Opinion: Special Interests Want to Profit Off the Backs of California’s Small Businesses

Jay King, CEO of California Black Chamber // California black media By Jay King, President, Special to California Black Media Partners The California Black Chamber of Commerce is the largest African American non-profit business organization in the state. Our primary mission is to empower Black-owned businesses to succeed. Our Chamber spends countless hours nurturing relationships with our members and advocating for sensible policy changes that help businesses, communities, and families thrive. This work is undermined when we encounter groups with no relationship to our members or our cities, posing as advocates for the business community for their own gains. One such group that has made its presence more widely known in California recently is the Digital Restaurant Association (DRA). The DRA advertises itself as a nonprofit coalition of small businesses advocating for transparency between restaurants and the third-party apps they use for delivery. It appears, however, that the DRA is being used by the former CEO of Uber and current CEO of CloudKitchens, Travis Kalanick, to collect data and turn a profit. Using the DRA name, the group seeks to convince policymakers that they represent small businesses while pushing for legislation that ultimately benefits their bottom line. A piece published...