There are stories you would never have believed if you had not witnessed them.
10 years ago, if someone had told me I would graduate from college in America, I would not have believed it. If someone had told me I would be attending Harvard University, I would not have believed them. If someone had told me I would be working as a public accountant at the PWC, one of the biggest global accounting firms in the world, I would not have believed them. But more importantly, if someone had told me America would save my life, I would have never ever believed them.
About 10 years ago I came to the United States from Haiti. Less than a month after I came, I applied for asylum. As I was patiently waiting to get an interview, I decided it was important to do something meaningful. I created ZoominProduction by purchasing a domain on Bluehost with the hope that I would continue working as a journalist.
I heard so much about the American dream, so I thought that in order to have a better understanding of America idealism, it would be good to study in the U.S. The more I listened to political speeches, the more I believed in the America dream. But there is something that no speeches or education can teach you. You can only learn it from real life experience.
Although I already had several bachelor’s degrees and was already an experienced journalist for more than 10 years, I thought it would be great to start from the beginning in order have a good grasp on how things are done. After spending a couple months in several ESL schools, I decided to apply to Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, Massachusetts. Because I got some of my credits transferred, and I took a lot of classes each semester, I was able to graduate after only a year.
While I was at the end of my last semester I was diagnosed with a very rare type of head and neck cancer in stage 4B with very little chance of surviving. That’s when I started living America’s greatness and its generosity.
Several months after being diagnosed with cancer, I started a very lengthy treatment at Boston Medical Center which consisted of 35 cycles of radiation, more than 20 chemotherapies, and several surgeries. Thanks to the great professional at the BMC, the treatment was successful. Over several years Boston Medical Center was my home, and today I am a self-proclaimed BMC’s ambassador for cancer survivors. Each year I regularly participate in a huge public event for cancer survivors, and I always make sure I take the opportunity to tell my story and express my gratitude to Boston Medical. To America. There is only one place on earth where this miracle could be possible. It’s called the United States.
I was so motivated by the American ideals, that I decided no single disease no matter how powerful it was could shut down my dream. I took the last two classes during the 2016 summer semester while preparing to be transferred to Northeastern University where I spent less than 2 years and graduated with a double major in Accounting and Finance. I would be going to chemotherapy in the morning and working in the afternoon as an overnight housekeeper at the Fairmont Copley Hotel. I would try as hard as I could to continue exercising my profession as a journalist by writing stories and articles on my website.
After graduating from Northeastern I was definitely convinced that nothing can stop me from pursuing my dream.
I heard so many stories of successful people explaining how their parents came to America with $25 in their pocket and became rich. I told myself if they could do it, I can do it too, although I came with way more than that to afford community College and NEU. But what I did not understand, and thank God I did not, is that this American dream is not for everyone as some politicians would like you to think.
If you are listening to someone from the right on the political specter, you will understand the $2 stories applied to a particular group; you would understand that for people like me the American dream should be interpreted as having several 9 to 5 jobs to buy a house with a mortgage to pay for life even if you have very little time to sleep in it. But more importantly, they are very upfront with you. Depending on where you came from, the 9 to 5 is limited to jobs that regular US citizens don’t want. Therefore, you are very welcome to fill these positions. But when your dreams go beyond the dishwasher, the housekeeper and taxi driver, you are almost no longer welcome. You are seen as an invader.
On the other hand, if you are listening someone on the left, you will tend to believe the American dream has no exceptions and applies to everyone. You should be very clever to understand that they themselves do not believe it. And the better you understand that and the more enemies you would create for yourself, the less subtle the discrimination will become if you come from the wrong country and are of a wrong color.
Before you think I am trying to diminish the people who are doing these kinds of jobs, it is important for me to tell you I have done them all.
I worked as a dishwasher at Boston College while studying at Northeastern. I worked as a housekeeper at Fairmont Copley, and I spent over 7 years working as a rideshare driver. The only difference is that I took the American dream a little further as I was supposed to.
I learned this lesson the hard way when I decided to take my online news media to the next level in 2020 by registering ZoomInProduction Corporation doing business as CaribbeanTelevisionNetwork.
