Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tamika Mallory Responds to Samaria Rice’s Criticism of Her Grammys Performance

*An earlier report noted that Samaria Rice—the mother of Tamir Rice—called out activist Tamika Mallory for appearing alongside Lil Baby during his Grammy’s performance of “The Bigger Picture.”

The performance featured the depiction of police brutality, with actor Kendrick Sampson and Killer Mike also making an appearance.

In a Facebook post, per Insider, Samaria shared a clip of Mallory’s portion, writing… “Look at this clout chaser,” she said. “Did she lose something in this fight i don’t think so. That’s the problem they take us for a joke that’s why we never have justice cause of shit like this.”

Samaria has now teamed with Lisa Simpson, the mother of Richard Rishner, in releasing a joint statement accusing activists associated with the Black Lives Matter movement of profiting from the police killings of their children.

“We never hired them to be the representatives in the fight for justice for our dead loved ones murdered by the police,” the statement—which also called out activist Shaun King and attorney Ben Crump. “The ‘activists’ have events in our cities and have not given us anything substantial for using our loved ones’ images and names on their flyers.”

READ MORE: Samaria Rice Blasts Activist Tamika Mallory for Exploiting Black Death with Lil Baby [VIDEO]

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tamika D. Mallory (@tamikadmallory)

In a recent video with Mysonne, Mallory addressed the criticism, noting that she has made an effort to connect with Samaria privately.

“I have seen a lot of you who’ve been asking me to do what I always do, which is to be authentic and to come to you all and talk about some of what you have heard,” Tamika said in the video. “I want to just make sure that we start off grounded in the fact that nothing we say today is an attack against [Samaria Rice]. I want to make sure that is stated from the very, very beginning. Quite frankly, Ms. Rice is right.”

From there, Mallory acknowledges that the system has failed Samaria and other mothers of those killed by police.

“I support, 100 percent, how she feels and what she has stated in terms of her pain related to her son,” she said. “And, in fact, I think and I was going to say to you, I feel like we all have failed her … As a nation, I think that whenever a child or any person–but particularly a child—is killed, we should, this nation should have erupted. And the fact that she did not get the proper justice for her son would make anyone angry, so I totally understand [and] respect the trauma and pain that she feels as a mother.”

Mallory then explained that she will not fuel “divisiveness” within movements.

“I will never, ever allow my organization or my team … to be used as a tool in the master’s box,” she said. “I will never allow that. So if that’s what you’re looking for, you might as well turn away because it’s not going to happen.”

She also made clear that she is careful not to speak about cases that she and her team have no direct involvement with.

“[Samaria and I have] never actually sat down or had a phone conversation or met in any way,” she said. “So, therefore, I would never be so disrespectful as to speak about her child or to have a campaign that addresses her child or uses her child’s name to uplift any cause … To that end, I guess, Ms. Rice has said that she wants me to not speak of her child. And while I may not have been doing it in the past, I will be very, very, very careful going forward to ensure that I respect her wishes.”

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING