The Queen of Talk Radio— Tackles Tough Issues & Advocates for Humanity
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Bev Smith 43 years of dedicating her life to issues that affect African Americans.. She’s bold, tenacious and willing to take on subjects others are afraid to tackle. She’s Bev Smith, the woman with the golden voice heard across the airwaves in America. She is not only known for her remarkable career in radio, but Smith has hosted Our Voices, a national talk show on Black Entertainment Television for over thirteen years. Often referred to as the Queen of Late Night Talk, Smith is the only African American female radio talk show host who has a nationally syndicated program. Through her radio show, “The Bev Smith Show,” she is committed to bringing controversial societal issues to the forefront. Smith has never been afraid to tackle issues such as homelessness, AIDS and illiteracy. As a matter of fact she’s lived with the homeless, talked to inmates on death row and walked the streets communicating with prostitutes. This is the level of dedication to humanity that sets Smith apart from most others. Her passion and dedication to educating the public and her listening audience is second to none, and she is viewed by communities across the country as a media icon that is passionate about serving others. Smith has received nearly 300 awards and many other commendations for her contributions in television and radio, and according to Talkers Magazine, she ranks as one of the top 50 radio talk show hosts in America. A special and caring person, The Queen of Talk took some time from her busy schedule to speak with the publisher of Exceptional People Magazine. Monica: As a Black female in a very competitive and challenging industry what do you believe are the key fac-
tors to maintaining longevity, especially for a woman of color? Ms. Smith: That’s a very difficult question to answer because for women of color, we have challenges at every level. First, we have challenges from other women, then we have challenges from management, and we have challenges from advertisers and then we have challenges that we have to face with our own syndicators. The only thing that I suggest is that you stay true to who you are. That doesn’t always bring you financial success, but it leaves your integrity intact so that people begin to associate you with a certain behavior. As long as you keep that intact and keep God right in the middle, right in the front and right in the back and say Lord, just let me be truthful then you are a success. I view success much differently than I did when I first started out in this business. When I first started, I thought success would be to make millions of dollars and to be in the top ten, but I’ve survived forty three years in this business and I now know that success is when you complete a day; success is when you God wakes you up and success is when someone says I trust you, I believe in you, and you do what you say. Monica: I realize everyone has their own definition of what success is, for me success is about adding value to someone else’s life. Ms. Smith: That’s it and are you fulfilling your God code, your God theme and your God mission. Once you’re clear on what your God theme and mission is, then I think you September-October 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 17
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are a success because every day that God gives you, you’ve got a chance to help someone. Monica: You have chosen to use your extraordinary gifts to focus on issues that others sometimes have a tendency to shy away from such as homelessness, AIDS, prostitution and illiteracy. From your point of view what do you believe are some possible solutions to the problem of illiteracy? Ms. Smith: One possible solution to the problem of illiteracy in America and in particular in the Black community would be for parents to start at home with their children; start reading to their children. In the African American community we had a theme, “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste”. We have been wasting our minds in the Black community. Take the cell phones away, stop buying expensive gifts and buy a book. Regulate the number of hours children watch television. It sounds old fashioned but it’s a way for us to get back to the basics. One of the solutions to me would be for parents to get involved in reading to their children and the community and that teachers would begin with basic fundamental reading. Monica: From a community level, what can we do? Ms. Smith: Well, if you mean the universal community, the American community, that’s one thing. If you mean the African American community, the first question I would ask is what community? Where is the African American community? You can go from hill to dale, from farm to city, and you cannot tell me where there is an African American community. You can tell me where people live. You can tell me that there are some people who live in the projects or new townhouses or new homes, but the truth of the matter is we have no community. It’s probably, in my way of thinking, the biggest problem. The biggest hurdle is to once again build a strong African American community where Black people care about each other again. We’ve become very selfish in the Black community. It’s all about me, my, what I can do, what I can get. All we think about is money. We have become worshipers of golden idols and we’re no longer a community. Monica: Do you believe there may be a direct link between illiteracy and welfare dependency? Ms. Smith: No, I do not. Because if I believe that, then I would have to say that Syria has a problem. The United States gives Syria welfare. We give our taxpayers dollars to a country that is wealthy in oil. Do I believe there’s a relationship between that? No. Welfare is what you are entitled to. If you are out of work, you need help. If you paid into the system, your taxpayer dollars should refund you. 18 | Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2011
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The question about welfare is only brought up with issues relating to Blacks and in particular Black women. It’s not used in corporate America. Didn’t Wall Street just get welfare? It’s not used in the car industry. Didn’t we just use our taxpayer dollars to bail out a huge corporation called General Motors? Yet, we can’t get free hospitalization.
