The Battle Over Voting Rights Enters New Front

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) became the third African Lawmakers cerned. Arrested in Since the 2020 election, 17 states Voting Rights have passed 28 laws making it American lawmaker arrested this month while advocating for new voting rights legislation. The congresswoman’s arrest on Friday, July 30, follows the detainment of fellow Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Georgia). Each of them protested Jim Crow-like voter restriction laws in GOP-led states around the country. “I will never stop fighting for voting rights,” Congresswoman Jackson-Lee exclaimed. “The time is now to move the voting rights bills in the U.S. Senate forward!! Enough is enough.” Civil Rights legend the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Poor People’s Campaign cochair the Rev. William Barber II also were arrested in Washington. Like Congressman Johnson, Jackson and Barber demonstrated outside of the U.S. Capitol demanding that the U.S. Senate abolish the filibuster to push through voting rights measures. “We come not as an insurrection group, but as a resurrection group,” Jackson demanded during the June 23 demonstration that led to his arrest. “We must fill up the jails … if you call yourself a child of God, you oughta act like it sometimes.” Barber took direct aim at West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has stubbornly refused to consider abolishing or altering the filibuster for the sake of voting rights. “We are also here to say to Manchin: Any so-called Democrat who claims to support the non-constitutional filibuster over the constitutional guarantee that no state can deny or abridge the right to vote … you are assisting the Republicans in their extremism,” Barber asserted. Voter suppression laws have passed statehouses in Georgia, Texas, Arizona, and 14 other states have Democrats and others conFight harder for constituents to vote in 2021, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. The Brennan Center directly tied the new laws to “racist voter fraud allegations behind the Big Lie — former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud — and a desire to prevent future elections from achieving the historic turnout seen in 2020.” Congresswoman Beatty summoned the memory of the late Stacy Brown Congressman John Lewis after her arrest. “Good trouble,” Beatty tweeted. She demanded that her Republican colleagues “protect our voting rights” and pass the For the People Act.” “Let the people vote,” the congresswoman demanded. Jackson Lee reminded everyone that all of the arrests are part of the “civil disobedience” needed to move voting rights to the forefront. “Any action that is a peaceful action of civil disobedience is worthy and more to push all of us to do better and to do more and to pass (H.R.) 1, S 1 and to pass the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Act,” Jackson Lee stated. “The people of Texas are desperate and need it. The people of America are desperate and need it.” Stacy Brown is a senior national correspondent for the NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) Newswire

Headlines From Africa

CThe Poor People's Campaign has announced a "season of nonviolent, moral direct action," targeting the U.S. Senate with disruptive activities every Monday, July 12 through Aug 2. According to the campaign's co-chair, the Rev. William Barber II, "The Senate must end the filibuster, protect and expand voting rights, and pass a minimum wage of $15 an hour." Barber is getting national attention. Even President Joe Biden recorded a video expressing his support. Concern about poverty is something we all share. What bothers me is that the factors driving poverty, according to the research of my organization and others, are ignored by the Poor People's Campaign. And the issues on which they choose to focus either have nothing to do with the reality of poverty or actually make things worse. It may surprise Barber that the Senate filibuster is a powerful tool to protect minority interests. He is either confused or disingenuous when he claims abolishing the Senate filibuster is about protecting "democracy." It is not democracy he cares about, but Democrats, who now control the government, being able to pass every piece of farleft, big-government legislation they want. The only thing that stands in their way is the 60-vote requirement of the Senate filibuster. The history of our American democracy is that government changes hands all the time. When Republicans are running the show, as they will again, Barber will direct his heavenly prayers to save the filibuster so that Democrats can prevent Republicans from doing whatever they want. It is the filibuster in the Senate that prevents passage of the For the People Act, the voting and election reform legislation, House Resolution 1, that passed in the House without a single Republican vote. Although HR 1 is being labelled as "voting rights" legislation, it addresses many

more aspects of election law than just voting. The legislation eviscerates actions that Republican states have moved on to reduce voter fraud, such as voter ID laws and stopping vote harvesting. But it also moves the federal government into a host of other areas, such as defining political speech and the organization of the Federal Election Commission. The issue here is not to debate election law but to ask what this has to do with poverty and why it is such a priority for the Poor People's Campaign. In the current Congress, there are 60 African American senators and House representatives. In 1964, there were five. Per The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley, in 1970, nationwide, there were Star Parker fewer than 1,500 Black elected officials. Today, there are more than 10,000. In the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Black turnout was higher than white turnout. Yet in 2019, the average Black poverty rate was more than 2 1/2 times higher than the white poverty rate. There is little evidence that Black poverty has persisted over the last halfcentury because Black Americans have not been able to accumulate political power or express their will on election day. Regarding minimum wage, economic logic and economic facts show that the higher the minimum wage, the more lowwage jobs disappear. Raising the minimum wage is a great tool to make poverty worse, not better. What can make a difference? In 2019, the average poverty rate among American households was 9%. The average poverty rate in Black households headed by a married couple was 6.4%, per Statistica. However, the average poverty rate in Black households headed by a single woman was 29.5%, and 41% of Black households were headed by single women. But the Poor People's Campaign has nothing to say about the data connecting family breakdown and abortion to poverty. Many Americans do understand this connection, including my organization, CURE. So, when the Poor People's Campaign storms the Senate with bogus claims, we hope our elected officials will

Bogus Claims From the Poor People's Campaign

Star Parker continued to page 20 A look at current news from the continent of Africa

Angola: Amnesty International has reported that millions of people in southern Angola are facing an existential threat as drought aggravated by climate change continues to ravage the region. As food and water grow increasingly scarce, thousands have fled their homes and sought refuge in neighboring Namibia. Eritrea: Attacks by Tigrayan forces in the Afar region of Ethiopia have forced more than 54,000 people from their homes, as refugees in a camp in southern Tigray described heavy clashes nearby. Tigrayan fighters, who want the Ethiopian government to accept their terms before talks on a ceasefire can begin, have taken control of three districts in Afar. Ethiopia: Officials in Ethiopia's Amhara region have called on all armed residents to mobilize for battle against rebels from conflict-hit Tigray, calling it a "survival campaign”, according to state media, upping the chances for the Tigray conflict to expand to the rest of the nation.

Gambia: The U.S. has donated to The Gambia over 150 thousand (151,200) doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to boost the national vaccination campaign currently underway.

Kenya: At least two million Kenyans are on the brink of starvation and are in dire need of food aid, according to a study by the World Vision East Africa Hunger Emergency Response. A deadly mix of conflict, Covid-19 and the climate crisis have pushed more than 7 million people across six countries in East

Africa to the very edge of starvation," according to the report.

Malawi: Malawi's government has paid thousands of dollars in compensation to women who allegedly were sexually assaulted by police officers during post-election protests. Lawyers for victims and human rights cam-8 paigners, however, say the money alone is not enough. They want suspects to be arrested and tried in court.

Mali: Mali's interim president Colonel Assimi Goita—who took power in June after leading a coup, the second in less than a year— is safe after what his office has called an assassination attempt. Two men, one with a knife, attacked Goita Tuesday after prayers at the Great Mosque of Bamako for the Eid al-Adha festival in West Africa. One of the men reportedly died in custody. Namibia: A state-of-the-art multi-million dollar innovation hub that offers a conducive integrated ecosystem for sustainable technology transfer, was launched at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. The center will primarily facilitate the creation of inventions that are set to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country. Niger: The Nigerian military has announced its readiness to carry out a major operation against kidnappers and other undesirable elements in the Kwangai forests of Niger State. Sierra Leone: The Parliament of Sierra Leone voted to abolish the death penalty. In February, President Bio officially gave the directives for the death penalty to be abolished from Sierra Leone's laws. 2021 Somalia: Somalia has postponed elections that were due to start last month after months of delays in L.A. Focus/ August the deeply unstable Horn of Africa country. South Africa: Inter-provincial travel for leisure may resume and the sale of alcohol will be permitted for offsite and onsite consumption as the country moves to a Level 3 lockdown. Tanzania: Tanzania is stepping up its measures against COVID-19, announced suspension of mass gatherings, including religious congregations and political rallies, until the pandemic is under control. Measures also include reinforcement of COVID-19 precautionary guidelines in bars, restaurants, meetings, weddings and ceremonial halls.

Recapping the Urban League’s 2021 State of Black America Report Families Get Boost from Child Tax Credits

The COVID-19 pandemic not only unmasked the stark racial inequities in the nation’s economic, health care and public safety status quo, but it gave rise to a fierce resistance to that status quo and fueled demand for racial justice that grows more intense with each passing month. That’s according to the National Urban League’s 2021 State of Black America® report, “The New Normal: Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive.”

“The United States finds itself at crossroads of racial reckoning,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said. “One path leads backward, toward the “old normal:” a return to the marginalization, discrimination, and segregation that left Black and Brown Americans exceptionally vulnerable to a deadly virus and economic desperation. The other path leads toward a nation where police approach the communities they serve as allies and collaborators, and not hostile combatants; where every citizen has equal access to the ballot box, where fatal complications in pregnancy are just as rare for Black mothers as for as white mothers, where the value of a home is not determined by the race of its owner.”

Some of the findings came as little surprise including the fact that higher unemployment, lower net worth and increasingly unaffordable housing made Black Americans particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and the economic fallout from it.

One pandemic threatened America, the report states. Three pandemics ravaged its communities of color.

“The New Normal: Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive makes the case that dismantling structural racism -- identifying and repairing the cracks in our national foundation — will result in more resilient and dynamic institutions that expand opportunity for everyone,” Morial said. “To quote a flippant sentiment frequently shared on social media, equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.”

Analysis from research partners Brookings Institution, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, and Center for Policing Equity not only revealed how structural and institutional racism magnified the devastation inflicted by COVID-19 infection and death, economic collapse and police violence, but also offered a glimpse of a more equitable future.

The report includes a focus on two major policy proposals the National Urban League developed in 2021 to address racial inequities in public safety and the economy. 21 Pillars for Redefining Public Safety and Restoring Community Trust is a comprehensive framework for criminal justice advocacy that takes a holistic approach to public safety, the restoration of trust between communities and law enforcement, and a path forward for meaningful change. Each of the 21 Pillars addresses one of five goals for transforming public safety, including holding police accountable in court, banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, conducting financial and operational audits of police departments and preventing police union contracts from blocking accountability.

With close to 17 percent of Black households lacking basic financial services and forced to rely on check cashing centers or payday loans–which cost 50-100% more per month–the Urban League is looking to a new normal for banking.

The report cited Mobility Capital Finance, or MoCaFi, which provides free or low-cost financial services to low- and moderate-income individuals who are underserved, discriminated against or shut out from traditional banks as an example. Customers who pay their rent with a MoCaFi debit card can choose to have those payments reported to credit reporting agencies, thus rebuilding their credit scores. MoCaFi’s partnerships with minority-owned small businesses give account holders access to discounts on goods and services.

The pandemic also highlighted the high cost of childcare and how much the Black workforce depends on it.

“Without it [childcare], hundreds of thousands of working parents have had to leave the workforce,” said Erin Robinson of the Center for American Progress. “It’s why economists and Americans of every political stripe agree that our economic recovery depends on boosting federal investment in childcare. Put simply: Childcare is a matter of racial, economic, and gender equity and is crucial to the productivity and competitiveness of this country.”

Other critical areas covered in 2021 State of Black America Report include voter suppression legislation, broadband access and health inequities. For a look at the full report, visit www.stateofblackamerica.org. S tarting July 15, families received extra cash in their bank accounts with the advance Child Tax Credit payments that were part of the Biden stimulus bill Congress passed in March. 39 million households were reportedly eligible for the automatic payments without any action on their parts. Those qualifying families with children under age six will receive $300 per child through December. Those with children six to 17-years-old will receive $250 monthly each. The cash payments represent half of the child tax credits. The balance of the credit will be reflected in tax refunds, bringing the total to $3600 per child for those with children under six and $3000 for families with older children.

The payments will be sent via direct deposit or mail, based on the previous year’s tax return. Those who reported no income in the last year or who didn’t file taxes may still qualify but would need to submit their information through the IRS’ Non-filer portal. People who don’t’ have a copy of their return may be able to use an estimate based on their W-2s or 1099s.

Keep in mind, however, that just lower and middle class families qualify for the credit. Upper income households are not eligible to receive the credits, and what’s more if you get the money and don’t quality, you are advised to opt out of the program, or you will have to pay it back.

