Friday, March 29, 2024

Activist Tamika Mallory on Why Black Women Are Often ‘Ignored’ [WATCH]

EURweb.com
Tamika Mallory, Twitter

*Social justice activist Tamika Mallory believes society prefers to ignore Black women, which is why the police killings of Breonna Taylor and Ma’Khia Bryant received a negative public reaction.

“If it was up to the world, Breonna Taylor would have been forgotten,” Mallory said on a recent epsidoe of Red Table Talk, as reported by Urban Hollywood 411. “She was murdered on March 13. I think because there was no video, a lot of people were like ‘Eh, you know, I don’t know.’”

Mallory dished with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris to discuss the role of Black women in modern society.

“Black women are ignored and disrespected in general. People don’t want to talk about Ma’Khia Bryant right now,” Mallory said. “They would rather say, ‘Well you know, she had a knife and it’s justified.’ And a lot of it is trauma.”

Ma’Khia, 16, was fatally shot by a white Columbus, Ohio police officer as she lunched at a woman while holding a knife. 

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

Mallory explained on RTT why she attended the teen’s funeral.

“The reason why I went is because I know that if she was 16-years-old and perfect – the ‘perfect victim’ – everyone would be all over it,” Mallory continued. “People would have been there to support. She deserves the same care and attention and for someone to advocate for her and her situation even though she may have had a knife, you know?”

When Jada asked Mallory if she feels invisible as a Black woman, the co-organizer of the 2017 Women’s March explained… “I think I feel invisible all the time… I’m loud, I talk a lot, I talk all the time, and they’re like, ‘You can’t be invisible, because we can’t miss you. You’re always there.’ But my feelings are not always valued, my opinion of things, I’m constantly having to raise my temperature in order for people to know that I know what I’m talking about,” she said.

Mallory also revealed she became addicted to anti-anxiety medications because she was having trouble sleeping.

“I started taking Xanax, taking whatever you could do to sleep, because that sleep is an issue when you’re stressed and not able to rest. Any pill that somebody would give me that had the ability to make you calm down and deal with anxiety, I wanted it,” she said. “I had to go to rehab, and while I was in rehab, they were like, ‘You need PTSD support because you’re having a problem that’s deeper than this drug.”

You can watch her full conversation on RTT via the clip above.

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