#RedTableTalk The Grace of Black Women
There but for the grace of God go I and Black women; both pour into you and replenish.
Jada Pinkett Smith invited Jordyn Woods onto her Red Table Talk platform to speak her truth. The 21-year-old is at the center of the latest Kardashian drama. For more than a week, Jordyn has been gossiped and smeared since it became public knowledge that she hooked up with Khloe Kardashian’s baby daddy, Tristian Thompson. Jada offered her the opportunity to set the record straight in her own words.
Khloe barely let the episode finish before she blasted Jordyn as a “liar” and blamed her as the reason why her family is broken up. Yeah, okay. My spidey senses tell me that the Kardashian’s are more than just angry about the transgression but also that Jordyn had the resources to shape her narrative. Hollywood and the world at large finds women, especially Black ones, disposable. Not on Jada’s watch.
In my life, Black women have always stood in the gap for me. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I’ve never been in jail or scandalous for days to the point I’d end up plastered on TMZ, but mistakes nonetheless. I’m grateful for the blessing of being able to be forgiven and start anew. That is the reciprocity Jada showed to Jordyn. She didn’t throw away a young woman who didn’t kill anyone or whose behavior hasn’t met the threshold of being a social pariah.
Jada could’ve easily sat there and ate her popcorn like everyone else. Instead, she held space for Jordyn.
Most of us don’t have the celebrity machine to keep us going but just each other. This is especially true for Black women. We hold each other down. We are the ears when others won’t listen and consider our voices angry. The shoulders to lean on when backs are turned. Just a simple hand to hold when you want the warmth of another. We’re the strong ones who make it a point to check in with the other strong friend. We put on our dirty capes to fly in for the rescue.
To be clear, it isn’t always pain and agony. It’s just that too much of the time, we’re deprived and we deny ourselves heaven. There are so many microaggressions to wade through before we can just exhale and breathe in peace. When those moments come, my joy is a mirror. I see happiness genuinely reflected back at me. They definitely make me laugh out loud from the pits of my belly. I’m grateful and humbled by Black women, even prouder to be one.
A lot of folks got off on this latest episode of the Red Table Talk because it served tea. The grace was my main course because sometimes, we’re all that we’ve got.
