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This weekend on Café Mocha, we’re talking power — who has it and who’s ready to take it.
Allison Ashley of The Root joins us on Black media ownership and telling our stories on our own terms.
And Dr. Heavenly talks Married to Medicine and why she’s stepping into politics in Georgia. Conversations with real stakes.
It’s Cafe Mocha with Loni Love, Yo Yo, I’m Angelique. Dr. Heavenly Kimes has been on the reality show Married to Medicine for 12 seasons. Now she’s running for Congress in Georgia on Cafe Mocha.
You know her as the dentist with the sharp tongue and the sharper business mind. She’s holding it down on Married to Medicine. Got a family, a practice, running a bunch of businesses.
Now, Dr. Heavenly Kimes has decided to run for Congress. Welcome to Cafe Mocha. Thank you for having me, guys. How y’all doing today? We are excellent. From reality TV to Congress, that’s a pivot.
What made you run? Not really. Not really. Okay. Not really. Why is it? I mean, it’s pretty much the same thing. I mean, honestly, I mean, you’re speaking up and you’re being representation for your district.
And, you know, when the Big Beautiful Bill passed and our congressman said nothing, I was like, you know what?
Somebody got to stand up for our people. Somebody got to do something. And you are, this is like South Atlanta, Southeast Atlanta? It’s actually a New Jericho. Yeah, it’s a new gerrymandered map.
So it’s been changed. It’s 80 percent Democratic and about 67 percent African-American. And it starts in Gwinnett County. It goes down to Clayton County, but includes Rockdale, DeKalb, Henry and Newton County.
So six different counties. It’s a crazy looking map. It’s just bringing all the black people together. Oh, and yeah. So it’s one black map in Georgia. Yeah. I mean, the man you’re running against is what, 80?
He’s 81. He’s been in politics 51 years. He served 21 in this position. So he’s an incumbent. Okay. 21 years. Why do you think people are ready to make a change?
Because they haven’t heard from him. The congressperson is supposed to be just that, a representation of the people. You’re supposed to see them. The big, beautiful bill passed.
They said they hadn’t seen them. They hadn’t heard from them. I’ve been living in this district 25 years. I’ve had a business in every county in this district.
I haven’t seen them. And, you know, during a time like this, we need somebody that’s there, that’s representing us, that’s going to pass the laws to help the people in our community.
And our community is really struggling. Really, they are. And yeah, we need somebody that’s viable. I ain’t even saying nothing about his age because it don’t matter what his age is if he’s not showing up.
Right. What do you what changes do you want to instill? You know, my platform is always going to be affordability. Just like everybody else, this district is hurting.
People are hungry. The eggs are high. So we want to actually help with affordability and in the schools with the school lunches so the kids can still get their SNAP benefits and such.
But my main platform has to be health care. Health care, health care, health care. I understand that big, beautiful bill. I’ve been practicing seeing patients over 25 years.
And when that bill passed, I knew that people were going to be unalived. And somebody got to do something for real. Like, you know, the hospitals are closing.
They don’t have as much money. The ACA benefits, you know, the people, we talked about it forever, but when it actually happened and people’s actually medical insurance went from $700 to $3,200, it was a big thing.
And not only that, Medicaid needs to be expanded. And then there’s a group of people that are left out. Over 200,000 people in Georgia lost their medical benefits.
So it’s a mess over here and we need somebody to stand up and stand out and help our people. One of the first things to go when you adding up medical expenses is the dentist.
I just remember for years, I never even went because you can’t afford to. And insurance barely covers the work that you do, Dr. Heavenly. Yeah, the interesting thing about dentistry, no, it does not cover.
But my thing is a lot of the diseases that you have on the medical side can be prevented by having good dental care, preventative dentistry.
Heart attack, strokes, you know, it causes blockages in your arteries. dementia, cancer, all these kind of things can be prevented or prevented from going any further.
Diabetes, all kind of things are started in the mouth with periodontal disease. And then when you’re a dentist, yeah, yeah, well, yeah. And then you can, you know, have gastrointestinal problems as well, you know.
