The Barber of Little Rock | 2024 Oscar-Nominated Documentary Short | The New Yorker Documentary

[Music] economic Justice is actually having an opportunity a real opportunity how you create generational wealth how do you teach others to create generational [Music] wealth the racial wealth Gap it's not a million dollar problem it's not a billion dollar problem it's a trillion dollar problem it's been a never- ended [Music] 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 happen

ing you know and trying to put a Band-Aid 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 them there has to be economic Warriors in the community to create economic Justice hey what's going on man every 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 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 with your index finger you 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 all right so but you really want a good straight line so you can always go back and do it again just need to put a little bit more pressure on the scalp when you're going through so I'm going 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 one two three four five six 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 Leon goo

d job Hughes use some of the techniques yeah you got that looking smooth what we going to 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 Barber Shop up when I was 20 I opened my first barber shop I worked in my partner shop for 2 years first and built a clientele up right so I had about maybe 80 900 people coming to me every week then I open up the barber shop but right now whi

le you're in school be patient practice cut as many heads you can when you leave and go to home if you got little cousins you got people in the neighborhood cut cut cut as much as you can cuz the more you cut the better you [Music] get hey hey what's up Bronson what's going on with you I Ain just been busy you got you getting [Music] application good afternoon thank you for calling People trust how can I help you yeah is my credit is going to mess me up a it no ma'am we don't base it off your cr

edit score [Music] [Music] Trucking Logistics LLC and this your plan right here have you got any business fun you've been doing this all out your pocket this just all out my pocket so far as far as just driving I've been in a business for 10 years and my dad is a driver as well I've covered every corner of the transportation industry so I want to create those jobs for other people tell me what it is that you want to do uh long term uh I would ultimately like to have my own Salon or become an ins

tructor okay okay okay you've been traveling to your customers like their homes their yes okay yeah that ain't yeah yeah do you have any operating Capital right now um unfortunately I do not at this time okay okay so you need so you need gas money correct you need you need food money products 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 saying you interested in the loan yes ma'am okay I'm just going to get this out so tell

me about what you're doing with your businesses I'm Barbera sist 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 sale 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 [Music] now you know capital is a lifeblood of the community if the blood ain't circulating then you're going to have some issues so the blood has not been ci

rculating 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 [Music] about what do you think and feel when you hear 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 not the most pass 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 a permission all right I've been making phly cheese stakes in hog since I was 16 years old I've been in restaurant business for 26 years you have a food truck or I a food truck I have a food truck but my ambition within 12 months is to have a breaking Mort so who do you bank with right now well and and did you consider them for getting the loan they gave me to understanding that they wouldn't owe me any money really they still want my business they

still want me to to process my credit card payment your business is still making deposits in this bank that yes in turn will not make you a loone yes the wealth Gap has grown tremendously the cdfi is a community development financial institution all people matter regardless of the credit history we're not restricted so I was at a Traditional Bank for 9 years sadly bank and wild 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 going to offer them credit cards they're going to offer them loans financing you know all of those but you come in your black it's no services offered um sometimes the interaction with the teller it's you know you can see the difference in how they treat you U 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 me

an 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 work around big Banks they don't know the community they don't know them they don't have a relationship you know and you want to be able to be sustainable and you want to be profitable and you want to be scalable but we just want you to think about eve

ry 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 to 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 I hear so much if you if I you just give me

a chance just give me 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 one two 3 4 5 6 seven uh-uh that should be a backand 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 blood leting they did the tooth pulling they did the they were the priest One cust

omer lost his job and he had been a faithful customer coming all the time I mean bring this 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 you think they going to 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 back next week you know I didn'

t think he was going to 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 loone shark or they have to go to some payday lender that's g

oing 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 I built up now man we in service like 2020 we service 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 [Music] go come on in in April of this year my house caught a

fire so you know I was pushed out M I was calling to inquire about your um rental assistance your behind on rent now I forgot your name give me your name again can okay cancer Survivor yeah unfortunately it's just a onetime 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 cuz I ain't never been on my own okay have you been looking around yeah I had a landlord in the day and I asked he doesn't have anything whe

