On the Road with ESPN Journalist Kelley L. Carter

Driving car Culture from Detroit to Hollywood

Entertainment journalist Kelley L Carter is the host of Another Act on ESPN’s the Undefeated. Three times a week she zooms in for compelling conversations with prominent entertainers and tastemakers to talk about the issues of the day. Recent guests include Regina King, Angela Bassett. and Questlove. Her interviews for The Undefeated with Chadwick Boseman, John Singleton, and Kobe Bryant have been widely referenced.

Carter is an Emmy-award winning journalist who has recently appeared on the Oscars Countdown: The Red Carpet LIVE! on ABC. Before joining ESPN, she reported for Buzzfeed, USA Today, Ebony and the Detroit Free Press.

Carter spent much of her childhood in Detroit, and has an affinity for Motor City car culture. (Full disclosure: I met Kelley when she was my editor at the State News, when we were both students at Michigan State University.)

Carter is executive producing New Money, a Showtime scripted show with her best friend and fellow Detroiter (and MSU alum) Jemele Hill and Gabrielle Union. The show is based off a story authored by Hill and Carter, who formed a company Lodge Freeway Media, naturally named after the Detroit freeway.

How were cars a part of your growing up experience? 

I grew up outside of the Detroit suburbs, and it’s impossible to grow up in that area and not have a very strong connection to the auto industry and also cars, too, because Detroit is such a car city. My grandfather retired from Chrysler. After undergrad my dad moved to Detroit from Alabama for med school, and worked at Chrysler while he was at school. In Detroit, cars have always been very important. Someone in your neighborhood at some point was connected to the automobile industry. Everybody has a connection to someone with an A plan. Everyone drives an American made car, because they have a hook up at Ford to get a little bit of a discount on some of the tonier cars that come out. There are people that value cars more than their homes. That’s Detroit, it makes sense. So many of use are connected to the auto industry.

We can’t escape them. In Detroit, when I was growing up, the luxury vehicle everyone pretty much aspired to get was a Cadillac. When we got our first Cadillac, it was damn near a ticker tape parade in the family. It was a status symbol, a symbol of accomplishment and it meant prestige. When one of my mom’s brothers got his first Cadillac, it was parked out front. I came home from school and he was like, “you probably thought George Bush was parked there, didn’t you?” In other words, that car made people feel presidential. But definitely having the right car has always been of the utmost importance for most people in Detroit. 

“To me living in LA meant you have to have a convertible.”

What is your preferred method of getting around town and why?

Because of the pandemic I’m not driving as much as I was driving before.  I do drive a lot. When I first moved out to LA twelve years ago from Chicago, I bought a Chrysler Touring Sebring edition.  It was a convertible, and I got it, because I’m about to fulfill this lifelong dream to live in Los Angeles. To me living in LA meant you have to have a convertible. 

The car that I drive now is a 2020 BMW 430i hardtop convertible. It is kind of a dream car. I thought it was so cool that it was a hard top convertible. It feels like a Batmobile. Plus it’s all black and it adds to the Gotham City mystique. I love the cognac interior. It’s the Motorsport edition and I was easily upsold on all the extras. I made the mistake of taking my best friend with me who gassed me up on all the upgrades, because she’s definitely a car person more than I am. The funny thing is when you own a convertible, especially in LA, you truly only ever drop the top when you have people visiting that don’t live in LA.  If I do its usually to fit a large box. It’s easier to throw it inside if I’m coming from Target, because it’s a two door. Otherwise my windows are rolled up tight.

What are some of your favorite car memories?

In my senior year of college, my parents helped me get a new car. It was a Toyota Camry. It was Spartan green, as you know I went to Michigan State. When I went home to Detroit, I drove it by my grandfather’s house. He came out to see my car and he was like “Toyota, so that’s one of those foreign cars, huh?”

I was like “It was the American edition. it was made in Ann Arbor.” Before that moment it didn’t dawn on me to think about where my cars was built and what that said about patriotism. I’m from the Detroit, but we moved a lot. I spent a lot my child in the southeast. Everyone’s job is not tied to that one industry, that’s not something front of mind. To see my grandfather’s reaction, this a man who spent 30 odd years at Chrysler. 

My grandfather was a car guy.  He was a shade tree mechanic. My car before this one was a BMW, too. Is my grandfather disappointed that I have an affinity for German engineered cars? What does that say about me as a Detroiter? I hope it doesn’t say anything about me being disloyal. It’s something I think about constantly.

The thing I get to is how special and how important Detroit’s contribution has been to car culture and the way that we live. I was in Cuba four years ago with Misty Copeland. We were driven around in these cool classic cars. The taxis were cars that were made from back home, the last cars they got before their access was closed to the United States. They are classic muscle cars. My grandfather would have still been working at Chrysler (when the cars were built).

Whenever someone who asked where I’m from, I said Detroit. They always wanted to talk about cars.  When I was in Havana, I was like my grandfather probably touched some of these cars.  That meant a lot to me. To also see the excitement in people’s eyes, attaching Detroit to beloved cars they have in Cuba.  My grandfather’s no longer here that I loved so much and contributed something important to the car scene. 

Do you think we should give up our cars?

I think I’m on a consummate quest to become more green. I empathize and understand the idea of trying to lower emissions and making sure the environment is clean or sustainable. I don’t drive as much as I used to. It’s very little to do with pandemic, and more to do with me thinking of that. Before 2020, I traveled a lot for work and I relied a lot on car services. I have very few miles on my car, because I don’t drive it that much. I don’t think we should we get rid of cars, but I do think that public transportation should be increased. That’s something thats happening in LA.  LA is a lot like Detroit where it can be really smoggy, and car dust is everywhere. California has always been a progressive state thinking about the environment. I don’t have answers but I would like to be more responsible. 

Do you see yourself in an electric vehicle some day? Why or why not?

Maybe.  I have a friend who has a Tesla that’s gorgeous and maybe that’s something I might be interested to looking in but I’m interested in what other automakers do.

What do you do while you commute?

Being in my car is the only time I allow myself to listen to music. I’m exploring new music. I have Tidal in my car or I’m listening to a playlist I curate. I do take some calls, but I prefer to listen to music.  

What is your dream car?

I love my car, but there’s other cars out there. I love a couple different Porsches. A friend of mine has one I love that I’ve driven a couple times, a Carrera. I didn’t think I was the sports car kind of gal. A couple years ago I test drove a Karma Revero. This car was amazing. It was the first car that I’ve driven and gotten out of it that people would stop and stare and want to take a photo. I was like, I have to start working harder. Obsessed. LA is a valet town. You know you’ve made it if they park your car up front. It’s a car culture respect thing out here. It was the only time in my life I felt douchey but also really good about myself. 

What is your dream destination?

I’d go back to Italy. I love Florence. I wanted to drive a Ferrari around Italy.  They record it with the go-pros.  This is what every car lover wants to do. 

What is your favorite road?

Hands down the PCH. I challenge you to find a more beautiful stretch of road in the country. It’s so beautiful and calm, and when I do want to drop my top, that’s the highway to do it on. It enables you to look at all of the beautiful beaches. I would drive from here to Santa Barbara. 

What is the best color for a car?

I would wrap it win matte black. My BFF has that around her car. It looks exotic and cool. I have friends who work at aftermarket companies and one was telling me the really cool things you can do in the aftermarket space. I understand why people want to do those things in their car, but I don’t need a fish tank in my car or skinny rims. With the BM M3 edition, the ones I have are super fly.  I am really not into car culture in that way. 

Finally, when we can all move freely again, where do you want to go?

I think the most ambitious drive I would be open to making is up to wine country in Northern California.  I have a friend who has a winery up there. I would love to go up there and vacate and do nothing but drink really good wine. I would take whoever wants to go with me and escape for a week.