Jada Pinkett Smith Travels To Washington To Fight Worthy Cause

Jada Pinkett Smith was moved to action by her 11-year old daughter Willow Smith after she watched the viral hit KONY 2012. Jada, 40, recalled her daughter starting the conversation;

“She did her own research and realized that there were young girls her age in this country being trafficked for sex. She was like, ‘Mommy — you don’t know what’s happening!’ I was like, ‘Hold up, pause right there!’ And, she was like, ‘I’ve got to give my voice to this. These young girls out there need me.’ ”

It didn’t take long for Jada to use her influence and join Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to fight against human trafficking.

“I was actually really quite ashamed that I didn’t know about this particular situation in our country, because when you think about human trafficking, you think about it ‘over there.’ Wherever ‘there’ is,” Pinkett Smith says.

On Tuesday Jada was joined by her husband and Hillary Clinton at the State Department’s diplomatic rooms where the state report on slavery, prostitution and forced labor around the world was being released.

According to the Washington Post, Jada’s contribution was a Spanish video call “Nada Se Compara” directed by Salma Hayek which is also posted on Dontsellbodies.org and features scenes of boyfriend selling his girlfriend into slavery.

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Latest from Atlanta Black Star

Back to top