 Good afternoon everyone we have four student presentations and one respondent. I'll be doing the introductions all at once and the students will give their presentations and then we will have Kathy Adams who I will also introduce give her feedback and we will be open to audience questions. If you're joining us on the webinar feel free to submit your questions in the Q&A and Sonia McDizuma will field the questions and I also will be filling in questions. So let's start with introductions. Our respondent Kathy Adams is the president and CEO of Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce. She she was selected as in 2020 as a top chamber by the Black U.S. Black Chambers and one of the most recent example of her leadership is the creation of the resiliency relief program which is a $1 million real resiliency fund to help black-owned businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. Our first panelist is Pedro Deanda Placencia. His internship office was American legal Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. His research topic is SWAT meet vendors an exploration of neglected voices and it includes first-hand interviews with seven Southern California SWAT meet vendors highlighting the narratives and experience of experiences of undocumented vendors, vendors of color, female vendors and non-native English vendors to exemplify the drastic changes that these people have overcome in the past year in light of the pandemic. Our second panelist is Nyanga Nyandimo and her internship office was the federal public defenders. Her research topic was black businesses face the brunt of coronavirus but where is the aid. Her research focused on black-owned businesses through the pandemic and face of foreclosures, cut hours and as well as a disproportionate distribution of aid by reviewing black population census data and PP P loan distribution in Los Angeles County or N national. Her research highlights the barriers black businesses faced pre-pandemic and how they have become exacerbated during the pandemic because of stress structural inequalities and our next panelist is Min-An Van and her internship was also with the federal defender's office. Her topic is titled Asian American small business owners inequitable access to government COVID-19 relief and her research looks at what is not widely addressed in comparison among small business owners which is small business owners within the minor minority group itself. She looked at the experience of Asian American small business owners as a case study and highlights the inequitable flawed evaluation operation and the distribution of relief and the next panelist is Jimmy Nguyen. His internship office was the California Department of Education. His research topic is titled COVID-19 relief and recovery Vietnamese American businesses in San Jose's little Saigon. He looked at limited business operations and low consumer activities forcing Vietnam American small businesses to close or leave them hanging by a thread and he's going to talk about the effect COVID-19 has on these businesses and the path to recovery. Our final panelist is Kai Nora Serrano. His internship was the simply member of Alex Lee's office. His research topic is Asian American small businesses and he looked at the drastic decreases in business as they faced both anti-Asian hate and xenophobia during the pandemic. His research highlights the barriers that these businesses faced including bans on indoor dining and a already high turnover rate in the food service industry. So again, they will be presenting and we will save the questions for later. After Kathy, it gives her response. So first, Pedro. So hi everyone. As Nicole briefly mentioned, my name is Pedro de Anda Placencia. I graduated class of 2021. I double majored in English and political science. This summer I had the privilege of being a Cal and Sacramento fellow as well as a diversity and entrepreneurship fellow. And my research is titled Swami vendors and exploration of neglected voices. And for those of you who don't know what a Swami or informal or flea markets look like, right here is a depiction and this one is located in Southern California. As Nicole mentioned, most of my research was centered around Swami vendors throughout Southern California. So just to give you an overview of the structure of my research and the structure of the presentation for today, we're going to start off with background and my research question that informed the work I did throughout the summer. Then the next segment is titled from operating at full capacity to full closures. And that analyzes what it was like kind of like the timeline and the different effects that Swami vendors experienced as a result of the ongoing pandemic. The third segment is the primary challenges and outcomes that a lot of these vendors endured as a result. And then we're going to culminate with a conclusion. So to give an overview of where my interest in this kind of like facet of small businesses stem from, I'm actually a product of Swami vendors, both of my parents sold at Swami's and they've done so for over the past 20 years. So I definitely grew up going to a lot of Swami's in Southern California. This one right here is in Paramount for those of you who are from Southern California. I grew up going to this Swami a lot with my parents every Sunday. And then basically an overview of the structure of my research is that Swami vendors throughout SoCal have definitely had to bear much of the financial burden of the pandemic. As they were still expected to pay rent, they were largely unable to access their merchandise for indoor Swami's. And then they received little to no state help. As many of them kind of come from mixed status families, which that means one or more family members may be undocumented. So they didn't qualify for a lot of like the state or federal hall. And it was definitely just harder for them to stabilize their businesses. To give a little bit more background, I was also interested in this, as I mentioned, I'm from Southern California. And there was a particular Swami in South Central LA, like about five minutes from USC, that actually closed down entirely as a result of COVID. And that was something that just sparked my interest more how other people were being affected. Since I had seen firsthand how that one was permanently closed. And also when I did my preliminary research, I noticed that there wasn't a lot of literature or information that existed. On this subject area, there was only one article in the LA Times that didn't really do justice to this area of small businesses. So I was definitely interested in learning more about the impact of the pandemic. And then just some like baseline definitions for you to kind of get acclimated with the way I structured my research. A Swami is kind of a flea market or places where people gather and exchange goods that for like common interest, and they do tend to be for like a lower price, and you might get like at a mall or online or different more like structured businesses. And then there's the distinction between indoor sawmeans and outdoor. So the indoor ones are locations where vendors have a permanent spot, and they're able to leave their merchandise there overnight without having to set up their shop daily. The second one is an outdoor one, which you can see here and right here. And those outdoor sawmeans are like, for those of you who are from the Bay Area, there's one in Laney College, they're usually in parking lots. So it's locations where vendors are assigned random spots, usually held in parking lots, as I mentioned, and they're expected to set up their shops daily and then take everything down in the night. But most of my research or most of the conversations I had were with vendors from indoor sawmeans. So now that lands to the research question that informed my entire research this past summer. And I was looking into the financial impact of COVID-19 on Swami vendors throughout Southern California, and how vendor earnings decreased and if so by how much. Now we go on to the structure of my research. As Nicole mentioned, I conducted seven interviews with Swami vendors. Initially, I outreach to 20 vendors at the start of the summer, but due to capacity and different limitations, I was able to have seven only able to have seven successful interviews. But definitely from those conversations, I learned about their personal backgrounds, how they got involved with sawmeans, what their experiences have been like being small business owners during a pandemic. And then just another important aspect of my research. Most of the vendors I did communicate with were Latinx identifying and they had anywhere from seven to 25 years working there. Most got involved either as a personal choice or because a family member was initially involved in kind of like pull them into that facet of small businesses. And then lastly, a vendor shared that selling at sawmeans was kind of one of the few jobs where they could work and make a living despite their inability to communicate in English. So that's definitely a lot of the community and the populations that that are selling in these sawmeans. So now in terms of timeline of what it was like to be a Swami vendor for the past year, when the pandemic broke out, a lot of the indoor sawmeans did close as well as the outdoor ones to abide with nationwide closures. From that point onward, vendors from these indoor sawmeans were unable to access the merchandise for the two initial months. And they were given the option to sell merchandise outside and parking lots. So essentially the indoor sawmeans turned into outside sawmeans. But there's a nuance to that that I'll cover a little later. And then in some instances, I did ask about rent was rent the same? Were they able to pay less rent or how did that look? Given that they weren't able to access their merchandise or weren't able to like operate how they were pre pandemic, some of them shared that rent to decrease 15 to 35% just for the first two months of the outbreak of COVID. But after that rent wasn't decreased or readjusted to kind of meet the new financial needs of the vendors. And then now where they're at now post closure, definitely a lot of the rents have accumulated, they've increased and vendors are just trying to learn how to navigate that. And then that brings me to my next two points. And this was definitely an outlet that I thought about after consulting with my mentor, Jenny, who works for Wells Fargo and she kind of like directed the direction of my op-ed and the way that I wanted to like paint the narrative of Swami vendors. From that story, a vendor shared that they saw baptism close. And even though they were allowed to like take their merchandise outside and sell parking lots, churches hadn't reopened. And that didn't mean that like the need for their product was there. So essentially, even though these small businesses were slowly reopening, they're like supply chain, like who brought them the goods, who bought the goods, why were the goods used kind of was still non-existent. And that was definitely a recurring trend amongst a lot of the vendors with them detailing how their supply chains were hit hard as a result of the pandemic. And then I kind of labeled that a domino effect. So right here is another image of Swami vendors as you can see, they like get there in their truck, set up their shop, and then it's a lot of like people just navigating that open space to find goods that they want. So even though swamis were slowly reopening, that didn't mean that warehouses were reopened, that they were operating at the same capacity. And also the experiences of vendors exemplified how Swami closure is not only how to direct financial and emotional impact on the vendors themselves, but a lot of other facets of small businesses, like those who supply the goods, those who buy the goods and those who run the facilities. In terms of what the challenges were for a lot of these vendors, vendors shared that they're still not selling the same quantities that they were pre pandemic. And on average, vendors would make anywhere from zero to $300, which may seem low. But given that a lot of these people come from mixed status families, their first gen, they're undocumented, their low income, they don't really have a lot of like stabilized resources that more like mainstream small businesses or more established small businesses may have. And then vendors also mentioned that in the aftermath as mentioned, rents increased, sales have dropped and their needs to survive and like provide for their families has heightened. And then another aspect of that is that vendors are also like guardians, primary caretakers or the sole providers for their family. So an added kind of barrier of having the SWAT meets closed is that now they also have their children at home because schools were closed. And it was like, how do I get enough money to supply for my family if my source of income kind of is non-existent for the initial part of the pandemic? And then moving a little more into that, one of the vendors did share that the Ali Food Bank or other resources throughout Ali County have been really beneficial in kind of helping them mitigate a lot of the challenges that have come in light of school closures and just nationwide closures. And then most, if not all, vendors also shared that having sufficient money is like the top priority for them. When I asked him, like, what's the biggest challenge or what do you like need the most help with? A lot of them, it was related to finances, money kind of knowing what to do, knowing, kind of sharing that they didn't know that there was like different state health that they could apply for because obviously sometimes there's language barriers or a lot of other aspects that make that aid inaccessible. And then for those of you wondering why stimulus checks were out of the picture, I briefly alluded to this in the beginning. Vendors do come, at least the seven that I spoke to, they were either from mixed status families or they themselves were undocumented or didn't have like legal residency here in the US. So that limited their ability to get additional help that other small businesses or other people in the US or California may have had access to. So in terms of outcome, a vendor noted how pre-pandemic they were working on a Swami that I mentioned in South Central LA, which I will share a picture of on the next slide. That vendor was subsequently forced to relocate. So on top of not being able to sell, they had the added stress of like, can I continue being a small business owner? Where can my business continue operating? And the gradual reopening of Swami has definitely not been what everyone expected or anticipated because vendors just aren't selling the same amount. And given that the rents have accumulated and in some instances rents have increased, it's just the ongoing need for survival and like who's actually getting access to these help. And then as you can see here, this is a Swami that I was talking about. It's called Los Amigos. And for those of you familiar with like Southern California or USC, this Swami is located like down the street a five minute walk. And that's a sign that was like shared for a protest to save it. But unfortunately, that Swami did close down so it's no longer in operation. And even though there is like a lot of sadness around this topic, there was one success story, someone who had more of like a stabilized shop in downtown LA shared that as a result of the pandemic, they were able to transition their in-person store to like an online platform. So a lot of their like vendors from abroad were able to just access the goods from their computer and didn't necessarily have to fly over to LA and take that time to come view the products and they have the convenience of having them accessible online. But as noted, that was just one case. For the most part, the underlying idea or challenges was their inability to like speak, read or understand English and how that's critically hindered their ability to like get help. So in conclusion, as to what the future holds, vendors are taking everything a day at a time and gradually trying to get back on the feet on their feet as they continue to navigate the aftermath of the pandemic and moving forward vendors shared that they're optimistic that sales will increase and that they will retain their ability to be small business owners. But I want to thank you all for your time and I hope you were you were able to learn a little bit about this like often for God and facet of small businesses. Hello, my name is Nyanga Nyandemou. I am a current four year here at UC Berkeley. I study social welfare and I minor in public policy. Today's topic is a very interesting topic for me Pacific specifically. And I will be presenting today a topic of black businesses in the impact of COVID-19 during 2020. I focus a little bit on Los Angeles County by also look at state and level state and national levels data. OK, so why was this subject important to me? However, I originally began my research wanting to look at a very niche topic. As I was told before, I wanted to look at black immigrant businesses and see how that they were impacted during COVID-19 because I am a first generation Sierra Leone American. So I feel like that was a story that I wanted to tell and, you know, relate to people. However, I noted there was a lack of research. And then I also noted that regarding black businesses and just in general, there was a lack of research in assessing like what their needs were, what needs to be done prior to 2020. So I realized, although the story I wanted to tell before is also an important story, I feel like the story of black businesses is also important to tell as well. So what happened? I'm guessing you guys all remember the headlines, the stories, the anxiety, you know, what's happening next, where do I buy a mask? Black businesses and black business owners experienced this at numerous levels and higher with the stress of anxiety of rents, you know, customers, where's everyone going, what's happening. So we saw shorter hours, less customers, reduction of staff, increased spending on PDPE and ultimately business closures. So basically studies have shown that black businesses saw the most impact of COVID-19 with the National Bureau of Economic Research finding that by February 2020 active businesses fell by 22 percent. However, black businesses fell by 41 percent. That led me to my research question, knowing that this is an exasperated thing. The impact of COVID-19 on black businesses should lead many to the conclusion that there should be more aid financially. There should be more aid structurally. Yet, why has the support still not equaled? And with that knowledge, what can be done to retribute and is it too late? I do want to add that the language I'm using is very current because we are still in a pandemic. So just want to remind everyone that I know it's harsh, but we have to remember. So before I go into answering this question, I want to talk about what do we know? How do we know black businesses need more aid financially and structurally? I know many people need evidence before they answer to before they want answers. So first thing first, we know that black businesses are in COVID hotspots. Black business activity over the years has been heavily correlated to dense black population, as well, black population over the years have clustered in metropolitan areas. The New York Fed Federal Reserve found that 40 percent of black businesses recedes recited within just sturdy counties. And during the time they took this data, 19 of those counties were found to be COVID hotspots. What does that mean? The correlation of black businesses being in COVID-19 hotspots means they're more likely to face foreclosures, staff layoffs and the virus itself on its community and, you know, workers, staff, et cetera. OK, so we know that black businesses are in COVID hotspots, meaning they're disadvantaged structurally when facing the pandemic. But how do we know black businesses did not receive equal aid? We know black businesses were not received equal aid. By on a national level, the Brookings Institute found within metropolitan regions, PPP loans were not equally accessed. These same regions as stated prior have the quantities, have large quantities of black businesses. Research also found by Reveal, which focused on LA County, found that one and a half LA majority white areas of LA received loans at one and a half times the rate of businesses in majority black areas. And within same Los Angeles County, Bank of America, JP Morgan, JP Morgan Chase, Cross River Bank, Wells Fargo and Customers Bank made enough loans to cover a quarter of businesses in majority white populated areas. However, those same lenders extended loans only covering 60 percent of businesses in black populated areas. I do have data concerning this. Oh, it's not on here. So sorry, y'all. But it's actually increased over the years, like the gap was actually widened because that when the study was done, it was 2020, 2021 now. So what explains this problem that we see? We know there's a gap here. We know there's inequities happening. But what explains this problem? For starters, prior banking relationships. The New York Fed found that the first round of PDP loans were not given in correlation to COVID-19 cases. If it was, it means black black businesses would have received loans more. It actually relied on prior banking relationships. The relationships that business owners had with banks are important when assessing who is capable of receiving aid. If you already have access and a good relationship with your bank, you are more likely to automatically get a loan because it's easy to just step in and know the process. So with black businesses pre pandemic, 58 percent were at risk financially distressed to white businesses, which are only 27 percent. And then the study also found that black businesses were also less likely to rely on bank financing and relied more on personal savings and financial support from families and friends. Data also from the New York Federal Reserve found that 54 percent of healthy or stable white business owners had existing banking relationships in comparison to 33 of healthy or stable black business owners. Knowing the first round of PDP loans are relying on blank relationships. Another component of unequal access of loans and support is greatly tied to not just prior banking relationships, but also the lack of accounting for the different routes black business owners go to gain aid. Another component is CDFIs or community development financial institutions. So what are CDFIs and who uses them? CDFIs are private sector financial into marriage with community development as their primary mission. While CDFIs share a common mission, they have a variety of structures and develop in lending goals. There are multiple different types. There's community development banks, community development loan funds, community development credit unions, et cetera. All are market driven, locally controlled private sector organizations. CDFIs have been a way to accommodate low-income people, people of color, and those with no financial background. Having begun with the first black credit unions in the 1930s, they expanded in response to President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the late 1960s and early 1970s by diversifying funding sources to include corporations, foundations, religious institutions would really help black businesses. However, there's still much more work done to be there's still a lot more work to be done with CDFIs because it is found in equities with white-owned CDFIs and black-owned CDFIs, which get less funding in general, which has a better connection to creating a pipeline of black CDFIs, to black businesses, to black people. It's all interconnected and we have to start somewhere by getting that aid. I hope I'm not talking too fast, but I hope you guys are all understanding that this is all interconnected. The way funding goes, the way people gain access, it's all barriers on top of each other layers of layers of history of how people who have more access, more access to capital are likely to be better in these situations. So how do we recover? Changes to make. There's policy changes in this community, individual changes. Many have talked about allocating more funds to CDFIs to support communities, specifically black owned CDFIs and particularly those located within black majority areas. Looking at assessing eligibility bias that could be impacting communities of color, particularly when applying for loans and applying for aid. I believe continuing aid for minority businesses is very important. And also keeping track of demographics when we look at aid, because this issue came up with a lot of people now realizing we need to look at the data that we're getting and who is accessing these loans, who is accessing these aids, which leads to an equity on a community and individual level supporting black owned businesses and other POC business owners since buying power is impactful, offer resources and knowledge in regards to financial aid and support charitable donations and continue to educate and keep the momentum. And I guess the way I do want to end this is to remember to stand with black owned businesses, even as media and attention has moved on. As we see within this pandemic, there is a lot of trying to move on or get away from the pandemic. But it's important to remember the people who are being quote unquote left behind or not being remembered. And yeah, thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jimmy Nguyen. I'm currently a junior here at UC Berkeley studying political science with a minor in public policy. My research this summer was is titled COVID-19 relief and recovery, focusing on Vietnamese businesses and San Jose's Little Saigon. Just to give you an overview of my presentation today, I'll be first touching on my research inspiration, then moving into COVID-19 relief that was available in both a local and federal level. Afterwards, I'll be going into kind of the heart of my research project, which was a mapping project using Google Earth Outreach. From then, I'll be breaking down the numbers by providing some context to qualitative data. And I'll be closing off my presentation with paths towards recovery and what lies ahead as small businesses in San Jose specifically try to move forward. So first, starting off with research inspiration, when I was in the process of developing my research project, I wanted to make sure that whatever I was researching had a personal connection to me. During the summer, I ran into this article titled People Are Hurting, San Jose's largest Vietnamese mall hanging by a thread. Just to give you all some context, my hometown is San Jose and I live in this Vietnamese community. And the Vietnamese mall that was featured in this article was one that I often visited growing up. It was full of like different Vietnamese restaurants, different clothing stores, anything that was just Vietnamese like that was Vietnamese centered. It was located there in that Vietnamese mall. So for me, this research project has a really close connection. And just to give you just to show you all kind of like how impactful COVID-19 has been. This is what the mall would look like pre pandemic. There