Tamika Mallory Tells ‘Red Table Talk’ Black Women Are Often ‘Ignored’

Activist Tamika Mallory on 'Red Table Talk' (Credit: Facebook Watch)

Social justice activist Tamika Mallory believes the police killings of Breonna Taylor and Ma’Khia Bryant did not receive the attention they deserved because Black women are often “ignored” in society.

“If it was up to the world, Breonna Taylor would have been forgotten,” Mallory said on this week’s episode of Red Table Talk. “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.’”

Related Story: Black filmmaker Sues LAPD After Getting Shot With Projectiles at BLM Protest

Mallory sat down at the red table with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris to discuss the invisibility of Black women.

“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 Columbus, Ohio police officer Nicholas Reardon on April 20, after officers responded to a call about an attempted stabbing at a home. The teen later died of her injuries after being taken to a hospital. She was living in foster care at the time of her death.

Related StoryTrump Accuses LeBron James of ‘Racist Rants’ After Ohio Shooting Tweet

Mallory went on to tell the RTT hosts about her communications with Bryant’s biological mother and 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?”

Jada switched directions by asking the 2017 Women’s March co-organizer if she ever feels invisible as a Black woman.

“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 shortly after starting to organize the Women’s March 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.”

“It’s interesting when you talk about needing to turn up the temperature because I don’t know how many times I felt like I’ve had to turn up the temperature. And then you get ostracized for that,” Jada said.

“And then you get labeled as the angry Black woman,” Banfield-Norris chimed in.

Additional guests on the show included college professor Dr. Tressi McMillian Cottom, who believes she was treated like an “incompetent Black woman” by her doctors; Dr. Tamika Cross, who had a confrontation with a flight attendant, and others who shared their stories on racial profiling and insensitivity.

Watch the full episode of RTT below on Facebook Watch: