00:00Hi, beautiful people. My name is Kirsten Westivalli, executive producer for Essence Digital.
00:11Thank you so much for joining us for our series Essence of the Matter, COVID-19's
00:16impact on Black America. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well.
00:21Today, we'll be discussing small Black business owners and everything they need to know to
00:25leverage the CARES Act, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, to financially
00:31survive COVID-19. We'll speak with a specialist who will answer your questions, as well as veteran
00:36organizers and community leaders who are working every day to make sure we come out on the other
00:41side of this stronger, healthier, and with an infrastructure that protects Black business
00:46owners, but especially vulnerable Black workers. Under the CARES Act, the Paycheck Protection
00:52Program, or PPP, does provide $350 billion in forgivable loans so that employers can pay
00:58their employees during this pandemic. However, of the $2.2 trillion relief bill, only $10 million
01:04goes to the Minority Business Development Agency. What does that mean for Black businesses? What
01:09does that mean for communities that are being disproportionately impacted by this pandemic?
01:14We already see that so many of our people, from New Orleans to Milwaukee to Albany to Detroit,
01:20are becoming the face of this crisis. The U.S. Surgeon General now declaring Detroit a coronavirus
01:27hotspot. I'm trying to make an honest living to take care of our families.
01:33Sadly, Jason Hargrove was infected with the coronavirus. He got sick and he died once in
01:37two weeks after posting that video. First responders in Milwaukee County are swamped with COVID-19 calls
01:44right now. In the small city of Albany, an unlikely coronavirus hotspot. As of March 30th, almost
01:50over 600 cases, 24 deaths. More than Atlanta and Fulton County, which are 12 times as large.
01:57And that is because we live in vulnerable communities. Communities who are living under food apartheid.
02:02Communities with water scarcity. Communities where we see pre-existing conditions based on all of these
02:09root issues that make us more vulnerable to this virus. And on top of that, we're also the people more
02:15likely to be essential workers who risk our lives every day during this pandemic to keep the economy going.
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