So there’s so many things that can be stopped in the mouth. And having regular cleanings and checkups is cheap compared to taking care of that stroke in the ER later.
You know what I mean? So something has to be done. Either they don’t know, they don’t show, or they don’t Care? But somebody got to speak up and say something.
One of my main platforms has to be mental health. There’s a mental health epidemic in our community right now. I just visited the cab county corrections facility and they told me they’re 71 percent of their their inmates they say don’t call them inmates.
The people that are in the correctional facility have mental health challenges. And if you know anything about mental health and being in a correctional institution, it costs a lot more for them to be there, right?
They don’t have the crisis centers. or the crisis centers are at capacity. So when they’re taking care of people in the correctional facility, it costs three to five times as much per inmate.
So these are the things that, you know, I just looking at it and we need to make a change. And you know, I had a personal incidents with somebody close to me that had a mental health challenge and we just did not know what to do.
And the laws have to change because a lot of people don’t know to dial 988. So when we came up in my team, what I came up with is they have the two way cameras But we need the cameras in our community that we can put a mental health professional on the line to deescalate situations so our young men are not unalive, basically, you know?
And also we’re coming up with an app that people know where to go to get to food banks, to get the free medical care when they need it, to get the mental health care that they need.
So we’re coming up with all kind of ideas just by going in the community, asking them like a congressperson should, doing town halls and things.
So you’ve always been an activist? I’ve always been involved. I’m not going to say activist, but I’ve always been involved. Like I, I pretty much know what’s going on.
I’ve been, um, involved in, you know, a lot of the elections, um, holding, uh, hosting, uh, different fundraisers and that kind of stuff.
So I’ve been always aware. It’s cafe Mocha on the line. You know, her from married to medicine on Bravo, Dr. Heavenly. She’s running for Congress to represent Metro Atlanta’s South and Southwest sides.
Now, um, Being a part of Congress means that you’re running as a Democrat, correct? Yes, definitely. Democrat, yes. And how do you think you’ll be able to deal with working with the other side?
And do you think it’s easier to work with the other side because you’ve been dealing with reality TV?
You know what? The interesting thing is this. I’m the little girl that grew up on the free lunch, right? And I’m the little girl that Well, the young woman, they got a full scholarship to go to a, I went to double HBCUs, Florida A&M and Meharry Medical College.
But I also was on the WIC and the food stamps. So I do get each side of it. I do. So my thing is, yes, I think I’ll be able to work on each side because I, you know, I don’t want chaos.
Of course, I want to get things done, but I do know that I can speak up for my people when it’s necessary.
So yeah, yeah, I definitely want to work on both sides because I think that’s the only way to get things done.
We’re talking to Dr. Heavenly Kimes from Mary to Medicine. She’s running for office in Georgia. The conversation continues on Cafe Mocha. Standing in solidarity from a woman’s perspective, it’s Cafe Mocha.
Cafe Mocha celebrating 15 years. We’re talking to marriage to medicine star Dr. Heavenly Kimes. Let’s jump back in. And you know, when you win, we’re going to keep it positive.
When you win, you will be the first reality TV star to win, to go to Congress. How do you feel about that? It’ll be a lot of firsts. I mean, I’ll be the first black female dentist.
I’ll be the first. It’s a lot of firsts. But yeah, it’s time. And I’m going to tell you this. can’t nobody do it like a black woman. Can’t nobody do it like a black woman.
And if i looked on that list of the people that are running, if i saw somebody on that list that could do that job better than me, I would stand down.
Nobody has the reach. Nobody has the resources. I get what we call earned media. So y’all don’t know about the district. And every time i go in my community to the churches or the town halls the people don’t know who the congressman is.
And I’ll tell you one thing you’re going to know me because i will be involved in the community. At the end of the day, we need somebody that’s present, that’s available, that can help these people and actually bring those federal funds back to the community so we can do all kinds of things, starting with infrastructure.
Y’all know the data centers are a big deal, the jet fuel. It has so many issues in our district going by counties that you have to actually go to each county, and each county is very different, very different.