n you move we'll pay the security deposit and your first 3 months rent let's talk about a budget how the job looking any well uh just it's 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 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 if everything burnt up for 17 days in a hotel man there you go how much is the weekly rent the weekly rent uh-huh it's not weekly she was just going to charge me like 525 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 give you time to find a place how you think that works that'll help me

a lot I think that'll help what you think that'll help me a lot most of the time it's state of emergency like I needed help like yesterday we had never got the 4 ACR in the MU that was promised that's 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 her

e 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 [Music] Chasm I 630 The Great [Music] Divide how's it going man you ready to ride you know when we cross out 6:30 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 you'd be hard pressed to find an ATM B 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 630 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 up house not one or 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 had red lining where Banks would not make money accessible to people who lived in certain areas and often times those certain are

as were areas where black folks live this phenomenon of building interstates through black communities and they bring about destruction I'm going to take you and show you our new location where we opening up right that's Red Line This is the first financial institution ever in this community and so and it looks good too thank you we've been working [Music] hard do you believe in the American dream what is the American dream you tell me me and we 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 you that's supposed to be [Music] 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 tooken care of or be free well no I'm just try here surviving just trying to make a way so I couldn't I couldn't just elaborate with the American dream as I wouldn't [Music] 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 out of school get a [Music] GED 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 2 weeks before 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 how are you I'm good ho

w are you I have an eighth Monon old like you can't be without no lights I think first thing is to get you off the streets we're going to 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 yeah absolutely thank you very much I appreciate you it fell on me to carry the torch my mother provided is 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 [Music] love I want you and I want you to stand up for a second I'm going 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 y

ou 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 all right it's all right sorry I seen my big brother my I a't seen since I was 12 years old I I say a lot tell a whole story you know and that was uncomfortable for them I know it was cuz 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 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 that lead you lost so you know when you secluded from the world for that amount of time man you become behind Okay you 28 27 now what you going to do there's a black man know we not we not offered opportunities espe

cially after times that you know we made a mess up or made a mistake in our life so it's like now okay I got to 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 road 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 7 years in prison 7 years 5 months 6 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 when I got out of prison I was homeless three times I I went on to the shelters yeah did what I needed to do save my money up got out but my crime does not make me an eternal criminal right three of our Barbers that were formally incarcerated and they were just each sharing the trauma that they experienced uh while being there and how you know to be out it it's a huge adjustment so on day one if you have nothing you ain't got a tooth p

ress 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 TR contacts them and they go pick up a $325 Grant which I think is so great because coming out of um any system especially the Gil 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 development you can't develop a community if you don't develop the people exactly the reason I do what I do and 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 is on this side of the freeway it's 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 all right you don't do any body work do you a little bit little bit not a whole bunch how long you been want to do this been in an automotive business for 20 25 years running the jop for the last five but the owner came and told him told me he was selling the business so when they let you go you know you had to you had to think quick on your f

eet what am I going to do now yeah I needed to open up new avenues and the biggest one in being able to get this loan to get started y'all give it up for lin Cola [Applause] Franklin while you were in the program you accessed uh 3500 small business loan so maybe if we could extend that mhm so if we extend the 3500 that we already gave you to up to 10,000 and we do it for 2 years your payments be like 452 a month how soon would you would you need before you start making payments I would say a cou

ple months just to get me going so maybe we deferred your payments for 90 days that'll help you to definitely I appreciate that 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 bwing $50,000 so you got a leas going already this is the outside but how many square foot is that 5,000 it's nice it's like my dream finally becoming a business owner and n

ot having to work for anybody else again I work for myself now thank y'all I really want to share 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 am 3 months later when you investing in something that you love to do it makes everything a lot [Music] easier we felt like that if we could redevelop and change this corner that it would help turn the neighborhood once they can put fu

nds here in 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 it is going to scare some people it's going to scare the hell out of them 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 b

elieve that mark my word because it will because it can Inspire others to think that they can and be free this is about being [Music] free economic Justice is it's right and Wrongs fixing the system now 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 co

lor Justice is just not quite yet available for everybody justice justice it's just being a black man in this world man good look 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 got to 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 mi

ssion and and it ain't over it's just [Music] begun [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]