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Activist Tamika Mallory is speaking out after supporters of Breonna Taylor were divided over BreonnaCon, an event organized by Until Freedom, with workshops featuring several celebrities, activists and influencers.
Mallory and Until Freedom co-founder Linda Sarsour believe certain conversations around BreonnaCon are overshadowing the foundation’s work around Taylor’s death. In an interview with The Root on Sunday, Mallory remained vigilant that the event was created with the support of Taylor’s family and only seeks to keep Taylor’s case at the forefront of the work that has to be done surrounding police involved shootings and Black communities.
“There were no internal issues within Until Freedom about using the name,” said Mallory. “Especially not when Tamika Palmer (Breonna’s mother) and her family members and her family attorneys were here working with us when the concepts were developed,” she said.
“When one of the younger organizers suggested ‘Bre-B-Q,’ her mom, with tears in her eyes looked at me and said Breonna would love Bre-B-Q, that would be really special,” Mallory continued.
Mallory maintained that some of the celebrities who partook in the event were to engaged the public’s participation. Many took specific issue with an event titled, “Beauty, Money and Justice!” featuring Love & Hip Hop’s Yandy Smith-Harris, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams, and Tezlyn Figaro, a political strategist. Mallory, along with Smith-Harris and Williams have participated in several demonstrations to advocate for Taylor.
“The history of organizing has been using creative tactics to bring people into movements. Many of the women who came out to the women’s empowerment event yesterday were individuals who said they had never been to any of the protests. The influencers were used as a hook to get them in, but when they got there they learned about Breonna’s Law. They learned about what it means when we say to defund the police.”
The events are free and Mallory explained that collecting certain information, specifically names and passport information, was a safety measure due to the amount of trolling and threats they have received. On Saturday, Mallory said on members of the white militia demonstrated outside of their event.
Saturday marked the first day of the event, which runs until Tuesday, August 25. BreonnaCon features a series of activations including barbecues, food drives and empowerment events. On the final day, organizers will conclude with a march outside Louisville Metro Police Department’s training academy on Tuesday.
But as soon as BreonnaCon participants began posting the flyer, social media became immediately polarized. In the months after Taylor’s death, we have seen her image turned into a meme, which hugely overshadows the harrowing fact that she was killed by three Louisville Metro Police Department officers, who have yet to be held accountable for their actions, other than small disciplinary action measures. Whether you are divided over sending individuals to jail as a means of justice, it still remains that nothing essential has been moved.
Mallory did concede that she understood the concerns around the imagery and flyer for the beauty event.
Local activists of Louisville’s Black Lives Matter chapter have also expressed their disappointment with the event. They believe the work should also be centered around history specific to Louisville in terms of how the police interacts with the community.
“The people in the streets are the folks that got this moving,” Chanelle Helm, an organizer with the Louisville chapter said in an interview with WFPL. “It isn’t the people who have access to the boards, or the multimillion dollar nonprofits. It isn’t even the grassroots organizers. It’s the people who are seeking justice, not only for Breonna, but for themselves … and that’s who we should be moving with and assisting.”
“We have a huge trust problem when it comes to race relations, and how we build in our communities,” said Helm. “We just want to make sure that our people know at the end of the day that we still got them and that we’re always gonna be there for them, housing them, feeding them, fighting for them, doing what we can to make sure that they’re okay.”
But Mallory said that Until Freedom is not aligned with profiting from Taylor’s death in any way and is specifically holding space for residents of Lousiville.
“We have not taken any resources from this community, we’ve only deposited to this community,” she said.