I love your passion. I love your passion. Thank you. Just recently, my daughter had me binge-watching Your show, I mean, and we’ve watched your show for years on Married with Medicine.
What do you think people get wrong based on this show? You know, it’s a situation where you put in a situation you probably never be in.
You know what I mean? I’m just saying you would never be in those situations. But I think it’s great that we have black physicians, black dentists.
You know, my husband is a physician that you can see African-Americans actually working. educated with businesses and stuff. And I think there’s no show like it on Bravo.
So I think that it brings everything. It brings the drama, but we bring the give back. We bring the passion, the real life issues. And this year is like none other with personal issues.
Everybody got personal issues going on. Will your campaign be part of the show? Yeah, they actually showing my campaign. Yes, they got clearance to show the campaign.
When I launched it, I was running for state rep. Then I switched to Congress. Because I realize the state is mostly Republicans, so I wouldn’t be able to get much done.
But as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, in our state, there’s nine Republicans and five Democrats.
But if I can use my platform with all my celebrity friends, we can flip some seats, continue to flip seats, and get some stuff done.
You know fans are always haters. Well, I shouldn’t call them fans. The haters are going to hate, as they will say. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. But I’m curious, do you think people will be saying, oh, she’s just doing this to, you know, have a plot line on the show?
A storyline, no. You know, actually, I actually stepped away from the show. So I’m very serious about what’s going on. We just did the reunion. I stepped back, and I’m really serious about what I’m doing.
If I could tell my story, you know, I have a story, and it’s very personal to me while I’m running.
And, um, you know, my son was arrested not too terribly long ago and he had a challenge and my whole thing is my son was okay.
He was stopped at gunpoint. But what i’m saying is he, he did wrong. The cops were not wrong, but being that he was damon cams Jr. The, the people knew my husband and they called us and we were able to come get him.
There are so many young boys that get in a situation they get locked up in, in the system and stay in the system from what i could see in the, um, The correctional facilities, they take two years sometimes, sometimes four years for them to come up for trial.
And a lot of times they stay in the correctional institute until, you know, until trial. And that’s unfortunate. And this is going to be the November 4th election, correct?
Well, the interesting thing is that my seat will be chosen in the primary. So you have to vote in the primaries. Early voting starts April 27th. The general primary election is May 19th.
My election will be determined in the primaries because my district is 80% Democrat. So in November, whoever wins the primaries now in May will be the winner in November because it’s 80% Democrat.
So I’ll be the Democratic candidate in November. Okay, so make sure y’all look out in April out there in Atlanta. April 27th. April 27th. This is District 13, Metro Atlanta.
And you’re running as your name is not Dr. Heavenly. I know I’m trying to get it. No, no, no. On the when I when I qualify, I’m trying to get heavenly.
And then you can put a quote question quotation marks of you branded a name, Dr. Heavenly. But, you know, heavenly is good enough. So look for heaven. OK, OK. Yeah. For sure. Get our people right.
We’re going to get those polls. yes okay yeah make sure you guys follow me at dr heavenly for georgia.com donate volunteer pray do all of the things.
Like, share, subscribe to all my channels and my in my pages and retweet that stuff, repost that stuff.
And we got some good information out there we’re gonna um make it make a big change i have a question i have a question for you how did you pick your team?
How did i pick my team You know what? Honestly, I’m going to tell you, when I first started, I know that it was a calling from God because I was like, I did not know how to run for office, you know?
And all I knew was my PR at that point. All I knew was my PR. And God put together an amazing team for me. We have an amazing team, fundraiser, campaign manager, all of the things.
And I’m going to tell you, once you build it, they will come, you know? And people reached out to me. Some people, it was built by relationships. And we were able to put a great team together.
Well, we wish you the best. We know it’s going to happen. We’re going to keep pushing it on Cafe Mocha and make sure that we remind people to go out there and vote in April at the primary.
We’ll be out there for the Black College Expo in April. Make sure y’all connect. The first week of April, maybe we can get you to come on out.
We have thousands of kids and parents that come on out. You can come on out and talk to some of the parents. Well, thank you, ladies, for your time. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Good luck.