So what are the income thresholds? • $75,000 or less for single taxpayers • $112,500 or less for heads of household • $150,000 or less for married couples filing a joint return and eligible widows and widowers

The Biden Administration has proposed extending the monthly payments for five more years.

Biz News Briefs

Capitalizing on her

Tyra Banks signature “smize” look that she says is partly responsi-

Launches Ice ble for her success as a

Cream Shop supermodel, Tyra Banks has developed a brand of ice cream, dubbed “Smize Cream”. The seven varieties of ice cream flavors include Strawberry BirthYAY! Cake, Brownies, I Love You, Purple Cookie MonStar & Me, Chocolate Barbeque, Salted Caramel King, Caramel Cookie Queen and The Best Vanilla I Ever Had. As an extra added bonus, partaker of the custard-style ice cream, will find a cookie dough truffle covered in sprinkles at the bottom of every serving. In addition to the creation of her own brand of ice cream, the 47-year old former top model turned TV personality and business mogul, has also opened “Smize Cream” shop in Santa Monica Place. Smize cream can also be shipped nationwide shop: www.smizecream.com.

Major League Baseball Commits up to $150 Million to Get More Blacks Into the Game

In what has been the largest financial commitment in its history, Major League Baseball has pledged $150 million to the Players Alliance to improve its investment in Black players and professionals across the game over a ten year period. "Major League Baseball is thrilled to expand our commitment to the Players Alliance, which will include joint efforts to strengthen our sport's engagement with Black communities," said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. The money will go to a variety of programs built around participation in baseball, mentorship and professional baseball employee development. In addition, the funding will include initiatives that celebrate Black baseball history and culture, educational grants and service opportunities to communities. To that end, starting in 2023, MLB will provide $10 million annually–with an additional $5 million in matching contributions from external Players Alliance fundraising– to programs aimed at increasing the participation of Black youth and young adults in baseball as well as programs designed to attempt to increase the number of Black employees and contractors in all positions and at all levels associated with professional baseball. Monies will also fund programs in support of Jackie Robinson Day; appreciation days for the Negro Leagues; Black participation in the business of baseball; programs to support baseball in city schools; and programs designed to eliminate barriers to participation in the sport for Black youth.

New Program Aims to Help Black Personal Care Businesses

Among the businesses hardest hit by the COVID lockdowns last year was the beauty and personal care industry. Salons and other beauty services which came under non-essential services were the first ones to close their doors, with many never to reopen. Given the hit the small Black businesses within the personal care industry took, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) launched the Black Business Excellence Technical Assistance (BBET) Initiative, a new accelerator program that will provide wrap- around business services to help take those businesses to the next level. Those services include one-on-one mentoring, strategic business planning; networking opportunities and opportunities to pitch to funders to compete for grants to seed their growth. Said LISC Executive Director Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, “Black- owned personal care businesses were some of the hardest hit during the COVID-19 crisis — and we believe this program will help the most impacted communities to thrive.” To qualify, businesses must have at least one business owner that identifies as Black or African American; be in operation for at least two years; fall under a personal care, health, wellness or beauty category; and be located within LA County. For more information, visit: www.lisc.org.

LISA COLLINS Editor-in-Chief

Tavis Smiley is used to making history. He did it as the first black to have a talk show on NPR and the first African American to have a talk show on PBS. Now, he is making history as with the launch of KBLA-1580, the first Black-owned talk radio format in Los Angeles. Smiley closed the deal to purchase the station valued at $7.5 million late last year and is calling it the flagship station of what he hopes to build into a nationwide Black-owned and operated talk radio network. “We've already identified other stations,” said Smiley. “So, the plan is long-term to syndicate our program from LA with these other stations that we hope to buy and lease across the country to build finally a black talk radio network across the country.” For Smiley, the timing couldn’t have been better. “Everything is properly situated in this moment for this. There is some black talk radio around the country, but it's not thriving in the way that it once was. That's why I think there's an opportunity here. I'm dumb enough to try it and we'll see if it works.” So far, so good is the initial response from listeners and potential partners. “After the first two weeks on the air, we started getting calls from stations around the country about syndicating our program, so we’re off to a pretty good start.” The business venture follows a three-year hiatus from the airwaves for Smiley following his highly-publicized firing by PBS in 2017 for sexual assault allegations in the wake of the “#MeToo movement and the subsequent 2018 wrongful termination lawsuit that led to a $2.6 million judgement against Smiley in favor of PBS in 2020. Admittedly, Smiley says, “The PBS thing was ugly. “I was lied on when I was a 12-year-old kid, and my father was so upset and so angry that he didn't take