would be a bustling of Vietnamese people going to different stalls throughout the mall. And this is what it looked like during COVID. This was actually this was from the same article that had went in and captured a picture. This is the food court inside the mall and you can see everything was wired off. You can notice in the picture, there are a few businesses that decided to just close because they had received so little customers coming through their doors. And from that, that inspired me and led me to my research question, which is how has COVID-19 impacted Vietnamese American businesses and little Saigon's and San Jose little Saigon business district? More specifically, what barriers have these small businesses faced in the struggle to stay afloat? The way that I approached my research, I wanted to do a two pronged approach. So I wanted to do a qualitative section, which drew from secondary sources, like news or news sources, like I had shown you earlier, and also a quantitative approach, which used the small business administration data and my mapping project. First, just talking about local and federal leaf, which is the quantitative section of my project. The city of San Jose offered a lot of different relief programs to small businesses. The first was direct grants through the local government. Second, there was a Silicon Valley strong small business grant and that was separate from the city of San Jose grant. And something that I really want to highlight and will make sense later on my presentation is the city of San Jose actually set up outreach programs and something that I really admired about this outreach program was that it actually targeted what they considered highest need neighborhoods and the two criteria that they that made these zip codes eligible for these outreach programs was one, they had the highest rate of COVID-19 and two, these neighborhoods had also a large percentage of minorities living within it. So within these outreach programs, what they basically did is they had outreach ambassadors who went into these communities and spoke and spoke to small businesses and helped them get through the process of applying for local and federal aid. Looking towards federal relief program, you all might be familiar is the paycheck protection program. This program was administered by the Small Business Administration and what it basically did is it authorized billions in funds to small businesses for payroll, mortgage, rent and utilities. Just to give you some more context about San Jose small businesses, about over 55,000 small businesses, there are over 55,000 small businesses in San Jose, 50 percent of which are immigrant owed and 60 percent of which are owned by owners of color. Just to dive in into little San Jose's little Saigon, which is which falls into the nine five one two two zip code. They had a total of nine hundred and five unique loans according to the small business administration and total, the funds went towards saving about over 8000 jobs. And in terms of monetary, over 32 million dollars was administered through the PPP. As all this money was being administered, there was a lot of outcry nationally about the lack of transparency and who was getting these loans. And I provide this headline right here, judge orders SBA to release names of all PPP borrowers and precise loan amounts. And because and this was done through a fee, a freedom of information act request. And what I basically did was it essentially released all this data, who was getting all this money and a lot of the specifics within those loan applications. And what had come out of it was a lot of websites and organizations, organizations essentially created these data dashboards. So you can see here, one is by VC Star, another one is by federal pay dot org. And if you have time yourself later, you can actually go on and actually just use their search engine and see, you know, how many PPP loans were given out in your own communities. But while I was doing this preliminary search, something that I noticed that was that there was really a lack of mapping visualizations. I feel like it's one thing to be able to see data, but I think it's another thing to be able to see, you know, how does this data, what does that data look like in communities? And that is what really served as my inspiration for wanting to pursue this aspect of my project, which was a Google Earth outreach mapping. I do want to get some context. This mapping project wasn't easy for me. I don't have, you know, the skills as a data scientist for those of you who came to the morning panel. That was an awesome, you know, mapping project. And for me, I struggled a lot in this project because I just didn't have that expertise or the resources. For example, during the summer, the UC Berkeley D lab on campus, which does basically do support for data science research on campus was closed during the summer. So that was a resource I wasn't able to access. A second obstacle that I ran to was I had a hard time finding beginner level mapping alternatives. But I eventually did find Google Earth outreach, which basically was a more user friendly option for me to pursue this. And lastly, the last obstacle was, you know, doing a learning curve. I had about eight weeks to do this project. And so in that timeframe, I had to learn how to geocode addresses, which is basically turning coordinates provided by the SBA into, I'm sorry, turning addresses provided by the SBA into coordinates so that I could map them cleaning and filtering data and basically figuring out how to use the Google Earth program. But after all that work, this is kind of like the preliminary outcome that I was able to have. As you can see here, each mark is essentially like a cluster of businesses who had PPP. And if you actually on the program, if you actually clicked one of them, it actually exploded and showed you all the different businesses that had a PPP on file. I also did a color coating where if they had self reported as a minority owned business, it's a yellow. And if it was unreported or not a minority owned business, it was red. So why mapping? Why did I choose to kind of do do this portion of the project? One, like I mentioned earlier, there was really a lack of user friendly visual tools. And if other people kind of want to take this on, this is a route that I would recommend. Second, I think there is an amplified impact when you are able to see what does that data look and what it looks like when you make it come to life. And lastly is, you know, by seeing this mapping, you can see it made me wonder, you know, what was the data not showing us. And that moves on to kind of the last portion of my project, which was looking at the qualitative data. Just looking through different news articles and secondary literature, I was able to find a few things about little Saigon's challenges. The first one was all of these businesses, small businesses were not eligible for federal relief. In one article that I read a owner of a cosmetic shop was basically going without a salary because she only had one employee that she employed. And for herself, she didn't count herself. So she wasn't eligible for federal relief. A second one is language barriers. As you can imagine, being an ethnic community, there are a lot of immigrants who don't speak English. A lot of these are, you know, mom and pop stores who had immigrated from Vietnam and, you know, they don't have that proficiency in order to navigate these different relief programs. And lastly is technical logical barriers. This more pertains to restaurants, you know, when the pandemic hit a lot of restaurants pivoted to Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, what have you. I know DoorDash, for example, had DoorDash, for example, had, you know, grants that they were giving out. But for businesses who didn't know how to navigate it, they were left out. Just looking ahead to a path towards recovery. I kind of just want to leave you all with this quote, which I found really powerful. The typical business owned and operated by ethnic minorities in this country are restaurants and they are often more than a business. They are a reflection of the communities that they serve. And just to wrap up my presentation, this is something that I just want to emulate as we look forward of what the next steps are. And that is really resilience. That's building infrastructures to allow these small businesses to overcome the language and technical technological barriers and doing an equity, equity approach and targeted outreach, like the city of San Jose had done in their own work. That concludes my presentations. Thank you so much. If you have any questions, feel free to reach me here. Hi, everyone. My name is Min-an Van. I'm a fourth year studying film and media. And today, my topic is Asian American small business owners in equitable access to government COVID 19 relief. So as we all know, with the COVID 19 pandemic spreading across the US, there were a lot of challenges that were faced by many small business owners across the state. And a really common theme that we can see is that a lot of small businesses, they need to close down due to various reasons. And one of the most significant reason is a declining revenue that they cannot sustain their revenue anymore. And as a result, there were a lot of government relief programs. Like the most significant one was administered by the US small business administration. And so today, with my research topic, I want to delve into the experiences of people who apply to these government reliefs, either at the federal level or at the state or local level. So I examine the small business owners in the Chino Valley area. And I specifically look into the cases of Asian American small business owners. So if you can see here, this is by the US Census Bureau. People who identify as Asian alone is 35, around 35% of the population in the Chino Valley area, which is a really high Asian American population, considering the fact that there are only 6.5% of US population is Asian and only 17% of California has Asian Americans. And in terms of the income and poverty data, the median household income in this area is pretty high, is around $106,000. And that is really high compared to the US median household income, which is only $68,000, and California, which is $75,000. And then per capita, income is also higher than the US and California, with the US only $34,000 and California only $37,000. And the poverty rate in this area is pretty low as well compared to the US, which is 10.5% and California 11.8%. So with that being said, I want to note that this research is, I do not want to make a generalization of the experiences of Asian American small business owners across California or the US, but this simply I want to add to the discussion of the various experiences. So with the research process, I reached out to the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce and I was able to have nine Asian American small business owners participated in my initial survey. And after I looked through the answers of those surveys, I found that there were similarities in a lot of the answers and the three most represented cases was in sufficient government relief, sufficient government relief and ineligible for government relief. And therefore, through those three represented cases, I decided to reach out to three specific Asian American small business owners and have in-depth one-on-one interviews with them. And before I dive into the results of my conversations, I also want to talk about the disaggregation of Asian American data. It's important to recognize the harm of looking at different sub groups within the Asian American category as homogenous. So this research aim is not to make generalization of the experience of Asian Americans, but to contribute to the various complex discussions around Asian American small business owners. So with that being said, we're going to come into the first conversation that I had. So this business was a suffering business, yet they did not receive sufficient government relief. So the owner of the business, he's Chinese American, and the name of the business True Food Organic, and he sells organic vegan supplements. So he started the business in 2015 and launched his first product in 2018, and he was actually doing really well and were actually expanding internationally before the pandemic. However, due to COVID, he experienced a lot of 70% in revenue. And as a result, he applied to a lot of the government reliefs, but he was not able to receive the PPP loan. He was actually offered the SBA commercial loan. However, he was not satisfied with it because unlike the PPP loan, the SBA commercial loan is not forgivable. The majority of the conversation I have with him was actually about his frustration in contacting the SBA and asking question about why he was denied certain relief that he was applying for. And he mentioned that whenever he was trying to contact the SBA, he waited for a really long time for anyone to pick up the phone. And whenever someone pick up the phone, all they say is referring him to the Q&A session on the website. And whenever he goes to the Q&A session website, they have really general information. So he cannot find his answer there. Another frustration that he had is that he doesn't think that the process of allocating the grants and loans is transparent enough. And the quote that I actually had him saying is that he said, we don't know why for some businesses, it is so hard to get the money. And for some for some other businesses, it is easier. We have no idea what their qualification process is, nor how they process the application. And with that, I'm going to move to the second business, which was a thriving business. And this business actually also received a sufficient amount of government relief in spite of their thriving business. So the owners, Japanese, Peruvian American, and this business, they sell, they do like banners, flyers, senior yard signs, COVID signs, maybe that's also one of the reasons why they did so well. Booklets, they started back in 1997, 1998. They had a slight annual decline in revenue before the pandemic because of cheaper materials coming from China. And they were actually thinking about closing the business. But when the pandemic happened, they actually earn six to 10 times more in revenue during the pandemic. And quote from this business owner is that this was the best year that we've ever had. And at the beginning of the pandemic, this small business owner, one of her printers was broken. And so she applied for one of the loans by the SBA and they were they offered her that loan to buy a new printer. And at towards the end, she also applied for other SBA loans and PPP loans. And she also received those loans. And she said that she knows a lot of people in her community who do not get any relief. And she thinks that she was just really lucky. And she said that she was really lucky that that particular day she went to the bank that she's been a customer of for a really long time. And there was a banker that just she knows really well. And that person was really patient and sat there for two hours to like walk her through the entire application process for all of the applications. And she believed that that was a huge reason why she was able to get what she needed for the relief. And the last business I want to talk about. So the owners are the wife is Filipino American and the husband is Taiwanese American and they sell pet treats online. They plan to start the business in April 2020. But because of the pandemic, they delayed the start until August 2020. And the wife actually has extensive professional background in marketing beforehand. And but then after she quit her corporate job, she decided to really took advantage of the e commerce platforms and farmers markets and promoted her products really well. So in terms of government relief, they were ineligible for any relief grants and loans, because they didn't have like previous records to fill out in the application. And she says that the business doing pretty well, she doesn't feel like she's struggling. However, there's really no standard revenue to compare to since they start the business during the pandemic. So with that being said, there are vast differences in how Asian American small business owners from the Chino Valley area experience the pandemic. And there are questions about program eligibility and implementation set by the government. So if we look at the first two cases with the business that we're struggling but did not receive the loans and grants versus the one that was thriving six to 10 times and was doing that was the best year of the entire career when I was doing this business, but still receive the relief, then we it raises all questions about is the evaluation process transparent and equitable enough? And why is there differences in experience of getting help in filling out those applications? And what kind of help should the government provide to small business owners? What or should the help to fill out those applications be on their own responsibility? And then another question is for new businesses that start during the pandemic, should they receive relief for like their effort in trying to also sustain themselves? So with that being said, it is really important to ensure all businesses in need are able to benefit from the relief programs. And that is it for my presentation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Hi, everyone. My name is Kai Zebio. I'm a recent graduate here from PC Berkeley. I majored in political science and minored in public policy. And my research topic was how Asian American small businesses and restaurants have survived the COVID 19 pandemic. So throughout the summer of 2021, I saw answers to the question, how have Asian American small businesses and restaurants mitigated the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic? But I would find consistently throughout my research question, or my research was that in order to answer this question, all I needed to do was read the writing on the walls. So if it weren't evident by the empty streets and walkways, or by the closed shops, the signs and the signs on the walls and communities like Little Tokyo