We’re talking to Married to Medicine star Dr. Heavenly Kimes. Her Instagram is DrHeavenlyForGeorgia. It’s Cafe Mocha with Loni Love, Yo-Yo, and Angelique on the line.
She’s a political strategist, CNN commentator, a media owner, and the new owner of The Root is our girl, Ashley Allison.
Hello, Ashley. What’s up, everybody? How you doing? You know what? First of all, i am so proud of you, okay? No, no, no, because in 2025, you acquired the Root, which we all know is a very influential digital publication that was founded by henry lewis gates Jr.
And first of all, what made you want to buy it? Tell me everything that happened, girl. Tell me. Yeah, so I had been exploring opportunities to acquire media properties for a couple of years.
I wanted to build my own from scratch, which I am doing through watering home media. But I was like, you know, there are people who have already done that.
And so maybe I could acquire some. And, you know, God’s timing is everything. I got a lot of no’s. And then this past summer. I got an email. I thought the deal was not going to be mine.
And then I got an email that it was, I was literally sitting in this exact spot working on my computer.
And it was like, you, you got the, like, they want to go into the negotiation with you. And I was like, I was like by myself. I like called my mom. She didn’t answer. I called my sister.
She didn’t answer. I called my best friend. She didn’t answer. I was like, where is everybody? Um, and then I called one of my, um, chiefs content officer and we just started screaming.
And then we, bought it in six weeks. And I wanted to buy it because we find ourselves in this moment where black stories are being erased.
And I fundamentally believe that somebody will tell your story. But if you have the agency and audacity to tell it yourself, do it because you’ll tell it the best.
So I just, the opportunity presented itself and I couldn’t say no. Well, I’m glad that you did because let’s talk about the history of the Root.
and the importance of it, especially for us in Black media. Yeah, so it was founded the week or two before Super Tuesday 2028. So, like, go in your time machine, go back in time.
This is height of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton running for the presidential nomination. He has already won Iowa, he’s won South Carolina, so people are like, I’m thinking about this particularly on the backdrop of Reverend Jackson’s funeral just happening, and what he meant for Black politics, Black people for this country.
Black people and I think Americans in the world are just like, oh my gosh, there might be a Black man at the top of the ticket for the first time in history.
They start covering it and I’m reading it and I am just getting this understanding of what is possible in politics.
Now, I’m a teacher at that time. I’m teaching high school special education, but I always loved politics and the Root gave me a window to peep into and learn and study.
And then they started the Route 100 list. Girl, I would like stalk these people. I would be like, Joshua DeBond, what does he do? You know, Paul Montero, all the folks that were on there.
And that was really how I learned what jobs were available in Washington, that you could work at the White House, how you got those jobs.
And so it was not just an inspirational thing to read. It was a guidebook for so many of us on how to move in a time of history being made.
Well, you know, the thing is, is that I love The Root. I actually hosted one of The Root 100s at the Apollo. Nice. And that just tells you just how important this publication is.
But let’s go back a little bit, too, about how you acquired the capital to get this legacy media brand.
Because I know it wasn’t easy. No. So… I have a couple entities, nonprofits, and look, it’s all about timing, right? Like when the opportunity presented itself to acquire it, it wasn’t the first time I was out raising money.
I had been raising money for years and I had gotten a lot of no’s because the product wasn’t available.
And so the person, I had an angel investor to help me get this, move it as fast as it is. We’re still raising because we want to buy other things.
But the one thing I… It’s interesting you ask this question. The one thing that I want folks to know, because a lot of people were like, oh, did you just have all that money in your account?
I was like, no, no, no, no, no. They’re like, let me hold something. I remember one of my friends was like, let me hold something. I was like, no, that’s not how it works.
Is that black women in particularly don’t get a lot of access to venture capital or capital in general.
And so this really was, this is how I knew it was mine. I talk about my assignment right now because the capital came easier than anything.
most things I’ve ever done. The deal was hard, but it was easy because it went so fast. And so I had been working a long time getting ready for this moment.
