody. Good.

My name is Arlo Washington and my purpose in life is to advance

equity, create opportunities, and build the community

Just for the sake of teaching you departing, I want you to do this right here.

Now watch this. Watch this right here.

We'll go a fourth of an inch in fourth of an inch into the eyebrow.

Take the point of your comb, you put it on the scalp,

take the other hand right here and we'll put it back here in the nap area.

And then we'll just take that point of that comb and just keep it on the scalp

all the way till you feel that point with your, with your index finger.

We feel that point with your index finger.

Just slide your finger up to comb that way and pull it out to the side.

That's one side. Alright? So,

but you really want a good straight line so you can always go back and do it

again.

You just need to put a little bit more pressure on the scalp when you're going

through. So I'm gonna take that and clamp that up. Yeah, there we go.

Appreciate that. So for the first couple of weeks,

this all y'all doing six sections.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. How long it take?

Five minutes. Now you ready to move on to, to something else?

But let me let you try it.

Good job. Good job Mr. LeBron. Good job Hughes.

Use some of the techniques. Yeah, you got that looking smooth.

What we gonna talk about JB, get our foot in the game.

How to get your foot in the game, build your clientele up, learn the business,

get a name for yourself out here and then open your barbershop up.

When I was 20, I opened my first barbershop.

I worked in my partner shop for two years first and built the clientele up

right. So I had about maybe 80, 9,000 people coming to me every week.

Then I opened up the barbershop. But right now, while you in school,

be patient practice, cut as many hits as you can when you leave and go home.

If you got little cousins, you got people in the neighborhood. Cut, cut,

cut as much as you can. 'cause the more you cut, the better you get.

Hey, hey, what's up Bronson? What's going on with I ain't just been busy.

You are you getting for that application.

Good afternoon. Thank you for calling people Trust. How can I help you?

Yeah, is my credit score. It's gonna mess me

Up at

It. No ma'am. We don't base it off. Your credit score.

Trucking, logistics. LLC? Yes sir. This is your plan right here.

Have you got any business funding? You've been doing this all out your pocket?

It just all in my pocket so far. As far as just driving. Yeah,

I've been in business for you 10 years and my dad is a driver as well.

I've cover every corner of the transportation industry,

so I would want to create those jobs for other people.

Tell me what it is that you wanna do. Uh,

Long term, uh,

I would ultimately like to have my own salon or become an instructor. Okay,

Okay. Okay. You've been traveling to your customers? Yes. Like their homes,

their Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah, that ain't, yeah. Yeah.

Do you have any operating capital right now?

Um, fortunately I do not at this time.

Okay. Okay. So you need, so you need gas money, correct? You need,

you need food, money,

Product,

Products and supplies.

Um, and I have a business name. I made my own logo. I've been working.

So we spoke on the phone. You were saying you were interested in the loan?

Yes ma'am. Okay. I'm just gonna get this out.

So tell me about what you're doing with your businesses.

I'm Barbara SI do credit restoration.

I also have a T-shirt and decal line. Okay.

Due to the things that I deal with in life. Mm-Hmm. Such as sickle cell? Mm-Hmm.

Having a pacemaker, having 80% mass in my right breast.

Going to treatment once a week. And then you still run three businesses?

Yes ma'am. I heard that now.

You know, capital is a lifeblood of a community. If the blood ain't circulating,

then you going to have some issues.

So the blood has not been circulating for a long time.

Why is it that we overlook this economically segregated

community? Why is the issue swept under the rug and not talked about?

What do you think and feel when you hear the word ownership?

For me, when I think about ownership,

it's owning my own home so that I'll have something to pass down to

my children.

Nobody in my family own anything.

So ownership is important to me because I want to create jobs and

opportunities for my boys and my little cousins.

And my nephews,

My oldest is 27 and my youngest is seven. Um, and I think about it a lot.

Of course nothing was passed down to me and I don't have anything to pass down

to them.

It just feel good to know that you have something that is yours that nobody can

take away for so long. We haven't had anything that was ours. Yeah.

We damn proud of. You know, when we do own something,

whether it's a Cadillac or a house or a

Boat,

it's the idea of it belonging to you and that you can

self determine what will happen to it without having to ask anyone.

You don't have to ask for permission.

Come

In. Alright, thank you. You doing

Williams? You

Back today?

I've been making Philly cheese steaks in Hogan since I was 16 years old.

I've been in restaurant business for 26 years.

You have a food truck or you

I'm a food truck. Truck. I got food truck.

But my ambition within 12 months is to have a brick and mortar.

So who do you bank with right now? Well,

I and and did you consider them for getting a loan?

They gave me an understanding that they wouldn't owe me any money. Really?

They still want my business.

They still want me to process my credit card payment.

Your business is still making deposits in this bank? Yes. Yes.

That in turn will not make you a loan.

Yes.

The wealth gap has grown tremendously.

The CDFI is a community development financial institution.

All people matter regardless of their credit history. We are not restricted.

So I was at a traditional bank for nine years, sadly.

Bank and while black is, um, a real thing,

they don't necessarily train you to know that.

But once you get in there and you actually see that the person coming

in, if they're white, they're gonna offer them credit cards,

they're gonna offer them loans, financing, you know, all of those.

But you come in, you're black. It's no services offered.

Um, sometimes the interaction with the teller, it is, you know,

you can see the difference in how they treat you. Uh, so I just don't,

I just don't use banks

Banking while black does exist,

banking while black driving while black eating while black,

your waiter or your waitress can treat you differently. I mean,

there is just so many things. It's crazy.

The the things that black people have to deal with.

It becomes an experience that you just,

you try to avoid the disappointment of it.

And rather than go through the frustration,

you, you work around it. It's a workaround.

Big banks, they don't know the community. They don't know 'em,

they don't have a relationship.

You know, and you want to be able to be sustainable and you wanna be profitable.

Exactly. And you wanna be scalable.

But we just want you to think about every aspect. Yeah. All. Okay.

And best position yourself.

This helps you to really build your credit profile so we can provide you with

some ongoing technical assistance to kind of help you along the way.

We got the name People trust because trust in the financial system is just not

there.

My goal is to restore the trust and a system that may

have not been built for you. So we try to see what's the problem,

how can we help? We find a way.

I've always wanted to own my own business.

I hear it so much. If you, if I, if you could just gimme a chance,

just gimme a chance

to prove that I'm trustworthy, that I'm,

that I'm credit worthy, that I can run, I can, I can,

I can run this business successfully.

Y'all ready? All right.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Uhuh. That should be a backing. She knew. She knew. Come on, let's go to one.

Historically barbers have been the go-to, in the community,

one of the oldest and most prestigious professions. They were the doctors.

They did the bloodletting, they did the tooth pulling. They did the,

they were the priest.

One customer lost his job and he had been a faithful customer coming all

the time. I mean, bringing his family, his kids, everybody, you know, he said,

Mr. Washington, he said, uh,

I'm down really bad and I need to borrow $150.

I've been a barber in the community for over 20 years.

So when the community start hurting, what do you think they gonna come to?

They came to the people that they can come to for help. He said, I,

I'm getting a job and I can pay you back in 30 days.

So I made him a loan. You know,

I didn't think he was gonna pay it back when I gave him the loan at the time.

But he came back and he paid it back.

And a couple weeks later he came back again. Guess what he did? He paid me back.

So I made him another loan and he paid that loan back.

So then we started thinking about,

well how can these small loans at that size really have an impact?

If they don't have credit, then they can't get a loan from a bank.

That means they have to go to a loan shark or they have to go to some payday

lender that's going to never let 'em pay 'em off.

And I thought about it and I said, wait a minute.

This is what's affecting my community.

So you see how it built up now, man, we in service like 2020,

we serving 900 folks.

And so what we did was we applied to become a community development financial

institution,

which was put in place to be able to help low and

moderate income communities that wouldn't otherwise receive the opportunity.

Let him down and let him go.

Come on in,

In April of this year, my house caught a fire. So, you know,

I was pushed out. Mm-Hmm.

I was calling to inquire about your, uh, rental assistance.

You're behind on rent now. I forgot your name. Give me your name again.

Cece Ford. Okay. Cancer Survivor. Yeah.

Unfortunately it's just a one time deal.

I believe we're the only rapid rehousing that is in central Arkansas.

How much does it cost you to, to live every month?

I don't know. 'cause I ain't

Never been on my own.

Okay. Have you been looking around? Yeah, I don't,

I had a landlord in today and I asked him, he doesn't have anything.

And when you move,

we'll pay the security deposit and your first three months rent.

Let's talk about a budget.

How's the job looking any?

Well, uh, just,

It is really that I'm,

it's hard because I don't have nowhere to shower and stuff. Right?

That is one thing about Little Rock.

There's just really not a lot of affordable housing.

There's a huge housing need.

Right? There's just too many people waiting for help.

You're four months behind. But did she tell you the balance?

This is a grant, just an emergency grant. As I heard you say,

you didn't have any clothes, you didn't have any transportation. You, you know,

if everything burnt up for

17 days in a hotel, man,

There you go. How much is the weekly rent?

The weekly rent Uhhuh. It's not weekly.

She was just gonna charge me like 5 25 a month.

My mother, she, she passed away with cancer. And uh,

so I'm just thinking if since you, you know, in that situation,

maybe if we was able to do, you know, maybe a,

a grant for a month that'd give you time to find a place.

How you think that works?

It'll help me a lot.

I think that'll help. What you think.

It'll help me a lot.