and LA, Japan town and SF and Chinatown and SF will tell you a story. The pandemic is here. And it has left no small business unscathed. Nevertheless, if you look closer, you'll find exactly how these businesses, particularly Asian American small business restaurants, have been able to endure. Throughout my research, I had struggled initially throughout the eight weeks to find people to interview. And there are various reasons as to why that was so. Oftentimes, you know, there was a language barrier between me and the businesses that I wanted to interview. The fact that I was, you know, based in Sacramento and not in the Bay Area led me to have to set weekends aside to go to the places that I wanted to research at. But as I had said, the writing was on the walls. So signs, signs have been used as forms of marketing communication between businesses and their customers since ancient times, under which their designs, information and placement would engage with customers. So throughout my research, I had a particular focus on this practice known as signage through an ethnographic lens. That is, I examined the behavior of participants, the businesses and the customers, in the given social situation of posting signs and reacting to them within the context of the pandemic. Understanding why businesses showcase the writing on the walls, it gives insight into what they want their customers to understand, feel and act, which is exactly what I saw to focus on. So as you can see here, a majority of the signs you'll see on these businesses are all of the COVID-19 procedures that both the owners and the potential customers must abide by, each with their own direct or indirect consequences. Some signs note that customers aren't allowed to stand or sit in areas in order for the location or the restaurant to be considered COVID safe. Others require physical distancing and mask wearing, while others disallow food eaten inside of complexes to allow for to follow city ordinance, follow city ordinances and act in the interest of public health. Others showcase whether the establishment of particular has passed COVID safety guidelines, which are akin to like a food safety inspection certificate. So I have more photos here. Some of the images that I got on the walls. Noticeably, there are a lot of guidelines. And here, at the bottom right and the bottom left, here's the one of the template forms for filling out that businesses need to pass. And you call it on the right is one of the signs posted outside saying that this business, of course, is COVID safe. And they pass the test. So ultimately, these signs that pertain to COVID-19 guidelines aimed to keep businesses and their customers operating within health guidelines, failure to comply with these signs have a direct and significant impact on the bottom line of these businesses. With customers often unable to eat inside for public health and safety. Restaurants have seen drastic drops in business. Mitsuru sushi and grill noted that their business has only been able to make around 25 percent of the revenue they had before when there was a ban on in person food service. And now under indoor dining, it's around at 50% of pre COVID business levels. So under these conditions, restaurant owners find themselves having to deal with buying more takeout packaging, buying cleaning supplies, creating outdoor settings for dining outside and various and the need to buy various air filters and barriers, all of which erode their profitability. Notably, according to Mackenzie and company at the at the national level, almost 40% of small business restaurants operate at a loss or only broke even before the pandemic. So the pandemic has made the slim operating margins even slimmer. So in Japan town in SF, more than 10 businesses have closed up shop for good from the 70 small businesses that were part of the community in 2019 between reduced hours, businesses are able to be open for in combination with the lack of businesses due to the pandemic. The average store is losing around 4,300 a month. While the average restaurant there is losing around 11,000 a month. Meanwhile, many of the tenants in Japan town also owe thousands of dollars in front in maintenance. So William Lee's restaurant in particular owes over 20 K and he's also based in Japan town. In little Tokyo in LA, 26 small businesses have shut down, 19 of which were either restaurants, bars or cafes. In Chinatown in SF, the SF Chamber of Commerce noted that the zip code that houses most of Chinatown saw 75% of its storefronts become non operational at some point last year. A comparison to the city average under which 54% of all storefronts were non operational. So in combination with the adverse impact of the pandemic, a notable increase in violence and hatred against the Asian American community has occurred between March 19th and December 31st stop API hate has found that more than 2800 accounts of racism and discrimination targeting Asian Americans across the US. So this is important because discrimination of Asian Americans is also manifested in forms of misinformed xenophobia. Asian American businesses have seen adverse impacts caused by fear mongering and misinformation that tied Asian American communities with higher chances of giving COVID 19 resulting in less potential customers engaging with Asian American businesses. Nevertheless, there are signs that point in a more hopeful direction for the future of these businesses with anti Asian hate on the rise throughout the nation within the midst of the pandemic, various nonprofits, local advocacy groups, business associations, law firms and governmental organizations have not only rallied to prevent such hate, but have also helped to host cultural events and directly assist both businesses and the community at large. So for example, in little Tokyo, the little Tokyo Community Council's Community Feeding Community Program utilized donations and resources to purchase food from struggling local restaurants to give those who were homeless or had seen their financial capabilities weakened at the hands of pandemic. The little Tokyo Community Center in collaboration with the small US Small Business Administration, Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program, LA Metro and LA's Metro has also helped businesses apply for grants and loan applications, as well as helped small businesses mark market themselves with more promotions and a greater online presence. All right. In Japan Town and Chinatown, these signs plastered on the walls showcase showcasing various community gatherings and projects as well as potential prizes for those who keep coming back to spend at the malls with the intent of rallying community members and bringing in tourists to keep businesses afloat. There are also various API community signs rallying against hate with some even offering legal assistance for businesses that may suffer from hate crimes or if they need to apply for grants and loans. The form here on the top left advertises the cherry blossom festival that was held in Japan Town. We also have a customer appreciation month form for Japan Town there. Just proof as of more of their marketing and trying to get people into their businesses. And then down here at the left we have a community project which brought members of community and tourists together to create like a little heart art project to get more people into the businesses. And then of course we have a pamphlet for legal outreach for Asian American businesses. All right. So, signs as a medium that can be analyzed serve as a gateway to understand how businesses communicate with their customers. Ultimately, the writing on these walls communicate to customers what the business in Little Tokyo, Chinatown and Japan Town have encountered in the wake of both the consequences of the pandemic and a way of anti-Asian hatred. However, the writing on the walls in the form of these pamphlets are not singularly the bearer of hard times. They also showcase how many in the community have endured and what work still needs to be done in fighting the pandemic standing against hatred and in keeping these communities culture and livelihoods intact. All right. And that's all I have for you today. Thank you to all of the panelists. Now we will turn it over to Kathy Adams. You can stay seated if you would like or come up here to give feedback for the the students in the research. Well, first of all, I have thoroughly enjoyed each of you. You guys can tell Jimmy I said it. And why I'm so impressed about more importantly is the thoroughness of your research. But also with everything that each of you have talked about today. I've lived it and I've seen it. Not only through the the pandemic, but more importantly, I've seen it through our business primarily black minorities and the BIPOC community. Businesses have been marginalized. So steering racism is real. It's not gone. We also know that people use the term equity loosely, but we know there are lots of inequities which each of you talked about. So what I will say before I kind of like go kind of separately with some of the notes that I've taken from your presentation when