the time to ask me whether or not the lie was true,” he digresses. “I was beaten so severely that I was in the hospital for almost two weeks and I've never forgotten the feeling of having someone stand up publicly and lie on me.” He pauses for a moment, getting emotional. “I promised myself as a 12 year old kid that I will never let anybody lie on me. So, I fought back and I'm still fighting back. You're not going to lie on me and get away with it”, said the Gulfport, Mississippi native who got his start on radio in one-minute daily radio segments called The Smiley Report on KGFJ radio after working as an aide to former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley. “They (PBS) don't care about that truth. It was about not wanting to renew my contract and wanting to get me off the air. Even four years after “me too”, I am still the only black person in the history of PBS to have his own show. What does that tell you about what they were really committed to? And that's what that fight was about.” Smiley–who has appealed the judgement– says he’s not bitter. “Life goes on. You move on,” he states. “I don't ever let misery have the last word in my life. You fight and you come back.” The hardest part of the whole ordeal for Smiley was not having a voice during the last nearly four years. “I would have loved to have been here, to use my platform, to get access to other forces, to be a megaphone and amplify our voices,” he explains. “I mean, frankly, it was painful for almost four years sitting on the sidelines while I saw my brother and sisters being killed by cops and this era of racial reckoning was taking place, but watching that moment allowed me to realize that they're covering us now because we’re in the streets. But what happens when we know we're not in the streets anymore? How do we continue to advance our narrative? “So, the idea crystallized to try to do a talk radio sta L.A. Focus/ August 2021 tion for us and the beauty of it is that unlike everything else I've done in my career, it ain't about me. My name isn't on this,”he continues. This is not a Tavis smiley project or venture or show. It's about the community. It's about giving them a platform– a megaphone, and letting their voices amplified. I feel really good about the fact that for once in my life, I ain't got to cradle all the weight.” Citing Los Angeles as the most multicultural, multi-10

I would have loved to have been here, to use my platform, to get access to other forces, to be a megaphone and amplify our voices. I mean, frankly, it was painful for almost four years sitting on the sidelines while I saw my brother and sisters being killed by cops and this era of racial reckoning was taking place, but watching that moment allowed me to realize that they're covering us now because we’re in the streets. But what happens when we know we're not in the streets anymore? How do we continue to advance our narrative?

Left: Tavis Smiley, owner and host of KBLA Talk 1580, is surrounded by the hosts who make up the superstar lineup at KBLA Talk 1580. Pictured (l-r) is Dr. Melina Abdullah, Don Amiche, Kiara Williams, Smiley, Dominique DiPrima and Danny Morrison; Right: Tavis Smiley on the air. Photos courtesy of Karim Saafir Photography.

