Former Tri-State Defender reporter Dalisha Ballinger (dollfacelyfestyle) went viral on TikTok after saying she felt safer in her neighborhood now that the National Guard was in Memphis — and just like that, she lost her job. Let that sink in. A Black journalist… born, raised, and living in the same community she reports on… got fired for speaking her truth about her lived experience. She didn’t curse nobody out. She didn’t spread hate. She didn’t break no laws. She just said how she felt. And that cost her her career. That’s the part people don’t understand — when you don’t own the platform, you don’t own the freedom to speak on it. Because your presence without ownership will always come with conditions. She said it best herself: “I know that I have an impactful voice.” And she’s right. But in this industry, impact scares institutions that can’t control it. Unapologetically Memphis was built for this reason — to give voices like hers a seat at the table without fear of being ...