the pandemic started March March of 2019. I'm also a business owner. I did one of the last events, March, the one when this is from two days later, following that the government issued and said you can't do this for five one hundred. So people laugh at me. I don't know the curse. It's a cat. Look how you look. You go and you did the first event when they say it's tough and then you finish the other one before they went in a shutdown toward the end of last year. So with all of these, and I will say this before I got here, I just left the governor of the state of California that signed several executive borders. Everything that you're talking about right now, we have to talk about this one piece. It's a little different when you talk about companies and not being that's a little different, but I believe that they're so. So I will say that the and I just took a little notes on that because I didn't want to like not quite, but he's the governor in terms of the California, you know, sort of building that they put in close to four billion dollars is going to help a lot of the businesses. And we were there right in Kingston, 11 of this more than a year, Congress, I'm probably, but certainly my motto, you know, a couple of more senators were there. And the reason I thought that was so important, and I participated in like three events for the governor. And they all have been around the small businesses also have the opportunity. So I've been there and it has been an emotional ride. I stood in Oakland, Chinatown, Chamber of Congress by Agent Hale. I was there. I was there with the Dr. Jennifer Tran, with to be in the Beast Chamber of Congress. So we've all come together with our collective because we understand that all of our communities are distressed right now. We know that a lot of us were suffering. So keeping it on a basis because I tell people, you know, I get emotional when I talk about the pandemic, when we talk about the PPP and PPE and all of these funds that did not reach the bank accounts of our Bicapal community. And when I heard all of those calls and people and businesses didn't know what they were going to do, what I had to do was operate on a level here. How do you help? When a problem occurs, the first thing that you do, I go into solution base. And there's no one shoe fit all in any of your presentations. And the reason it was so important that you guys didn't cheer when they said I raised one for one million dollars last year at 90 days. One for one million dollars. And the reason that that was so important was because of the lack of PPP and all of the businesses through the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce were not necessarily black owned. But at the end of the day, there was a fair process there in terms of your household's grants. So I'm just saying that I'm so touched by it. I can truly say that each of your innovation and your research and the passion and you living this as a human being. But it's your parents or you saw it and experienced it with your own eyes. Even though you're all very young, your own point in terms of what you did. So when I go to you, Pedro, and we started talking about the soreness. What I saw and what I've seen through because even at Lake Mary, some of the government is going to be passionate about it. Some are not. You don't have your papers. You don't have everything in place. We're not going to help you. That's that. But that's why it's so important that you work in your community and you work with chambers of commerce in any organizations that will advocate for individuals that don't necessarily have a voice for themselves. So when you talked about the challenges that they went through, the financial barriers, some of them were resilient. And some people really did better than others. Because what it does is when they said you're shutting down, we have to feed our families. We have to be our bills. And they're not going to go away. So even though you may feel this this this this darkness, but they have to say, you know what, when they shut down, if I'm going to go to a pop-up, I won't have to do a pop-up. And when you're talking about being able to have cash because there are only things about Bill Moore and cash out and PayPal. And then when you talk about the language barriers, you talked about there were really no more oratoriums that you could do for a swap fee. And then I would say that in your rest, in your in your research, too, like if I had been there when you started or when it was happening before they closed, we could have looked at some traditional funding. We could have looked at some more of a grassroots effort. People do go funding all the time. And I don't know if you guys laughed at me when I was doing the when I was raising the money and they said, we got to do a GoFundMe page. That's what I want to do. Go for me. That means you don't have any money. But I learned later that's a great platform in which people use because I said, I want to raise this money, but I want to go for me because I don't want to say broke, disbared and I didn't want to go there. I said, I always tried to keep it up. So I'm saying to you and close the time to give everybody and be turned is that resiliency was so important when you talk about the SWAT name. It also being able like I'm in a newspaper a lot, but I'm there for issues, not because I'm trying to be a fashionista. I'm there because I generally care about people. I care about human country. I'm originally from a Meridian, Mississippi. And as I look at you and what you're doing, each of you have a bright future because right now, this is why we're here is to provide service and to provide support. So I would say that as you move forward and when I tell people to call me, I mean it. Most people tell you that now mean it. But I think that with the resources and the relationships that we have, that could have been something to say to the government about undocumented workers. That's important. I think that they're resilient. I've seen it. I've gone to Napa and I've seen these individuals that care every single day to work and don't have the same access to opportunity. But I'm saying that what would help going forward being able to have the media interest, being able to have somebody to talk about the story, being able to create a mechanism when we create a special funding for non-documentary work. And that sometimes can be a slippery slope. But it's real that here, we hope that Congress and common life vice president, I will share with you guys too so that you know that I felt everything you say because in February of this year, I was one of four people that had an opportunity prior to the American rescue plan being passed because all of us was in a panic. How are we gonna make a living? How are you gonna get your college tuition that's paid and all of this? With the distress of your parents. And prior to that call, the American rescue plan was passed. But my whole primary mission was there because I know the vice president will help. And so I was very nervous about doing that question. You know, as a request, I know her and I knew I couldn't get on the call and say with Secretary Yellen, hey girl, how you doing? So I didn't sleep the whole night and, you know, quit because I think that it's important to share this because I've known it for a very long time. And I asked my questions and I was more concerned with and there were inequities there too that you talk about because we knew that the monies were not gonna be divided equally. But what I say to people is it's a start because you can't let your judgment, your emotions cloud your judgments. No matter what you do, even though the hardest decisions that we have to make and that's what I have to do as a leader. I can't tell you that I don't cry when I go behind the curtain, but I tell you how I have to show up. So I'm just saying to you every middle let me pronounce your name wrong. So here I go, let me just close out by saying excellent presentations, fundraising mechanism to support them, being able to bring special resources there. You guys understand that social media is your fact and being able to draw individuals to come there to actually shop and being able that when you talked about an interview on that, I was on Facebook every single day doing the pandemic. I probably wouldn't have made it had I not been focusing on public people. It didn't realize that I'm always almost two years going for the pandemic. But I went to those restaurants as they utilized the ecosystem. I went to 73rd, Acoma Market and Liberation Park. I also went to Lake Mary. So don't let anybody tell you that all politicians are bad because that's not true. Lake Mary, the city of Old Hood, Mayor Libby Shab, they get with her all the time. I meet with the mayor once a month. I attended Palm Springs last month, the 42nd annual California State Hispanic Convention. So I'm saying that to you that when she asked me to come, I said, well, what can I possibly say? To you all, because I don't always like to speak, but these are like, but I'm going to fast forward because I know I'm on the time. So, Naliana? Nalanga. Nalanga. Your