racial, multi-ethnic city in the country –and given his beginnings in talk radio on KABC–Smiley is surprised that he didn’t think of it sooner. “The problem is this city and everywhere else, the write up on Talk Radio is all day, all night, all white.” Smiley’s answer to that is a format whose slogan is “unapologetically progressive”. “To be clear, we are unapologetic black, but the station is unapologetic progressive,” said Smiley. “We took that slogan because I don't want to leave out all good people who don't look like us, who are with us, who came out in the streets during the protest.” Black Angelenos recall the station’s dial location at 1580 as home to the former pioneering hip hop station, KDAY in the 80s. With 50,000 kilowatts of power, the signal reaches over 12 million in the L.A. basin and stretches from Thousand Oaks to San Clemente. “The signal is huge,” notes Smiley. “The big boys in town KFI, KABC, KRLA have the same signal strength, so we can put it down as bad as they can.” Getting the signal was a stroke of faith for the 56-year old broadcaster. “I was in escrow with another station,” he reveals. As fate would have it, that escrow fell out and I was just crushed. I was praying and 48 hours later, I got a phone call that said, would you be interested in buying KBLA? And I just started crying, because the two stations I was in talks with, were nice stations, but the history of 1580, when you say 1580 to Negroes, you ain't got to say nothing else. There's nothing like buying a brand people already know. “The bad news was that 1580 at the time we purchased it, was a Spanish language/ Christian radio station. What that meant was none of your advertisers are going to stay. So, we’re starting from scratch with no advertisers and flipping the format.” With almost $650 million in advertising spent every year on radio in LA, the commercial viability adds to the pressure of getting it right and Smiley has $1.5 million of his own money as skin in the game. But buying the station was only the first step. Now he needed the operating capital to assemble a team as his sales force got up to speed. And that’s where Smiley is getting by with a little help from some rich and powerful friends, including Bill Maher, Ice Cube, Van Jones, some NBA players and even an L.A. pastor, all of whom wrote generous checks. With adequate financing Smiley was free to engage the kind of talent he believed would captivate listeners and create the kind of content that will lead to solid ratings in what is one of one of the nation’s most competitive markets. One of his first calls was to Dominique diPrima, long time host of KJLH’s highly popular early morning talker, Front Page. “I love Dominique on KJLH and Front Page, but I said to Dominique, ‘You have earned a bigger platform and because Stevie is music, he can't give you a bigger platform. The city deserves an opportunity to hear you for longer than 90 minutes.” DiPrima had hosted the popular show for more than 16 years and though it was difficult to leave, welcomed the opportunity. “We all want the opportunity to grow and expand and make history and I think what Tavis is doing with KBLA is historical,” said DiPrima, who is making history as the first black woman to host a morning drive talk radio show. “When you think about Los Angeles being such a catalyst for change –whether it’s the Watts Uprising or the ‘92 civil unrest or the Black Lives Matter Movement–we are an epicenter of change and black voices and we’ve never had a talk radio station, that’s significant.” KBLA’s lineup also includes comedian/actor turned political commentator D.L. Hughley, whose syndicated radio show, The D.L. Hughley Show, was not heard in Los Angeles until Smiley made handed him the afternoon drive slot; and Don Amiche who was teamed for years with Tammi Mac on KJLH. Smiley was also particularly happy to include Danny Morrison into the mix. “He's like the Stephen A. Smith of politics,” said Smiley. “He’s loud. He's brash. He's bombastic and boisterous, but agree or disagree, he always makes his point.” And then what would a talk radio station owned by Tavis Smiley be without having him on the air, doing what he does best–interviewing influencers, celebrities and the newsmakers of the day. What Smiley will not be at a loss for is content. It was one of his dear friends, Grammy-award winning R&B icon Prince, who impressed upon him that content is king, to which end Smiley owns all of his PBS and NPR libraries, his radio content dating back to his days as a commentator on “The Tom Joyner Show” and his more than a dozen books, including his 2006 best seller, “The Covenant With Black America”. KBLA operates from the Leimert Park office complex that has served as his based for more than 20 years. “We're putting bigger studios in the back of the building,” Smiley said. “Once I get my hooks into something, I'm not a hit and quit. We're going to build this thing with God's help to make a portal for this community.” In the meantime, his biggest challenge is getting the word out. “We don't have a multimedia dollar budget to do billboards, so right now, more than anything else, it's about getting the word out.” For however great the challenge is, Tavis Smiley is more than equal to it. “If it were easy for black people to own radio and television stations, a lot more of us would”, DiPrima says. “L.A. is very particular. These streets know who you are and you’re going to get credential checks whether you know it or not. But Tavis has a long history of educating and uplifting. He has a high standard in terms of the quality of what he does, and I think he has an amazing track record.” Indeed, for Smiley, KBLA represents a higher calling. “I've always viewed my career in this way that however long I have to do the work God's called me to do, I know that the eyes of the future looking back at us,” Smiley shares. “Black children are looking back at us, hoping we get this moment right. “They're going to ask that of all of us. What did we do in this moment of racial reckoning to advance our narrative? And my answer will be KBLA Talk. That in this moment, I took the opportunity to try to step up my game and to present to the community a platform that we can all use to advance our narrative.”