And then the moment came and I got to strike. That’s excellent. And, you know, when we look at the root, we I look at it as it’s a trusted source of information and news.
How are we going to put, you know, Ashley into it? What are you going to do that may be different? or change it, or are you gonna keep it the same? Well, I definitely gonna put a little flavor on it.
And that’s the beauty of ownership. You know, right now it is predominantly a written publication and we’re gonna keep, stay true to the written word.
But one of the things that we’re really gonna invest heavily on is video, right? Like you’re doing this podcast, but it’s a video podcast because that’s what people are holding their phones and getting information like that.
So we’re definitely going to be covering and doing a lot more video work while we’re headed into a midterm election.
And then following that, there’ll be a presidential election. And needless to say, there’s no shortage of news out there right now that is being broken about global affairs and domestic affairs.
And so we’re definitely going to cover politics, but we cover it through the black lens. So I say the root is going to be a place that breaks news.
So if a breaking story comes and you want us to break it, let us know. We also verify news because, you know, There’s a lot of mess out there, and you don’t always know what to trust and not to trust, and so you saying that it’s a trusted source, we want to make sure that we’re giving our readers reliable, factual information, and then we make sense of the news.
So when something is happening, like the war in Iran, why should you care about it as a Black person?
Yes, nobody wants war, but what does this mean? What’s the backdrop for us in our community? You know, why should you care about ICE? Why should you care about the upcoming election.
So we’re going to talk, we’re going to make new sense of it. And then we’re going to have some fun. You know, we’re going to be doing a lot of in-person activations.
You’ll be seeing us in different communities, different, not just the East Coast and West Coast, but like, you know, the Midwest, the South, we’re going to be on the road soon.
So. I love that. You know, currently, do you have a staff and how many and how are you managing all of that?
Yeah, so we do have a small but mighty staff at The Root. And there’s six of us over there. And we’re going to be hopefully expanding soon to do a lot of the new work.
I mean, it’s a lot. I don’t sleep. I like sleep. I love rest, but I have an endless source of energy. I think the thing of how we manage it all is that we love what we do.
Like, I really love… this work. I feel so honored and privileged to be sitting in this moment and coming off of Black History Month, going into Women’s History Month.
I just like been reflecting a lot on the people who had to come before me. How many, I know I got some no’s, but how many no’s, how some of them never even got a yes, but they needed to do it so that I could get a yes.
And so the team is, they’re hardworking. They love Black people. They love this country. They love stories. And so we manage it through love. You know, it’s like even the hard stuff is there’s joy in it.
So it’s just a privilege. Now, how are you able to balance? Because I see you on CNN arguing with Scott and all of you. Thank you. Lonnie Love one on one with media entrepreneur Allison Ashley, publisher of the black news and culture site The Root.
We’ve got more on Cafe Mocha. We’re at Cafe Mocha Radio. Socially savvy on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Serving up more Cafe Mocha on the web. C-Y-U-N-I-T-Y, that’s a unity.
It’s Cafe Mocha. Conversations for the culture on Cafe Mocha. Lonnie Love is talking to CNN commentator and media entrepreneur, Allison Ashley.
Let’s jump back in. How are you able to, you know, you’re balancing that, your personal life. What’s your work-life balance like? Well, you know, I… that the way for me to be the best version of myself at work is I have to be the best version of myself at home.
And so I meditate a lot. I pray a lot. I just started a new training program. I used to be an avid runner. And so I just started running again and really investing back in me.
My work-life balance, I’m not going to lie, the last six months was a little sketchy. Okay. It was a little touch and go. Okay. But I just realized over the last couple of weeks, I was like, You can’t be the best version of yourself if you don’t take care of yourself.
So that’s the first thing is like always prioritizing myself. Like when we get off of here, I’m gonna go and do a quick run now that the weather is breaking.
And then I think it is like hiring good people around you, right? Like I don’t know how to do everything. And so I need to hire people that do know how to do it so that I can delegate.