presentation, I kind of touched on it in our conversations and black businesses do face the ground. There is no question that a non-African-American man or woman can walk in the bank and won't get the same treatment. They'll need to go all the way back to our ancestors and say, show me your grandmother's name on a piece of cloth. You understand? It gets that deep. We understand Black Wall Street, what happened with that? We just say, we honor the memory because I don't know how we celebrate that. So everything that you're talking about, banking relationships are important. I'm working with, not to say any names because most banks have had issues around predatory lending and discrimination. But like I said, I'm here. I just got a funding, funding from West Fargo that I got from the multicultural chambers. And each of the chambers got a grant of $15,000. And what's important about that grant? Yes, it should be more, absolutely it should. But this is a start. So with that collaboration that we work with, we're going to be able to talk about that as a capital. We've got to have the hard conversations to say, Black people are going to have some issues with credit. But at the end of the day, they've got a bona fide business that's working, certain circumstances, act of God, crises, family, death, you name it. Things happen, but no one cares. They don't. So we have to have a voice like mine. The multicultural chambers to say why this is different. Working with Square, non-traditional CDFIs, for important, because it's a little bit different. So what I'm saying to you is this is a fall on deaf ears. We've got to treat some of the situations indifferently. You may not have a 750. But you may have a 698. But you have a history of paying your bills. You've got contracts to show that your revenue is coming. So that's why, even when I talked to the guy the other day and I said, listen, we can talk about coaching the capital and that's cute. Wells Fargo stagecoach, all of that is cute. But what I said to them is I've done a lot of work with Wells Fargo because I'm too under business owner. I've been in business for longer than I want to say, for a long time. But. Kathy, would it be OK if the students contact you for more? Absolutely. All of my information you can share, because I'm a fast forward because I should have worn about the passion. But I want to be able to say something to each of you. So what I'm saying to you, we definitely could talk. And it may even be to be able to have an opportunity for you to talk briefly at one of the access to capital workshops that we're going to do. Because even the man will be there. But the first thing she said is she didn't really want to stand up there to just talk about Wells Fargo. How do people, businesses, actually going to get the law? How can we maintain being in the business with no access? So even with the billions and billions of dollars that the government is putting into that, it's going to help those businesses currently to function. But every time you talk, I want you to say when you're talking to people, I understand the disparity. I thought last year in November to get the disparity study released because of the low percentages and how businesses have been marginalized. If I tell you, I'm not telling you, I'd be alive. I got the study released because they were holding it in the city attorney's office and all of this blah, blah, blah. I demanded that they release the study. I got council member Lauren Taylor, who's one of the council members. And I said, we're having a press conference. We're going for this. I want you to wait for this. We did that in November of last year. I'm doing a press conference one year later with the disparity study because the community deserves to know, how do we fare out there? We know what the issues are. You can't keep telling us the same thing over and over and over again. So I'm saying to you while you are on point, because I live what you're doing every day. So we got the disparity study released. The council member called me at 630 that morning. He said, well, Kathy, I don't think we need to have a press conference because they got a word to the mayor and the council. They got to release the study. I said, I don't trust them. We're still going to have the press conference. I don't put this work in. What if they change the mind now? We've lost the effect of getting it out there. The press conference was at 11 o'clock. They released the study at 1150. And I also do media. In one of my media contests, I said, Kathy, you're not going to believe this. I said, what? He said, they released the study. I said, no way. The administrator office received it. Well, I have inside information, which tells me that some people that sometimes work, that they think they're champion for my efforts, they didn't even have it on their computer in a folder. They had to go to the server to get it, which means that if they had been about us and it was in on their desktop, it would have got a release. And then there's no camera in fact. So you've got to keep fighting every time you get an opportunity. Also, like I said, Ms. Brown, I talked to Elaine Brown, is also a very good friend of mine. And she's working on a $72 million project that's zero energy, 100% affordable, $72 million. And this is for the disenfranchised. And that's real housing. There's only 79 units, but somebody may have $15,000, but you rent maybe 150. So I work with people that care for real, while others won't. So I'm saying to you, you're on the right track, it's no secret, but the recommendations would be as we go further, how do we have the conversations with non-traditional funders, how we go into the banks of Chase, all of when we work with Co-America, Mechanics, First Republic, they're all members of the chambers. So I deal with this every single day in terms of the banks of that. Like I tell people, I fundraise. So if you don't want me to use this money, which I get this money, even though this is not a nice person, how are we gonna raise the money in order to provide the technology support? You need translators, the language barriers in our communities, that's real. Who's gonna do that? So when they shut them down, they're not on social media. So that's what we're talking about in fight every day, even with now on the American Rescue Plan money that we're doing. And also the cares, that money and all of that. So everything you're doing, I fight till I get hoarse on the back. And so I'm saying to you that I would love for you from your perspective to talk about, to be a speaker, and I'll get the data sometime in November, but give you information. But I'd love for you to come to share your PowerPoint, to talk about that. Cause what's real is for the banks and the non-traditional lending institutions to understand that it's not enough to talk about inequity. What are you gonna do about it? Cause the disparities are not gonna die. People are gonna have issue, but it doesn't mean you don't have to be able to pay. Even if you talk about somebody that has bad credit, you gotta drive your car. So I was you, you're playing your car now. Cause you gotta get to work. You have a roof on your hand. Obviously you need a place to live and you're playing your rent. I don't know if you got some janky stuff going on and you're being evicted and you're sitting there. That's a whole other thing. I'll try to inject teamwork. I don't like to be so serious. It's serious. But I'm just saying, I like to inject humor. So access to capital is critical. And we just gotta fight harder to get there. And then guess what? We have a responsibility. Cause I don't, I don't play around. If I stand up for you and fight for you, you're gonna do well. If I stand up to advocate for you to get along, I don't want nobody to tell you that you're gonna defuck going along. Cause I'm gonna be knocking on your door and say, hey buddy, that wasn't part of the deal. And what's gonna make me want to loan you money? So that's don't get too caught up on the racist piece. Cause that's true. But some of us are not responsible and that's real. And everybody that knows me, I keep it 100. Nobody is gonna give you any money if you're not responsible. So you gotta take, so if we have to do credit repair, that's what we're gonna do. They may not be able to loan you a million dollars, but they might be able to do a current quarter of a million. And when you pay that, then we can get a credit. Dreams are great. And the only thing I would tell you in business, but nobody is gonna fund your dream. How much are you willing to put into it and you get in what you put out? That's your piece. Okay. Am I going fast enough? I'm trying to go fast. The other session has to come in. Oh, okay. Sorry. So anyway, let me just say this. Tell Jimmy, he did great. We were there. We were there. Kai, Nita Hunt, basically at the end of the day, your presentation was great. And then when you talk about the relationships and the access and what the companies went through, that was real. Some companies did come up because they pivoted and they remain resilient. So anyway, thank you guys for having me. I'm so. Thank you.