“I fought it tooth and nail.”
These are the words that resulted from a think tank held between Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow and mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris over the latest episode of “Red Table Talk,” which featured YouTube influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli. It was the latter family member who expressed these thoughts and she had much more to say.
“I just found it really ironic that she chose three Black women to reach out to for her redemption story,” she continued. “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.”
Known for its blunt and most times revealing interviews, the conversation and Banfield’s thoughts about Jade spilled onto the table, where she was not shy about letting the YouTube influencer know exactly how she felt.
“I think for me it’s like there is so much violent dehumanization that the Black community has to go through on a daily basis,” Banfield Norris said firmly. “There is so much devastation, particularly this year, 2020 with the pandemic, and everything brought to the table about how there is so much inequality and inequity, that when you come to the table with something like this, it’s like, ‘Child, please.'”
Jade, whose parents, Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli, went to prison for forking over $500,000 to ensure their daughter was admitted to the University of Southern California in a huge admission scandal, was contrite after being aired out by Banfield.
The 21-year-old humbly offered, “What I am hearing from you is that there’s an interest and a desire to learn and figure out where you fit into the world and what your role is to make a difference.
“I didn’t come on here to like try and win people over and say, ‘I really need people to like me.’ I just want to apologize for contributing to these social inequalities even though I didn’t realize it at the time.”
