Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, is continuing to speak out against those she feels hustle off “Black death.” After losing her 12-year-old son in 2014 to a fatal police shooting in Cleveland, Rice has become an outspoken critic of the Black Lives Matter movement and social justice advocates she feels don’t do enough for the families left grieving the loss of their loved ones.
Back in March, Samaria Rice spoke out after activist Tamika Mallory appeared at the Grammy Awards for rapper Lil Baby’s stage performance. She blasted public figures like Mallory and accused her and others of “benefitting off the blood” of police brutality victims, Cleveland.com reported. She reiterated this stance during her recent interview asking, “Where was you at?”“All of the families should be getting therapy, and all of them should be getting the tools to speak for themselves, not have people speak for them,” she told The Cut in an interview published on Monday.
“They should not be standing on the front line like this was they child,” she said, as reported by The Grio
. “You supposed to be uplifting the family, the community, teaching us how to love on each other, not bickering and fighting about who gon’ get the next case or who gon’ be on TV next. It’s a mess.”She further criticized Tamika Mallory and brought up her referring to her social justice work as a “job.”
She also claimed to have never spoken to activist Shaun King despite his claims of raising money for the Rice family at their request. “I ain’t never talked to Shaun King a day in my life,” Rice declared in the interview, which ran on The Cut. “Shaun King raised all that money [for Tamir] and sent me a $60,000 check. I ain’t know Shaun King from a hole in the wall.”“I heard her say this is a job. Who hired you? Who sent you? Are you showing up as an activist or an entertainer,” Rice said.
As she fights to have her son’s case reopened and investigated after Donald Trump silently closed it during the final days of his presidency, Rice shared her hopes for leaders to show genuine support for those left broken by the system.
“I think they can make things right with the community and try to show the community that they are working and not just talking…you got these corporate people listening to you like you doing the work, and you not doing the work if you not in these streets,” she said.
Rice recently begged the Ohio Supreme Court not to reinstate, Timothy Loehmann, the former officer who killed her son, according to Cleveland 19.