I think a lot of people wanna hold on to power and you can only hold so much in your hand. So having a great team, And then, like I said, I think it’s a privilege because people get so upset when they, like, watch me on CNN duking it out.
And I’m like. I love it. I love it. You know what I mean? Like, I’m the girl that always got in trouble at school for talking too much.
So now it’s like, look at me now, teach. You know what I mean? No, you did a good job. I was meant to do that. We we need women like you who are smart, who are assertive, who are not afraid and fearless to speak, because especially in times like this, which kind of makes me, you know, transition into how are you feeling right now politically?
And what do you think that we, especially black women, should be, you know, focused on right now? Yeah, I will say to your point, just before I move on to that question.
Um, if you watch my arc on CNN, it took a while to find my footing, to find my voice. And I think that like, I always knew what I wanted to say, but I say it’s like being in the gym and doing your reps, right?
Like I had to keep practicing. So I got better and better and better and refined and continue to study and never just sit on like the work I have done, but be very present in the work that you want to do.
Yes, I feel very honored and proud that I get to use my voice, but I had to get the courage to use it also.
Sometimes it was scary to say the thing that you might think you were going to get canceled on or something like that, but you knew it had to be said.
So I appreciate the growth that I’ve been able to do. I mean, how am I feeling? Well, wait, before we go, I want to make a point to what you just said of the importance of giving people a chance.
Yes. And a lot of times, you know, in these spaces, black women aren’t given this chance. That’s right. So, you know, we get one chance. So it’s like what you’re saying is so important is that, you know, yeah, you make that first appearance and you kind of like, you know, he’s Scott’s over there.
You know, and then you got to deal with, you know, haters or people that like, you know, this it’s like you have to give us a chance to.
get our feet. And I’m so glad you mentioned that because I don’t think black women, especially in the media space, really get the chance to let their wings grow.
So I’m glad that you actually said that. Yeah. And also, it’s also why I wanted to purchase The Root because I love being on CNN, but I also deserve to have my own platform too and platform other people.
So It’s a multitask approach. I say it’s like, I don’t like to put all my eggs in one basket ever. You know, I’m, I got 20 books I’m reading right now.
Right. I’m never going to finish any of them, but like I’ll read two pages here and then it’s like, you know, that’s just kind of how my personality is.
I mean, in terms of how I’m feeling, I’m a person of faith and I was talking to this preacher friend of mine.
We ran into each other randomly in San Francisco one day. And she was telling me about this portion of the Bible, not the 40 years, but how the people of God were for decades, for centuries, for lifetimes in a moment of despair.
And she was like, I don’t want to live the rest of my life in despair. And I said, well, that’s one way you could read the story. But what if we’re on the last year of despair and we just have to hold on a little while longer to get to the other side?
And that is how I really am making it through and thinking about this moment is I think we’re on the cusp of something special.
And I think we’re in an opportunity to make a mark on our generation like other generations, like the freedom fighters did or like Harriet did, right?
I do fundamentally believe there’s something bigger than myself, something spiritual that is happening in this moment, bigger than all of us.
And the question is, like, can we have the faith and the discipline to get to the other side and not quit too soon?
Because, look, we’re both in the business of telling stories. And I always say this is not how my story ends. So, like, it’s not. It’s like barely chapter four of the book, right?
Like, it’s like one of those books I’ve been reading forever because I’m not even at the, like, the plot is just now thickening.
So, yeah. It is hard sometimes. I’m not doing television this week because I have travel, and so I’m not watching the news, right?
Because the news can just be like this cycle and cycle. But this is not how the story ends, and I fundamentally believe that. We just all have to do our part. But most importantly, we have to do our part together.
We’re not going to get out of this. There is no silver bullet. There is no magical person that will save us. We will save ourselves collectively. Come on now. That’s what I tell people.
And lastly… Even though you’re doing all this work and it’s great work, what do you do for fun? I love to dance. And I love to dance. I always have loved to dance. And because I don’t have a lot of time to myself, I used to do this African dance class in Brooklyn, New York.
I try and go once a quarter. But I go on TikTok and I find every Black person Southern line dance there is. I study it. I find the song on Spotify and I do it by myself for like 30 minutes in my house every night.
