Gammy, Jada Pinkett Smith and Willow Smith were joined for âThe Red Table Talkâ this week by activist Tamika Mallory for an episode titled âThe Invisible Black Women Epidemic.â
The woman discussed the implications of being a Black woman and girl in todayâs society and the repercussions of daring for our voices to be heard. Black women who are vocal and/or heavily opinionated are often labeled âangryâ or âdifficult.â
âPeople donât understand what feeling invisible means. Because itâs like Iâm loud. I talk a lot, talk all the time,â said Tamika. âSo people are like you canât be invisible. We canât miss you. Youâre always there. But my feelings are not always valued. My opinion of things, Iâm constantly having to raise my temperature in order for people to know that I know what Iâm talking about.
âItâs interesting when you talk about needing to turn up the temperature because I donât know how many times Iâve felt like I had to turn up the temperature and then you get ostracized for that,â Jada replied, before Gammy chimed in, âThen you get labeled as the angry Black woman.â
âThat stereotype breaks my heart because that has been stuffed down and repressed and then itâs like, âOh, youâre just an angry Black woman.â But itâs so much deeper than that,â said Willow.
Dr. Tamika Cross and Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom also appeared on the show. Cross opened up about her viral incident with Delta Airlines in 2016. Cross attempted to assist an unresponsive passenger but was prevented by one of the flight attendants.
âI raised my hand to grab her [the flight attendantâs] attention. She said to me, âoh no sweetie put ur hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we donât have time to talk to you,â I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks,â she told the ladies.
Also check out Malloryâs recent interview with The Shade Room below.
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