[gentle music]
[Arlo] Economic justice
is actually having the opportunity,
a real opportunity.
How you create generational wealth.
How you teach others
to create generational wealth.
The racial wealth gap
is not a million dollar problem,
is 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,
and 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 good?
My name is Arlo Washington
and my purpose in life
is to advance equity
and create opportunities
and build the community.
Just for the sake of teaching you to parting,
I want you to do this right here.
Now watch this.
Watch this right here.
We’ll go a fourth of inch in,
we’ll go a fourth of 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 nape 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 index finger.
When you feel that point with your index finger,
just slide your finger up the comb that way
and pull it out to the side.
That’s one side.
All right?
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 is all y’all doing.
Six sections.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
How long it take?
Five minutes.
[Arlo] Now you ready to move on
to something else,
but let me let you try it.
Good job.
Good job, Mr. LeBron.
Good job, Hughes.
Used some of the techniques?
[Speaker] Yeah.
[Arlo] But you got that looking smooth.
What we gonna talk about, JB?
[JB] Get our foot in the game.
[Arlo] 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’s shop
for two years first
and built a clientele up.
Right?
So I had about maybe 80, 90,
100 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 heads 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.
[upbeat music]
Hey, hey.
What’s up, Bronson?
What’s going on with you?
[Bronson] I just been busy.
[Arlo] You getting through that application?
[phone ringing]
[Speaker] Good afternoon.
Thank you for calling People Trust.
How can I help you?
[Client] Yeah, it’s my credit score,
it’s gonna mess me up, ain’t it?
No, ma’am.
We don’t base it off your credit score.
Trucking Logistics LLC.
Yes sir.
This your plan right here.
Have you got any business funding
or you’ve been doing this all out your pocket?
It’s just all out my pocket so far.
As far as just driving,
I’ve been in the business for 10 years
and my dad is a driver as well.
I’ve covered every corner
of the transportation in the industry,
so I would want to create those jobs
for other people.
Tell me what it is
that you want to do.
Long term,
I would ultimately like to have my own salon
or become an instructor.
Okay, okay, okay.
And you’ve been traveling to your customers?
Yes.
[Arlo] Like their homes?
Yes.
[Arlo] Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Do you have any operating capital right now?
Unfortunately, I do not at this time.
Okay, okay.
So you need gas money.
Correct.
You need food money.
[Client] Products.
[Arlo] Products and supplies.
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 are interested in a 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.
I do credit restoration.
I also have a T-shirt and decal line.
Okay.
Due to the things
that I deal with in life,
such as sickle cell,
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.
[gentle music]
You know,
capital is the 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?
[Interviewer] 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 7.
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 the 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 on in.
All right, thank you.
How you doing?
Hello.
I’ve been making Philly cheesesteaks in Hogan
since I was 16 years old.
I’ve been in the restaurant business
for 26 years.
You have a food truck?
I have a food truck.
But my ambition within 12 months
is to have a brick and mortar.
[Arlo] So who you bank with right now
and did you consider them
for getting the loan?
They gave me an understanding
that they wouldn’t loan 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.
[Arlo] 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.
I was at a traditional bank
for nine years.
Sadly, Banking while Black is 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,
there’s no services offered.
Sometimes the interaction with the teller,
you know,
you can see the difference
in how they treat you.
So 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 things
that black people have to deal with.
It becomes an experience
that you try to avoid,
the disappointment of it.
And rather than go through the frustration,
you work around it.
It’s a workaround.
[Arlo] Big banks,
they don’t know the community,
they don’t know them,
they don’t have a relationship.
You want to be able to be sustainable
and you wanna be profitable
and you wanna be scalable.
But we just want you to think about every aspect
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
in 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.
[Arlo] I hear so much,
If you could just gimme a chance,
just gimme a chance
to prove that I’m trustworthy,
that I’m credit worthy,
that I can run this business successfully.
[Speaker] Y’all ready?
All right.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Uh-uh.
That should be a backhand.
She knew.
She knew.
Come on, let’s go to one.
[Arlo] 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 blood lead,
they did the tooth pulling,
they were the priests.
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, 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 started hurting,
who do you think they gonna come to?
They came to the people
that they can come to for help.
He said, 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 them pay them off.
And I thought about it and I said,
wait a minute,
this is what’s affecting my community.
So you see it built up now?
Nah, we didn’t 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.
[Speaker] Let him down and let him go.
[Arlo] Come on in.
In April this year,
my house caught on fire.
So, you know,
I was pushed out.
Mm-hm.
[Client] I was calling
to inquire about your rental assistance.
You’re behind on rent now?
I forgot your name.
Give me your name again.
Candace [indistinct].
Okay.
Cancer survivor.
Yeah.
[Employee] Unfortunately
it’s just a one-time deal.
I believe we’re the only rapid re-housing
that is in Central Arkansas.
How much does it cost you
to live every month?
I don’t know
’cause I ain’t never been on my own.
[Arlo] Okay.
Have you been looking around?
Yeah.
I had a landlord in today and I asked,
and 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?
Well, it is really that-
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.
[Arlo] There’s a huge housing need.
Correct.
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 know, everything burnt up.
For 17 days in a hotel?
Man.
[Arlo] There you go.
How much is the weekly rent?
The weekly rent?
Uh-huh.
It’s not weekly.
She was just gonna charge me
like 525 a month.
[Arlo] My mother,
she passed away with cancer.
And so I’m just thinking
since you, you know,
in that situation,
maybe if we was able to do,
you know,
maybe a grant for a month
that’d give you time to find a place.
How do you think that works?
It’ll help me a lot.
I think that’ll help.
What you think?
It’ll help me a lot.
[Arlo] Most of the time
it’s state of emergency.
Like, I needed help, like, yesterday.
We never got the 40 acres and 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,
and not really an end to it in sight.
[gentle music]
[Speaker] 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 is a wealth chasm.
I-630, the great divide.
How’s it going, man?
You ready to ride?
You know,
when we cross out 630,
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.
[Speaker] You’d be hard-pressed
to find an ATM.
That community has been economically segregated.
[Arlo] Look at this.
We got four, five boarded up houses
on this little half a block.
So we crossed I-630
and now we’re going into the heights.
And in the heights,
maybe 8,000 in population,
but you got 14 banks.
And you don’t see a boarded-up house.
Not one.
[Speaker] Well, you have commerce here.
You have places where business can exist.
You don’t see that on the other side of town.
You know, then,
of course you had redlining
where banks would not make money accessible
to people who lived in certain areas.
And oftentimes
those certain areas
were areas where black folks lived.
This phenomenon of building interstates
through black communities
and they bring about destruction.
[Arlo] I’m gonna take you
and show you our new location
where we opening up.
That’s redline.
This is the first financial institution
ever in this community.
[Speaker] And it looks good, too.
[Arlo] Thank you.
We’ve been working hard.
[Interviewer] Do you believe
in the American dream?
What is the American dream?
You tell me
and we’ll both know.
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,
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.
Nice house, cars,
family taken care of,
bill-free.
Well, no, I’m just out here surviving.
I’m just trying to make a way.
So I couldn’t just elaborate
what the American dream is,
I wouldn’t know.
[gentle music]
[Arlo] 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 out of school,
get a GED.
So when I was born
I was brought home to this house
and 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
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.
That was tough.
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.
[Arlo] Hello.
How you doing?
I’m good, how are you?
I have an eighth month old.
Like, you can’t be without no lights.
[Arlo] I think the first thing
is to get you off the streets.
We’re gonna do you an 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.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate you.
[Arlo] It fell on me to carry the torch.
My mother provided such a great example
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.
All right, 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 right.
It’s all right.
It’s all right.
It’s all right.
I ain’t seen my big brother.
I ain’t seen him since I was 12 years old.
[Arlo] I say a lot.
Tell a whole story,
you know,
and that was uncomfortable for them.
I know it was
’cause I’ve done it before.
But that’s an exercise that will help you
if you’re somebody that’s introverting,
you’re somebody that’s 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.
[Arlo] And where’d that leave you?
Lost.
So you know,
when you are secluded from the world
for that amount of time,
man, you come behind.
Okay, you 28, 27 now.
What you going to do?
There’s a black man.
No, we not offered opportunities,
especially after times that,
you know,
we might have 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 enrolled
at Washington Barber College.
I learned so much.
Just things that,
you know,
things that you need to know
to 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
from when I got out of prison.
I was homeless three times.
I went on to the shelters,
did what I needed to do,
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 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 brush or 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
and how much time they did.
And then I just email everything over
and people contact them
and they go pick up a $325 grant,
which I think is so great
because coming out of 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.
[Arlo] Absolutely.
Absolutely.
See, where for so many years,
I and so many
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.
[Arlo] The reason I do what I do
and what gives me energy to keep going
is equity.
Equity, equity, equity.
So that means
if the way it is over,
you know,
on this side of town,
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?
[Client] All right.
[Arlo] You don’t do any bodywork, do you?
Little bit.
[Arlo] Little bit?
Not a whole bunch.
[Arlo] How long you been wanting to do this?
[Client] Been in the automotive business
for 20, 25 years.
Running a Jiffy Lube for the last five.
But the owner came and told me
he was selling the business, so.
When they let you go,
you got to think quick on your feet,
What am I gonna do now?
[Client] Yeah.
And I needed to open up new avenues,
and the biggest one
is being able to get this loan
to get started.
[Speaker] Y’all give it up
for Lencola Franklin.
[everyone cheering]
[Arlo] While you were in the program,
you accessed 3,500 small business loans.
So maybe if we could extend that.
So if we extend the 3,500
that we already gave you
to up to 10,000
and we do it for two years,
your payments will be
at like 452 a month.
[Arlo] How soon would you need
before you start making payments?
[Client] I would say a couple months
just to get me going.
[Arlo] So maybe
if we deferred your payments for 90 days,
that’ll help you to-
[Client] Definitely.
I appreciate that.
[Arlo] All right, 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 as Incredible Auto
borrowed $50,000.
So you got a lease going already?
Yes ma’am.
This is the outside.
[Arlo] But how many square foot is that?
[Client] 5,000.
[Arlo] It’s nice.
[Client] 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 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 am.
Three months later.
When you investing in something
that you love to do,
it makes everything a lot easier.
[Arlo] 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 them.
Because now
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.
[Arlo] You don’t think?
They don’t care about this.
Yes, they do.
Because if this catches on,
it becomes a threat.
[Arlo] You really believe that?
Mark my word.
Because it can inspire others
to think that they can be free.
This is about being free.
[gentle music]
[Arlo] Economic justice is righting 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,
it ain’t a good look.
Justice is something that we need,
but that’s what we’re fighting for.
Right now,
today I can look at justice as empowerment.
Just doing what’s right
and being fair.
[Arlo] You ever heard that phrase,
Get your money right?
I got to help the community
get their money right.
The community has to get their 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.
[upbeat music]