Most of the time it's state of emergency, but I needed help. Like yesterday,

we had never got the 40 acres in the mule that was promised.

That's like the big elephant in the room. This was promised to you.

You never got it. Nobody never talked about it.

It didn't come up in any type of other political discussions.

And the fallout is what we see.

A huge racial wealth gap.

Economic injustices. Um, and no,

no, not really an end to it in sight.

Up here in Little Rock, there is a physical divide.

Have on one side, have not on the other.

It's not a wealth gap, it's a wealth chasm.

I six 30, the great divide.

How's it going man? You ready to ride?

You know when we cross I six 30, you can tell a big

Difference.

This neighborhood is the heart of the black community.

There are no banks over here.

And you got about 30,000 community members over here. Mm-Hmm.

You'd be hard pressed to find an ATM.

That community has been economically segregated.

Look at this. We got four,

five boarded up houses on this little half a block.

So we crossed I six 30

and now we're going into the heights.

And in the heights are maybe 8,000 in population.

But you got 14 banks

and you don't see a boarded of house. Not one.

Well you have commerce here. You have places where business can't exist.

You don't see that on the other side of town. You know,

then of course you have redlining where banks would not make money accessible to

people who lived in certain areas.

And oftentimes those certain areas where areas where black folks live

this phenomenon of building interstates through black communities

and they bring about destruction.

I am gonna take you and show you our new location where we opening up. Alright,

that's red line.

This is the first financial institution ever in this community. And so

It looks good too.

Thank you. We've been working hard.

Do you believe in the American dream? What is the American dream?

You tell me and we'll both know.

Uh, I was told this growing up, you work hard,

you do what you're supposed to do and you'll achieve your goal. Right.

And in essence, you, that's supposed to be true.

But I have to say that I've sat at the table in front of my children and

said, as much as this is supposed to be true,

it is still possible that that may not happen for you.

Uh,

nice house cars family taken care of, uh,

bill free. Well, no, I'm just out here surviving.

I'm just trying to make a way. So I couldn't,

I couldn't just elaborate what the American dream as. I wouldn't know.

There was a time in my life early on when I wanted to fix

what my mother was going through, trying to take care of me.

She had me when she was 16 years old, had to drop outta school, get AGED.

So when I was born, I was brought home to this house.

And um, my grandmother was a single parent with 16 kids in the house.

And now my mother at 16 was bringing home another addition

to the family. You know, watching my mother,

uh, early in my life and watching the sacrifices that she made for,

you know, folks in the neighborhood.

She wanted to be an inspiration to the folks that lived in the housing projects

to let them know that they didn't have to stay there.

This is where my mother was eulogized. She had cervical cancer

two weeks before I graduated high school. My mother passed away.

She didn't see me walk. Um, that was,

that was tough. I felt, I felt lost. That left me lost. Feeling lost.

Okay. What do I do now? You know, I have two younger sisters.

Where do I go from here?

Hello.

Hello. Doing, how are you? I'm

Good. How are you? I have an eighth month old.

Like you can't be without no lights. I

Think the first thing is to get you off the streets.

We're gonna do you emergency grant. Let's do a $1,500 grant.

This is a new beginning. You know what I'm saying?

I kind of adopted some of the mission that she had that she didn't get a chance

to live out. You understand? Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very

Much. I appreciate you.

It fell on me to carry the torch. Torch.

My mother provided such a great example of being of humanity

and having compassion and understanding that life circumstances

happen and when they happen, that people need compassion.

People need restoration. People need rehabilitation. People need love.

I want you and I want you to stand up for a

second.

I'm gonna show you something right now that we don't hardly ever do.

But I want you to, for two minutes,

I want you to look at him in his eyes and I want you to be with him.

And I want you to be with him for two minutes. Alright? Come closer.

Right here. Now don't look off

when you look in those eyes,

think about your kids.

Think about your loved ones.

Think about the setbacks and the wins.

All the hard lessons and just see all the hurt.

See all the pain. Be with him right now.

Time. It's all, it's all right.

Alright. It's all right.

Sorry.

I seen my big brother. My I ain't seen cell. I was 12 years old.

Mm-Hmm.

I,

I say a lot. Tell a whole story, you know, and that was uncomfortable for them.

I know it was 'cause I'd done it before.

But that's an exercise that will help you.

If you're somebody that's introvert and you're somebody that's, uh,

kind of in a shell and help you be more assertive and help you to be more,

you know, understanding to what other people are going through.

You went to prison and when you went to prison, what did that mean?

10 years of my life. I mean,

And where'd that leave you?

Right?

Lost. So,

you know, when you secluded from the world for that amount of time, man, you,

you can come behind.

Okay. You 28, 27. Now what you going to do?

There's a black man. No, we not,

we not offered opportunities, especially after times that,

you know, we made a messed up or made a mistake in our life.

