Former pro basketball players look to bring young African-Americans to the polls with ‘Be Woke.Vote’ initiative

With long lines at polling places in states like Georgia and Kentuckydisproportionately affecting African-Americans and a widespread distrust in the mail-in ballot system in the Black community, a campaign called “Be Woke.Vote” aims to counter what its founders see as clear evidence of voter suppression.

The group, which was co-founded by professional basketball player turned filmmaker Deon Taylor and Hollywood producer Roxanne Avent Taylor, hopes to register Black voters ahead of the 2020 election so that their voices will be heard.

“Young Black and brown kids, one of the biggest lies that we’ve been told for a very long time is that our vote doesn’t count,” Taylor told Yahoo News in a virtual conversation with new Be Woke partner and former NBA player Kenny “the Jet” Smith. “The reality is we live in a world right now where our ancestors have actually died for that right.”

Partnering with NAACP, Climb Organization and the Black Political Association of California, Be Woke.Vote sponsored a protest on June 6 in Sacramento, Calif., to encourage voter registration, especially among the younger generation. The event drew more than 40,000 attendees, the largest gathering of its kind in the city’s history.

During the 2018 midterms, Be Woke.Vote registered 27,000 new voters utilizing volunteers, radio and online campaigns, and helped organize more than 100 busses nationwide to bring people to the polls. That organizational effort was only the beginning, Taylor said.

“This is not just about the vote in November,” Taylor said. “If you want change in your community, if you want change in your police departments, if you want to know who’s sitting on your board in your community, you have to know when those localized voting poll times are happening and you have to get involved that way.”

Smith and Taylor are longtime friends who connected over the game of basketball. A 13-year NBA veteran who now co-hosts a popular show on TBS, Smith believes he has a responsibility to help make the world a better place.

“Systematic change comes by voting because you cannot talk about the game if you’re not playing in it,” Smith said. “You can’t be on the sideline as a fan and go, ‘Oh, well, LeBron didn’t really shoot the ball. No, if you’re on the court, you can make a change. It’s so simple.”