This week, Jada Pinkett Smith decided not to mind her own Black business, inviting Olivia Jade Giannulli on Red Table Talk (hosted by Jada Pinkett-Smith, her daughter, Willow Smith, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris). Olivia was invited on the show to give an interview about her college admission scandal. Olivia was caught up in a scandal when her parents, Mossimo Giannulli and Lori Loughlin (known for role as Rebecca on Full House), thought instead of their daughters actually using their intelligence to get into college, they would give a “donation” of $500,000 to the Key Worldwide Foundation so that their daughters would be admitted to the University of Southern California under the guise of joining the rowing team. News of the bribe eventually reached the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office. Loughlin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and was sentenced to two months in prison and must pay $150,000 fine. Mossimo Giannulli was sentenced to five months in prison, 250 hours of community service and fined $250,000. Please note, as a couple, Loughlin and Giannulli net worth is estimated to be between 70-100 million dollars. They are going to be just fine. It seems White people always allowed to fail forward.
As her parents serve out their sentences, their daughter Olivia felt it was time to speak to the public. Out of ALL the media outlets she could have contacted, she decided coming on a talk show hosted by three Black women was her best option.
When Jada spoke to her mother and daughter about Olivia’s appearance on the show, her mother, Adrienne, showed WISDOM and said, “I fought it tooth and nail. I just found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story. I feel like here we are, a White woman coming to Black women for support when we don’t get the same from them. It’s bothersome to me on so many levels. Her being here is the epitome of white privilege to me.”
And Jada quickly felt the need to put on her White Savior Entanglement Cape and say, “I understand where you are coming from but let me just be clear. I never want to be the thing that was done to me by White women. I never want to be that.”
Girl, please.
Jada, on your WORST day, you can NEVER be “the thing” White women have been historically and presently to Black women. EVER. And inviting a privileged White woman on Red Table Talk isn’t going to make White women collectively see the light and change their ways.
Jada Pinkett’s mother is right.
THIS AINT OUR DAMN BUSINESS!! And why Jada felt it was her business baffles me. Newsflash, Jada, a rich, attractive, White woman, is ALWAYS going to have a platform. White women are ALWAYS going to be allowed to be the victim. There was no need for Jada to roll out the red (Table) carpet for Olivia to plead her case. There is no need for Black women to be entangled in that scandal.
For 2021, Black women, please mind the business that minds you. As the 2020 election results have SHOWN us (once again), White women are going to continue to do what works BEST for them. And it is long overdue for Black women to do what works BEST for us. Our days of “fixing it” are over!
Categories: Current Events, Thoughts, Musings and Reflections
@hannahdrake THANK YOU!!! You are as always 100% correct! 🥰
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I’m a 47yo white woman who originally majored in religious studies with a concentration in epistemology & Hausa Islam at a public liberal arts college who until I discovered this blog thought I was a deeply critical & enlightened thinker. Hell, Istudied Chinewa Achebe and Uthman don Fodio in college. Embraced Catholic Jesuit liberation theology, gave money to southern poverty law, crushed on Paul Mooney, and hung portraits of the Obamas around my house . Threw a fit & balled my eyes out at age 19 when a Korean friend insisted all white people are racist before realizing a year later he was right. ALL that, and yet until reading it here, Jada Pinkett’s mother’s point about inappropriateness of appearance since white women will always having a platform would NEVER have independently occurred to me. In fact 98% of this blog’s points haven’t. And they should’ve have were I the enlightened person I thought I was. In so many ways, I remain THAT white woman Hannah writes about. I may try and do better but there is no complete awakening from indoctrination that deep. I’ve long maintained that most bigotry dies out before it changes, but this is the first time it occurred to me that applies to me, too. I’ve long fantasized about human extinction for all the suffering we’ve heaped on non-human species. A better fantasy in that case is for white folks to go first. No violins here – I’ve led an unburdened life. I‘ve just come to believe reading this blog that the scale of racism is yet another injustice beyond the human condition’s capacity to right. In the meantime, do long as you keep up this important work, I’ll keep listening .