Wow. It’s just like, and I’m like, you know, I’ll turn the lights off like I’m at a club or something, you know?
And so it’s just like move my body, love the beat, love the rhythm. I’m banging. I’ve always got music, my big headphones on, just like bobbing my head, listening to something.
um yeah i i dance for fun. And now i’m starting to run again. Wow. It’s great to find time for yourself. But we need you miss ashley because we need you, Miss lani Oh, my goodness.
Well, you know what? Happy Women’s History Month. Thank you so much. Ashley Allison, political strategist and new owner of the Root. And y’all check out the Root. Just go to what, theroot.com?
Yes, ma’am. Check out theroot.com. They’re doing great work there. Thank you so much for checking in with us on Cafe Mocha, Ashley. Bye. Lonnie Love is one-on-one with media entrepreneur Allison Ashley, publisher of the black news and culture site, The Root.
This is Cafe Mocha. Here’s your dose of espresso. Strong, hot news now. This is the espresso. Pastor Jamal Bryant, who helped lead the way on this Target boycott, suddenly backtracked.
But black women ain’t having it, so he backtracked his backtrack. What did it mean? Have you sold out? Have you given up? You wave the white flag. And emphatically, the answer is no.
South Carolina’s 85-year-old trailblazing Congressman Jim Clyburn is going nowhere. I do believe that I’m very well equipped and healthy enough to move into the next term.
Now, don’t forget, this is the guy that helped Biden win South Carolina and change the momentum of the 2020 election.
And Paramount is shutting down BET+. All the content will now stream on Paramount+. People are worried about what that means for black TV, but not this guy.
A lot of people who claim they support these platforms weren’t actually paying for them. Like me. It’s easy to say you want more black owned or black focused platforms.
But if people aren’t subscribing, it becomes very difficult for them to survive long term. That’s the espresso. It’s Cafe Mocha. It’s Cafe Mocha with Lonnie Love. Yo, yo, I’m Angelique, the producer.
I know Lonnie always has something on her mind. So what is it, Lonnie? You know, um, uh, Kenny Lattimore and faith judge faith, you know, there are, um, friends of the show.
They have been doing this fight, uh, against, um, online fake accounts. And what judge faith did, there was a slew of online fake accounts about her and Kenny Lattimore, um, And they were like, AI accounts.
And they were things from divorce to they’re saying bad things about each other and talking about sexuality and all this other kind of stuff.
So Faith decided to investigate. And once she investigated, she found that there are foreign actors from different countries that are making accounts.
The other ones, they just kept going and going. And so once she did her discovery, she found out that there were people from like Russia and Pakistan, these different foreign countries where YouTube doesn’t have jurisdiction over them.
So they can’t take down the accounts. And so what they do is the reason why they make it so salacious. And they found out that they were basically targeting black celebrities.
especially black pastors, black celebrities, because people would click on it and they’re making all they get all these views.
And if you know with YouTube, based on your views is how much you get paid. And so for like, they found she’s faith was telling me like they found one guy, it was the same guy, and he had 10 different accounts about them.
And just malicious lies stories everything and If it was in the United States that these accounts came from, they could easily block it and shut it down and YouTube could do it.
But because it’s foreign, it’s something different. So they have gotten with attorney Ben Crump and there was a press conference and I was part of the press conference.
And in that press conference, they made a formal complaint to the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission.
And what they’re trying to like when you go on YouTube, you don’t know where that account is from. You don’t know the location. So what they’re asking YouTube and Google to do is actually say, hey, this account is from India.
So if you saw that the account was from India, more than likely you would know, hey, this is made up.
Okay. So they’re also trying to get them to identify that say that this is AI generated. Because a lot of people, you know, they don’t know that it’s AI generated.
They just hear this narration. They see the pictures. But they’re thinking, oh, this is real. And I know this is because, like, I was telling the story about I had an account where they said that I had a baby.
And they had me in a hospital. And they had me holding a baby. For real? I didn’t know all that. Girl, it was a mess, Angelique. It was a mess. And you think, oh, nobody’s going to believe this.