So it's like now, okay, I gotta do something.

I always could cut hair, you know? But I just never thought, man,

maybe I should go to school. I went in and rode to Washington Barber College.

I learned so much. Just things that, you know,

things that you need to know, sharpen yourself up to be successful.

I did seven years in prison, seven years, five months,

six days to be exact on a 30 year sentence. And I sit before you right now,

16 years later and I'm still not free.

I

Was homeless three times. Mm. From when, when I got outta prison,

I was homeless three times. I, I went on to the shelters. Yeah.

Did what I needed to do. Mm-Hmm. Saved my money up, got out.

But my crime does not make me an eternal

criminal. Right.

Three of our barbers that were formerly incarcerated and they were just each

sharing the trauma that they experienced. Mm-Hmm. Uh, while being there and how,

you know, to be out, it's a huge adjustment.

So on day one, if you have nothing, you ain't got a tooth, press on toothpaste,

all of those essential things, you right back at stress one.

Right after they get out, they call me within 72 hours,

I'm able to send their name, their release dates, uh,

and how much time they did.

And then I just email everything over and people trust contacts them and

they go pick up a $325 grant.

Which I think is so great because coming out of, uh, any system,

especially the jail system, you don't come out with any money.

You Arlo have made it possible.

You are looking at everything from the perspective of

inclusion.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. See where for so many years, uh, I and so many,

uh, have saw only exclusion.

It's truly community development. And that's developing.

You can't develop a community if you don't develop the people.

Exactly.

The reason I do what I do and the what gives me energy to keep going

is equity, equity, equity, equity. So that means if, uh, the way it is over,

you know, on this side of town,

it's on this side of the freeway is this way over here as well.

The resources that's over here, the resources over there,

the banks that's over here, banks over here, money over here, money over there,

credit over here, credit over there.

How you doing? Alright.

You don't do any body work do you?

Little bit. Little bit. Not a whole bunch.

How

Long you been wanting to do this?

Been in the automotive business for 20, 25 years.

Running the jet lube for the last five.

But the owner came and told

him, told me he was selling a business.

So when they let you go, you know, you had to,

you had to think quick on your feet. What am I gonna do now? Yeah.

And I needed to open up new avenues and the biggest one and being able to

get this loan to get started.

Y'all give it up for Lynn Cola Franklin,

While you were in the program, you accessed, uh, 3,500 small business loan.

So maybe if we could extend that. Mm-Hmm.

So if we extend the 3,500 that we already gave you Mm-Hmm.

To up to 10,000 and we do it for two years,

your payments be at like 4 52 a month.

How soon would you, would you need before you start making payments?

I would say a couple months just to get me

Going. So maybe we deferred your payments for 90 days. That'll help you to

Definitely. I appreciate that. Alright, cool.

My clientele is building Mr. Washington.

He seen what my future may look like and I'm, you know,

forever grateful for him believing in me.

As of today,

you doing business says incredible auto earn $50,000.

So you gotta a lease go on. Ready? Yes. You

Talk to this is the hill outside.

About how many square foot is

That? 5,000.

It's nice.

It's like my dream of finally becoming a business owner and not having to work

for anybody else again.

I work for myself now. Thank y'all.

I really want to shed some tears and,

and I don't have to worry about somebody selling a business and somebody coming

in and telling me, Hey,

we don't want to continue with you anymore here. I'm three months later.

When you invest in something that you love to do,

it makes everything a lot easier.

We felt like that if we could redevelop and change this corner,

that it would help turn the neighborhood.

Once they can put funds here and deposits,

then we're not going to allow the money to go outside of this community.

We're going to put the money back into the community

And it's gonna scare some people. It's going to scare the hell out of 'em.

Because now you, you can see that it can be done.

So you have no more excuses.

Those institutions that are in place right now are not going to

idly sit back.

You don't think they, they don't care about this? Yes,

They do. Because if this catches on,

it's a, it becomes a threat.

You really believe that. Mark

My word.

Because it will 'cause it can inspire others to think that they can

be free. This is about being free.

Economic justice is, is right.

And wrongs fixing the system. You know,

some type of repayment for injustice.

A tree is known by the fruit that it bears. So if I don't see any fruit,

then I don't see any impact.

So if you have money and you have wealth and you can't create impact,

what's the point?

What is justice? What does it mean for me?

What does it mean for people of color?

Justice

Is just not quite yet available for everybody.

Justice. Justice.

It's just being a black man in this world.

Ain't

Good luck.

Justice

Is something that we need, but that's what we're fighting for

Right now. Today. I can, I can look at justice as empowerment.

Just doing what's right and being fair.

You

Ever heard that phrase, get your money right?

I gotta help the community get their money. Right.

The community has to get the money right.

And this is an opportunity to get the money right.

So I'm on a mission and it ain't over.

It's just begun.