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00:00This is Bloomberg equality. I'm Caroline Hyde and I'm Romaine Bostick. Every Thursday this month at this time we're taking a look at a wide range of topics highlighting what equality means for the economy companies and investors. And this Sunday marks Juneteenth a fourth a commemoration is kind went relatively unnoticed remain outside of the African-American community. Now the holiday gets a name. From June 19th 1865 the day the Union Army arrived in Galveston Texas to announce that all enslaved African-Americans in the state were free. The holiday has risen in prominence particularly following 2020 sweeping protests. And just one year ago Congress designated it as a federal holiday. Now as we look forward to observance today we will dig into the economic cost of racial bias. How best to support black entrepreneurship. To check in with leaders on how they are building community through this hardship remain hardship. It still is the data. You see what 3 percent of all employee businesses are black. Just 3 percent confederal. 14 percent overall set of people within America. And there are a lot of grand promises of course after the big protests in 2020. This idea here that we can finally start to address some of these issues and I guess we have. But maybe that progress hasn't been enough. You talk about sort of the economic hardships the economic gaps. Well let's talk about some of those gaps the wealth gap. I mean it's a big part of the reason why we're doing this show. This isn't just about whether it helps black people. There's legitimate data out there including from our next guest is going to talk a lot about this idea here that that wealth gap and narrowing that wealth gap could have a major upside here for overall economic consumption and economic growth. You can see that chart there. It shows you the fluctuations in that gap. But what it doesn't show you of course is the actual narrowing. Joining us is a woman who has helped put dollar figures to all of this remain closing racial wealth gaps. And of course we think the overall race got racial gaps in and of themselves could have contributed an additional 16 trillion dollars in economic output since the year 2000. If we close them I'm happy to welcome Dana Peterson chief economist at the Conference Board. You'd put that pen to paper and a report that really caught the attention over at City back in September 2020. Since then you've continued to evolve the dialogue evolve the reports and indeed the data crunching for racial gaps. You really focused in on and some of them of course access to lending housing credit education wage gaps. Are we seeing improvement Dana. Well it's tough to say. It's only been a couple of years since that report was released. And certainly when we look at the data we had a pandemic right in the middle. And so certainly there were improvements in terms of closing those gaps in terms of unemployment rates. But you still see a pretty big difference between unemployment rates for black Americans and their counterparts. And so it's really tough to say that we've made material gains yet. How are we measuring this though now Dana. I know some people will look at unemployment rates. We know the Fed has actually focus at least prior to the current disruptions. The Fed was really focused in on some of those inequities. But there are a lot of other measures here of sort of what constitutes wealth and what constitutes comfort in our society and in our economy. Or where do we sort of look to get a sort of a broader sense of how far we've come and maybe how far we still need to go. Sure. A really great metric is to look at home ownership. So for example owning a home is the path to wealth for many many families. In fact many families don't own any stocks or bonds but they do own a home. And when you look at the shares of who owns a home in America still black and Hispanic Americans own are less likely to own a home. And even with the run up in housing activity and purchases that we saw over the pandemic period it was still the case that black and Hispanic persons and families were less likely to own a home. So even with extremely low interest rates and lots of fiscal stimulus today most everybody received you still see these gaps persisting. And one of the huge gaps that you shone a light on in the original report back in 2020 was access to lending for entrepreneurship in particular and therefore the lost business revenue but also the lost jobs there in you've done more work with the conference board looking at access to finance. Are we seeing any improvement with the sentiment at least among people of color that they can go out and have dialogue with their banks and get access. Well I think the great news in response to the report and also all the other analysis and a recognition that happened back in 2020 is the fact that many banks opened up their wallets and committed billions of dollars to enhancing access to financing not only to consumers but to businesses that are owned by persons of color as well as investing in communities. Now again it's only been a couple of years and so it's tough to see how much improvement we've we've had. Certainly with the Conference Board we recently conducted a survey of consumers across different ethnic groups and we found that it's still the case that many consumers of color are still not having access to financial services. And it's certainly across the income spectrum. So it's also the number of people who are