Smith's research focus includes issues of social inequality, stress, racism, discrimination, income inequality, disparities in higher education and health-related inequalities that African Americans withstand. He studies and writes about the emotional toll of being a racialized minority in a white supremacist nation and the impact it has on physical and mental well being. His articles have been featured in numerous academic journals. Additionally, his work has appeared in Adoption Today, Religion Dispatches, Deadspin, and Your Black World, and he also published op-ed pieces in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. He is a regular blogger for Huffington Post, where he uses social media as a platform to advocate for social change. He has written widely from urban street culture to pop culture. Smith's most successful post explored the appropriation of black music by Justin Bieber’s rise to stardom. Smith has also written about the Ferguson Riots, which began shortly after the death of Michael Brown that sparked a national outcry against police brutality against young unarmed black men and woman.