0820_AUG Comstock's Magazine 0820 August | Page 29

‘Not good enough’
By mid-July, facing rising COVID-19
cases, California Gov. Gavin Newsom
ordered the state’s indoor businesses
to shut down again. The news was
devastating to Brown, who had followed
protocols to the letter. His salon, he
says, bought masks, gloves, air purifiers,
scheduled appointments an hour
apart, had no waiting in the salon and
kept a 6-feet distancing policy.
“We are working to pay our bills
so we can live,” Brown says. “All while
making sure we keep our families and
clients safe, governed by state agencies
that make sure we are following rules,
and we are now, once again, forced
into more debt, or worse bankruptcy
for sure this time.”
Like most booth-rental salon owners,
Brown did not qualify for the Paycheck
Protection Program loan because,
technically, he doesn’t have employees.
In June, he did get an Economic Injury
Disaster Loan approved for $40,000,
but, unlike the PPP loan, he will have
to pay that money back. It is unfair that
his business has to close again because
careless people failed to heed health
warnings, showing no regard for the
safety of others, he says.
Later in July, Newsom announced
that some personal care services might
be able to reopen outdoors with county
public health officer approval. Brown
says the barbers at his shop might move
forward with this if it’s not too hot outside.
They wouldn’t want to risk cutting a
client’s skin due to sweat. But he says the
stylists can’t do anything outside because
almost everything related to doing a
Black woman’s hair requires water.
“This is just a slap in the face and disrespectful,”
he says. “We spend the little
income we have left to buy all this stuff to
make the inside PPE ready, and now we
have to spend more money on tents and
electrical extension cords to go outside.
This is an utter failure of our government
and our regulatory agencies.”
As the pandemic ravaged the globe,
Salena Pryor, a former legislative
consultant, saw that a whole community
of barbers and cosmetologists like
Brown were getting left out. She took
immediate action, writing a letter in
April to Sacramento Mayor Darrell
Steinberg, stating that systemic racism
restricted access to financial resources
for the Black community, and it needed
to change immediately. (She didn’t
receive a response.)
Pryor channeled her efforts into
continued advocacy as president of
the Sacramento-based Black Small
Business Association of California, an
organization she created this spring to
make sure Black-owned businesses get
equal pieces of the financial pie.
“We’re making sure that Black
voices are being represented, influencing
decision-makers so our
communities can stop being left out
of certain industries,” Pryor says.
“People of color, historically, had to
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August 2020 | comstocksmag.com 29