unbanked. It's still very high. But even among higher income persons they're less likely to have access to financial services such as brokerage firms or even invest. Angel investors and venture capitalists investors. So that was just in the last couple of months. So again there's still a lot more work to be done a lot more work. And of course in fairness we have heard from some of the the major banks the Goldman Sachs of the world JP Morgan's that have sort of made some degree of commitment to trying to write some of these wrongs. I am curious Dana as where you see the government's role in all this if they should have a role at all. Sure. I think there's plenty that the government can do certainly removing barriers to access to do financial services. Certainly regulation that may be restricting something in actual firms from really engaging and communities are supporting CFI ISE which tend to serve minority communities and also communities that may be of low income. So I think there's definitely a lot that the government can do there as well as you know making it easier for employers to diversify their air. They're there. Their employee base. And so again lots of things that government can do. All right. Dana always wonderful to catch up with you. Dana Peterson there is a man doing some great research now chief economist over at the Conference Board. Coming up here on Bloomberg Quality we're going to talk about empowering black business. Derrick Brooks is the president of Combs Enterprises to be joining us to talk about how he wants to drive success for entrepreneurs. This is. This is Bloomberg Technology. The pandemic took an outsized toll on black owned businesses between February and April of 2020. The number of black business owners in the United States actually dropped 41 percent and that compares to only a 17 percent drop for white business owners but now remain according to the new census data. The number of black business owners was 28 percent higher in the third quarter of 2021 than before the pandemic. Joining us to discuss this health of black entrepreneurship historic groups President Combs Enterprises who wants to create shop circulate. Of course this is a black business e-commerce site. Marketplace Digital if you wish. Tarek it is always great to have your voice on these shows and talk to us about whether you see this element of health whether you see this galvanized Asian within building businesses amongst the black community. Hi. Thanks. Thank you for having me back. Happy to be here to discuss these important topics with you. We are very focused within Combs Enterprises with empowering the black community empowering black businesses. So the platform that we are building with Salesforce formerly called Shops Circulate now quite empowered local is set to launch this fall. And what it really is going to be is a new vision for e-commerce for black entrepreneurs. Even where you see black entrepreneurs participating on our platforms we don't make the same level of revenue as other businesses. And we believe by creating a platform specifically to empower that growth we can help make change. Right now we are facing as a country you know record record inflation and with the state of the black community when it comes to our financial footing. When the US economy has a cold black people catch a flu. And so we have to be particularly careful to make sure we're doing everything we can to empower our businesses and entrepreneurs. And we've seen a lot more entrepreneurship come out of this pandemic mostly because of a degree of necessity. A lot of folks had no other choice. Tarik I am curious for folks who are starting now and they look at some of the success that you have had and some of your partners have had here. What sort of advice you give them with trying to sort of navigate through a world into a country that isn't always going to be hospitable to their ambitions. I think one of the keys and I think this goes for careers and entrepreneurs is to find mentors find people who are committed to helping you borrow and build your success. Also don't be afraid to look for all of the tools and resources that are out there coming out of 20 20 and everything up in the country. There are a lot of companies that have created programs specifically designed for helping give entrepreneurs of color a leg up from where they were before. And then I'll also say you'll reach out to Collins Enterprises. We are happy to say that across our ecosystem 63 percent of our spend is with black owned businesses. So we actually walk the walk. We make sure we are empowering entrepreneurs every day. And in doing so we are enabling those folks to hire more people of color grow their businesses and create wealth in that time. Brooks When of course when you talk to yourself about mentorship I mean you were at Bridgewater. From what I understand Ray Dalio is a man you helped introduced a show a show. And of course this is you know people and you understand the vision and the focus on building wealth. And I'm interested when you look across all your portfolio because we see the drinks behind you. But also we know that of course comes enterprises ism within TV in and of itself revolt TV. I think of revolt assigning the likes of the guys behind Earn Your Leisure. Of course they have assets over liabilities and you show with you. This is about financial education about financial literacy. When we ask do it sing a downturn. When we sing something crypto fall off. When you sing shares fall lower. Does that risk that in any way of new people wanting to come and build wealth and then getting upended by this. Look Rob revolt is such an incredibly important platform. It gives us the opportunity to control our own narratives not just in entertainment but also in education and financial education is extremely important for our community. So so Troy and Rashida do an amazing job with our In Your Leisure and now with ASIO. That's the reliability that show is becoming increasingly popular. We have a show with Ros Matt called Matt Makin nomics where he is decoding a lot of the financial literacy language that that kind of keeps people out. You know one of the risks when you go through a period of lots of liquidity stock market continually rising is that when things change people get scared away. And part of what we're trying to do now is use these franchises that we're building to help people understand the importance of staying focused on investing and accumulating wealth with their futures up because that is the only way as a community we start to do our own part to close the racial wealth gap. Some of the tailwinds that this community had coming out of those protests and all of the corporations and other folks out there that sort of I guess finally took notice of what was already out there. I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to invest in it. Has that momentum continue. Two years later. The verdict is still out. You know what. One of the things that we say comes out across the line is that as a community black people need to weaponize their Dow Jones. And by that I mean use those dollars with intent to support the companies and organizations that support us and to move those dollars away from the companies and organizations that don't. Right. You know in addition to our boats is the most powerful tool we have the kind of shape our future. And so the companies that are doing the right thing should be supported and should be commended. I look at some of the great partners that revolt has landed over the course of the last couple years. I mean we have a wonderful show called Bet on Black that we built with Target. All right. And that just speaks to that commitment along with us to empower black entrepreneurs. I think it's time for us to really do the analysis on seeing you know who just make it up to post an acute statement when it was time and who actually wrote these up and did the work. That's notable. And we look for more partnerships. So then big business small business more marketplaces that you're building. Talk to us about where next. I mean when you're president of Combs Enterprises you're always looking at new business developments new areas of investment where for you is ripe for opportunity. Where do you want to keep on building. Well absolutely. Combs Enterprises. We can't stop won't stop. So there's always a lot going on today. In fact Diddy is releasing his first new music in over seven years of singles releasing called Gotta Move On. He recently announced the launch of Love Records and RB focused record label that was gonna change the way people think about the RB genre of music. Such an important category. We recently purchased or repurchased Sean John the iconic streetwear clothing brand that we are in the process now of doing the hard work to reimagine what their brand looks like for a new generation of fashionistas. We also as you see about the spirits behind me just recently launched some rock spirits are ready to drink products under this rock brand and more recently our newest flavored rock passion which is going to be the spirit of the summer this year. And that is the last thing I would say is we are about to announce in the coming weeks an investment in an innovative platform that is going to enable us to help provide resources to creatives all around the country to kind of empower creative folks to really be able to express themselves and capture value in doing so. So a lot a lot going on. It comes at a price. As always we're excited for what. The future the future holds. Come back. Tell us about the new announcements. And meanwhile Sunday commemorate celebrate maybe have a Sarah Michelle Tareq Rex. We thank you so much. Coming up I'm bringing back equality. We speak with James Beard award winning chef and restaurateur Marcus Emmerson about his work in Harlem and his commitment to build a community. What has been periods of hardship. It's a that. This is bringing back equality and food. It's such an integral part of course. Many holiday traditions for cultures across the globe including Juneteenth. Yeah. I might be the understatement of the day. So who better to talk to a James Beard award winning chef and restauranteur. You know Marcus Samuelsson he's actually known as the man behind Red Rooster and the author of The Rise which dives into the history of black culinary tradition. And I'm pleased to say Marcus is joining us right now. Marcus thanks for being here. Happy early Juneteenth as well. We wanted to have you on primarily to talk a little bit more about the food traditions in the black community the black American community the black immigrant community of course that you represent as well here and understand how that sort of folds into a holiday like this. This year. Well first of all it's really an exciting time for cooking in America. We are celebrating. We are learning about holidays. We're celebrating each other's holiday through food. Right. And for me Juneteenth is one of my favorite part of the whole summer especially being in Harlem and and being placed like Overtown in Miami. It's something that we really take to heart. And we want to showcase that this is something not just that you have to cook during your time but you can also cook it. Love the rest of the summer and just reflect a little bit what what is equity. What does equality look like. I know we're going to have a lot of fun over the weekend and celebrate it. And Marcus you've got cocktails are coming. You've got a tradition of father and son sharing of course that recipes because of course it comes in tandem with Father's Day. But Marcus you are a community builder. You're a man who gave off your your restaurant sites during Covid to build community kitchens. What did that do to bringing people together. What do you think we now see in terms of cultural awareness. You know we went through such a difficult time in the last two and a half years over there especially in the restaurant community. Right. But what I learned by partnering with World Central Kitchen that we served over 200 25000 meals at the Red Rooster here in Harlem. But we did it throughout all our restaurants. What I learned was that cooking is not just something that you do for people with a certain amount of income restaurants. We're really the heartbeat of the community. And it can be a community kitchen. It can be a place that people can come together during crisis. Right. And obviously we're seeing a little central kitchen on do it on a global scale now. And he's showing us all how important it is no matter what the issue is whether it's equity in the African-American and American community or whether it's something regarding Ukraine. Right. Food restaurant hospitality workers can come together and ask we're coming out of the pandemic. I just feel it's it's it's a we have to celebrate our hospitality community. And there's many ways you can do that. You can support your local restaurant. You can tip well you can be engaged in your local community with your hospitality workers so many different ways. And we also want to talk a little bit Marcus here about your role not just as a chef but as a restaurateur an owner if you will here. You're one of the more prominent black chef owners out there at least here in this country here. I'm wondering how much progress if at all you've seen with regards to more people who look like you not only just running the kitchen but actually running the business itself. Well I'm so glad you asked. And you know Jeff from I just came back from the awards over the weekend in Chicago went to you know to celebrate the most outstanding chef in the country Chef Muschamp Baylor. Incredible. Muschamp barely. You know it was just it it sent such a message and it was just not her award. It was several people several awards that are chefs of color one and got nominated. And I know it still just goes out to a small amount of people but it does set the tone. And I worked on this for a very long time. I know that representation matters now. All we think about them I'm very aware about the fact that I can do what I do. CAC Man or JJ or Miss Sharma or Nina Compton in New Orleans and the Asian L.A. and so on. That does. Just really several thing. It shows the communities possible it says to the younger generation hey this matters and that can be part of the industry right. It it's normalized in the standard ISE and what we do as black excellence and people that really want to strive and show and take a lot of pride of their food. So yeah this weekend was a big celebration for us. But it's important now was that it goes in to local communities that you want to see more black and brown business owners and senior management because I think this change is long overdue. All right. Well said Marcus. Gonna have to leave it there. And congratulations by the way on your upcoming appearance on Iron Chef. By the way I'm Marcus Samuelsson of course the owner of the Red Rooster dish. And call it an empire now expanding well beyond Harlem but definitely a very familiar presence in Harlem. Very nice man. And food is a great analogy really for the whole importance of African-American culture. We learned that with High on the Hog that incredible documentary that just showed it from oysters to macaroni cheese no matter what it is. It was developed. It was brought to America by the African-American community. And the overall economic impact of the South American community is huge as well. And we need to know that this is an economic story really important to talk about. And we have a lot more to talk about on this show Bloomberg Technology coming up. We do continue the special coverage every Thursday through the month of June. Next week we're going to focus in on the workplace how to remain inclusive. There am transforming the labor market as well. Roe versus Wade. Next more on the potentially momentous Supreme Court decision. Yeah a lot to talk about. Bloomberg Equality. Yvonne Man Amazon.

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Bloomberg Equality Full Show (06/16/2022)

In this special Juneteenth edition of "Bloomberg Equality" Caroline Hyde and Romaine Bostick dig into the economic cost of racial bias, how best to support black entrepreneurship and check in with leaders on how they are building community through hardship. Guests include: Dana Peterson of The Conference Board, Tarik Brook of Combs Enterprises and James Beard Award Winning Chef and Restaurateur Marcus Sammuelsson. (Source: Bloomberg)

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