Right in the middle of the COVID pandemic, I decided to leave my accounting job at PriceWaterHousCoopers to focus on my news media. At first, we were operating as ZoomHaitiNews. I quickly realized that in order to extend beyond the Haitian diaspora we will have to change the name and make our business a little more global. That’s when we registered for a new trade name as CaribbeanTelevisionNetwork. However, we kept our focus primarily on the Haitian Community. That’s why we made sure our business was registered and operated in the states and cities with large Haitian communities such as North Miami Beach in Florida, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the State of Indiana while preparing our legal documents to register in New-York.
With more than 40 employees in nearly a dozen countries we aimed to innovate the news industry in our community in line with my American dream which I believed in as I listened to political speeches. But like all other important things in the process of realizing the American dream, it is not an easy one. Nor is it designed for everyone the same way.
For people like me, you will only get it if you decide to go against all the obstacles which can take many forms and, sadly, sometimes bring blatant acts of racial discrimination.
But not everyone experiences discrimination the same way. If you are a journalist like me, sometimes discrimination will come in the form of indifference. You would sometimes email a government official over 20 times to request an interview and be ignored all the time even if the issue for which the interview is solicited concerned your community or a country of origin as I experienced it with the DHS, the White house, several other government agencies, and members of congress.
With the White House if you are polite enough in your first email you might get an answer saying your request is under consideration only to be ignored forever. But you can never categorize that as a discrimination because the privilege of having an interview with someone at the white house or the President of the United States is not reserved to everyone. Even some well-known American journalists might not get it, therefore it would not be fair to cry discrimination. And the White House would be quick to brag about its record of a very diverse place. Even though the issue of discrimination goes beyond diversity in the workforce. That would be the subject of another text.
Sometimes, you will try to find an excuse by telling yourself the reason they don’t want to talk to you might be because your platform is not large enough, and therefore there are few incentives for government officials or any public figures to talk to you. But you will quickly realize that they are talking to other ethnics groups with by far a smaller platform than yours. Other agencies like the State Department might be more in line with their diplomatic mission. They might be willing to talk to you if you are patient and willing to send the questions in advance so that they can prepare the responses for you. For journalists like me it is extremely important to have a government official to talk to you about matters affecting your community and your country even if you should trade your professionalism by submitting the questions in advance. It is understandable that if the issues concern foreign countries, you may expect the State Department to be a little more careful in the way they approach discussing foreign policy. But it should not be that way. As we technically are a US company, we should not be treated as foreign press. But remember depending on where you are from, the American dream should not be interpreted as the same for everyone.
In another instance, the discrimination may take some more subtle forms. Someone might assume you are not educated if you do not speak English. From their perspective speaking a foreign language is equivalent to being educated. Or sometimes you might have a rideshare customer see you on a university campus and ask you what you are looking for? How can they help you, implying your place is not here. Other instance might be when your application for a loan is denied based on your credit report. You would at least understand that even credit reports are a form of discrimination in it of itself.
For me, the real instance of discrimination came after I applied several times for a loan with the small business administration.
Like many other businesses, our news organization and film production faced significant financial problems due to events beyond our control, which made us seek alternative funding such as loans. I have applied several times with the Small Business Administration for a loan. Each time, my applications have been denied with opportunities to appeal.
On July 29, there was a severe weather which prompted a federally declared disaster. With the same financial struggles, I was hoping to get some support from the SBA because my business car suffered some damages during the event.
This application was also primarily denied due to a lack of credit with the possibility to appeal, provided I can give a satisfactory explanation. I explained every negative item, which the SBA accepted until I received another letter stating the application was denied for a lack of repayment ability, again with the possibility to appeal.
For a third time, the application was denied because of a charge on my credit for which I was not responsible. I explained to the SBA loan officer that the charge was due to a mistake from Sallie Mae, which split a student loan that I have into 2 loans, and I was not aware of the second one. The loan officer said the explanation was valid, but the application was denied for repayment ability, although the SBA already accepted the explanation I provided. I again appealed the decision.