The people that were in that church had to be out by six o’clock in the morning. We left about four o’clock in the morning. Then you wander all day long through the streets trying to think of something to do or some way to make a living and then you come back to that church and stand line until you get chosen. It was a horrible experience.
No, I don’t think welfare is the problem. But, welfare, if you look it up in the dictionary; are we faring well, that is the problem and the question.
The next experience I had was in the Nation’s Capitol where decisions are made that affect the world. There were people sleeping outside of the White House on the grates. I had a blanket and down the road from me was Dick Gregory and Jesse Jackson and we all decided we would sleep out and I slept on a grate. Most streets don’t have this anymore but grates used to have the air coming up through them and people would put blankets over them and they slept. The police would come along and make you move.
Monica: You have also tackled the issue of homelessness and you have lived with the homeless. What did you learn from them? Ms. Smith: It was unbelievable. I know what it’s like to be unemployed and I know what it’s like not to have enough money to make it. I know what it’s like to lose a house but I don’t know what it’s like personally to live on the street. If I was going to talk about it and do a show about it, I wanted to know what it was like. So, I decided that I would go out on the street and sleep with the homeless. My first experience like that was in Orlando, Florida. I went out and stood in a line for about four or five hours just to get a piece of cardboard. I tried to make myself unknown to the public which I succeeded at doing. I stood there in line with people whose dignity had absolutely been corroded. I stood in the line and listened to stories that broke my heart. We had arranged with this church that I would get in and so after I got in they stopped the line. But what about all those people that were behind me? Then I learned what it was like to be homeless but to seek shelter. I was given a piece of cardboard box, a Dunkin donut and a cup of coffee and that was my meal for the day. There were children there and they were homeless. I gave my donut to a little kid and so did my producer who was with me. The church had measured out just enough donuts because everything was provided through volunteers. That was my first experience. I got up and left. I couldn’t take it any longer. I was able to get up, take my cardboard and go home to my house, my bathroom with my bath tub where I could wash my body.
The taxpayer dollars pays for the streets and pays for the steam coming out of the grates but if they caught you, you’d have to move and the temperature was like zero. That was my second experience. That’s when I decided that I would work to do something about homeless shelters. I worked to raise money for shelters where people could have more than one day to stay. In America, people are homeless at the levels they were during the deep depression. When you walk past that person and make statements like, “Oh they can find a job if they want to.” Tell me how they can do that? They have no telephone number, they have no address, they have nowhere to clean their body and then we shun them. There but for the Grace of God, it could be you or it could be me. I never walk by anyone and not give them something. Monica: Just because you’re doing fine today doesn’t mean that can’t be you tomorrow. Ms. Smith: Yes. Especially in the business that we’re in. Monica: I’m thankful that you shared those experiences when you were trying to get a ground-level view of what the homeless actually experience every single day. Ms. Smith: I also discovered that there were more women and children and more people suffering from HIV and AIDS on the streets. There were more elderly on the streets than I had ever seen before. September-October 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 19
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Monica: Another issue that you focus on is AIDS. Can you share some important facts about what you’ve learned regarding AIDS especially among the African American race? Ms. Smith: One of the things that I learned and still holds true today is that Black people are ignorant about HIV and AIDS. We’re ignorant about sexually transmitted diseases and our community is suffering from all of the above in greater numbers than anyone else. We still think that we can pattern ourselves after people who pose on Vanity Fair nude and pregnant and we have young girls who think that’s what they ought to achieve and they’re having unprotected sex. No one is telling them ‘no’. Mothers are letting these children entertain young boys in their bedrooms. It’s outrageous. Parents are paying for their prom kids to go to hotels and they’re bragging about it. What