I get off the plane. somewhere in Atlanta, and a woman come up to me, Lonnie, congratulations on the baby. I said, what are you talking about? My eggs are scrambled. What are you, I ain’t got no baby.
So people are really believing this stuff. And then what happens is it caused all this gossip. And, you know, it just, it’s a lot of discourse. So what they are doing is Ben Crump, along with Faith and Kenny, they are asking for the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, To actually make some changes.
And they’re trying to do it through. California first. Because you know if you go to this administration. They not going. Cafe Mocha teamed up with Tubi TV. So if you missed the salute them awards.
And our A-list honorees. Download the Tubi app. Type in Cafe Mocha radio. And a salute them awards will pop right up. And yes it’s free. Want a little more of our flavor?
Stay right there. It’s Cafe Mocha. Cafe Mocha teamed up with Tubi TV. So if you missed the Salute Them Awards and our A-list honorees, download the Tubi app, type in Cafe Mocha Radio, and the Salute Them Awards will pop right up.
And yes, it’s free. I was just getting ready to say, the AI people, those tech people in Northern California, they are feeding the Republicans tons of money because they want, they want all their AI stuff to just be pushed through without anybody thinking about it.
Meanwhile, in California, there are at least a dozen rules about transparency as it relates to AI and all sorts of things where you just can’t make something up and thrust it upon people.
But here’s what I want to say. Google is in court right now for one thing. They’re in another court for another thing with Meta and TikTok.
They’ve been getting sued or brought before the Senate for years, for decades, and nothing ever happens to them.
They don’t have to pay. They don’t have to anything. I’m sorry. They’re just doing what they want to. And Google specifically, if you have Google, I know you have seen this Genesis thing pop up.
And it’s just like, hi, would you like me to, not would you like me, just at the top of the email when you open it, it just automatically pops.
tells you the highlights of the email. I didn’t ask for that. You go into, um, any Google chat, any Google, anything, even just Googling something.
The first thing that comes up is the AI generated stuff from Google’s AI thing. And it’s like, we don’t even have a choice. We don’t have a choice to opt in. It’s just there here.
Have you noticed that your timeline is just filled with a lot of AI nonsense now? And they’re really feeding you what they want you to focus on.
And, you know, it’s almost like, you know, when you go on YouTube, how do I opt out of this? You know, don’t suggest. I mean, they really messed up. I mean, you know, they’re trying to push AI.
And, you know, I get that. But for people to make a whole account on you and be able to publish it and people think that it’s true, that’s wrong.
In this particular instance, you have people that are discovering what’s going on. And this is the thing that we were striking for. A lot of people don’t understand when the actor strike was happening, they were striking because they wanted restrictions on AI.
They didn’t get it because these tech companies are so powerful. But AI is really dangerous. But AI can be used for good. But as you see, they’re scamming, they’re using things like that.
It’s like, you’ve got to put laws and policies in place to control this stuff because people are being scammed.
People are, you know, people, and for, just for the basic reason, our black, something about black people, we love negativity.
Like if it’s something that’s, that’s gossipy or salacious, we sit there and we want to believe it.
And the reason why that hurts is, You know, people been in their careers for 30 and 40 years trying to make it.
And then you let one person post something that’s totally a lie and untrue over and it messes up your whole career.
Yeah. And it’s not it’s not right. So it’s like you have to fight back with this type of stuff. And that’s what they’re doing. So, you know, follow along. Faith has a wonderful YouTube channel called.
I believe it’s Faith and Kenny. You just look up Judge Faith. You can find it on YouTube where it details everything that they’re going through and what you can do to help to get the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.
Because like I said, today is celebrities. Tomorrow will be your children. This is Cafe Mocha. Midterm elections are going on throughout the country.
Georgia votes next month. New York, California, the DMV in June. Tennessee in August. These elections are crucial and most of us just skip them.
So make sure your voter registration is on point and then get out there and do your thing. That’s the show. Make sure you follow us on the socials at Cafe Mocha Radio.