On September 8, 2023, I received a phone call from an SBA supervisor at 1:54.
The officer wanted to have some explanations regarding the applications that were still active. The officer started questioning how it was possible I do a video production for farmers. He said during his entire time he never saw farmers doing this kind of business. I told him the work I did for my clients was available online, and he could verify it himself. He said no. He asked if I had contracts; I told him I worked on an as-needed basis, therefore we never have a need for a contract as a small business.
When there were no more arguments, he switched to my business addresses. He questioned why the addresses on the applications are different from the mailing address, which is a PO Box in Dorchester. I explained to him that with a PO Box, it is easier to receive all the mail in one place. And I also have no problem receiving mail in each place listed in my applications. Because we are also operating in the states of Florida and Indiana, the officer questioned me about a sublease that I had. He asked me if the owner of the space knew about my business operating in that space. I explained to him I did not have much to deal with the owner as a sub-lessee. However, in Massachusetts, I have a contract with the owner for a shared space that I am using. He asked me if I have the name of my business written on the front; I told him it’s not necessary because it is a shared space.
It is important to note that we were operating in these places long before the federal disasters for which we applied for. When the SBA supervisor’s argument about the space was not holding, he switched to my legal documents.
He said he was 100% sure the immigration documents I provided were doctored. I explained to him that the document was delivered by the USCIS, which is a federal agency, and as a federal agency, the SBA can verify with the USCIS. In addition, there is a letter from the judge who approved my asylum case, and a letter from my lawyer clarifying my immigration status.
The officer said I checked all the boxes as a fraudulent applicant. I explained to him that as we are an online news media company, our content is available online and can easily be verified. I explained to him that these documents were admitted by the SBA for an educational program for small businesses in which I spent 6 months with the SBA through the SBAThrive Program. He said it did not matter.
He told me the application would be denied, and any future application I add would also be denied. I asked him how he can predict future applications would be denied if the problem is about my credit and cash flow, which can be solved. In fact, if the conditions are not the same, he should not, nor can he predict the outcome of an application if there are no other reasons.
It is also important that in 2020, I was qualified for a $38,000 loan from the SBA. But because of an issue with my bank account, the SBA never issued the funds until November 2022. I was only able to get the funds after I contacted the office of Congressman Stephen Lynch in Massachusetts District 8.
I understand that just because the SBA is a federal agency, that does not give any applicant the immediate right to be qualified for hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars. I never asked to be qualified at all costs. However, the rules and regulations of the SBA should be the same for every business owner. Being a black immigrant from Haiti should not make me check every box as a fraudster. For me the issue is not about being qualified for an SBA. It’s about being treated with respect and fairness. Being treated like every other applicant.
As an alumni of the SBA Thrive program, I know countless business owners who are in worse situations than me and they were qualified for SBA loans.
For almost 10 years since I can to America, I have never been subject to an arrest or any criminal proceeding. I do everything I can to play by the rules and respect America’s principles, laws, and regulations. For some other groups of immigrants, a clear criminal record and good behavior would be ground for success. But for people like me, it means nothing.
I never thought I could be accused of falsifying documents just to get a loan. But I understand there are some obstacles that education and hard work cannot overcome when you have the status of an immigrant from a so called third world country. But now it is kind of too late. They already taught be the American dream is for everyone. I already believed them. It would be hard for me to unlearn and give up on my dreams. I will keep dreaming even if I keep being ignored. Even when I am accused by the federal government of falsifying the document the very same government gave me.
For me, the antidote is the great men and women at Boston Medical Center, Northeastern, Bunker Hill, Harvard, El Centro Del Cardino and elsewhere. It’s up to each of us to decide to apply the antidote each time the poison is presented to us. Having been saved by America, I strongly believe the antidote is more powerful than the poison. Being exposed to the antidote before the poison makes me more determined to keep pursuing my dream. Keep applying the antidote every time I am facing the poison.
A text written by Emmanuel Paul, founder and CEO of ZoomInproduction Corporation doing business as CaribbeanTelevisionNetwork. For comments, criticism or suggestions, please contact Emmanuel at mannypaul@ctninfo.com