kind of madness is that? We are dying because of our ignorance. People perish because of a lack of wisdom. AIDS is a serious disease and it means that your immune system has collapsed. But your immune system can collapse if you get the virus that causes a cold or if you get pneumonia. But it can also collapse if you’re a woman, and a man’s been in prison for 30 or 40 years and he comes to live with you and you practice unprotected sex. You’re causing yourself to die. I’ve held babies who were born with the HIV serum. They didn’t have the virus, but they had the HIV serum from their mother. I’ve also held babies that have had HIV and AIDS and did not make it to their first birthday. We’ve got a lot to answer to God for about the caring of one another in this country. Monica: You created what you call a Statement of Respect that you would like for all African Americans to pledge and sign. What was your purpose behind it? Ms. Smith: Part of the reason I wanted a Statement of Respect is that I think we have definitely given young people the wrong impression of what respect is. Young people think that if you look at them a certain way, you’re not giving them respect. If we can get back to the real idea of respect -- I respect you because you’re a human being. I respect you because you carry yourself in a respectful way. I wanted to address this issue. So at my town hall meeting I had people sign it and I put it on my website so people could say let’s talk about this. Monica: What is your overall view of life? Ms. Smith: Wow! You’ve got all year? It’s a journey. You have to wake up every morning and use that bible verse that talks about putting on your full armor. You have to wake up every morning and arm yourself. Most Black people wear masks because we have to put on a face to work in a White world and now we have to put a face on to deal with 20 | Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2011
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each other. So, I would say that my overall view is just put on the full armor of God because you’re going to have a battle.
Kids can have a safe place to come and play videos and tapes. My vision is to have good movies and all kinds of things.
Monica: You have a deep passion about all of the things you do and talk about on your radio show. Do you see yourself working on other projects? Are you working on anything else?
Monica: Regarding the books, is there a specific age range?
Ms. Smith: Absolutely. I see myself not retiring from activism but my next big venture is to write a book and do a series of public meetings where I bring to cities around this country people like Dr. Ron Daniels who train us how to reorganize again; people who can train us how to pool our resources. The Black community is a billion dollar consumer. We buy all the cars, the lip stick, the liquor and the records; everything, and none of that money come back to us. We have to learn how to pool our resources. That’s what our ancestors did but when we heard the word integration, we got excited.
Ms. Smith: From birth, until. The first plateau is to build a library for children. I’m asking people to be a part of it and to donate books to the Bev Smith Reading Room. We want all types of books. All they have to do is send them to: Bev Smith, 960 Penn Avenue, 3rd Floor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15222. Monica: Any last thoughts? Ms. Smith: My last words are that we have within us the power to fly. Jesus said, “What I can do, you too can do.” And so my advice would be to not limit yourself and don’t allow other people to limit you. You have the power to fly. Just lift your wings and fly.
We don’t have equality. What we have is imitation. We imitate someone else’s behavior and culture; someone else’s everything. What I’m going to do with God’s help of course is to take these experts around and organize people. This is how you get out the vote and approach a politician. If you’ve got bad streets in your neighborhood and you want to get rid of them, this is how you do it. That’s my next plateau for 2012. Monica: What do you consider to be some of your weaknesses and strengths? Ms. Smith: My weakness is my passion for Black people. If I didn’t love Black people so much, I’d be rich. I’ve had program directors and operations mangers tell me, “You talk about Black people too much.” So my passion is my weakness. My strength -- that’s easy; my faith in God. Monica: Is there something else you’d like to mention? Ms. Smith: I want to mention that we have started a library, a reading room. We want to establish Bev Smith reading rooms across the country. So I’m asking people specifically to send books for children; brand new books. The first one will open in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We’ll open two this year at two sites. September-October 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 21