Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, took to social media to criticize Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump, and other well known social justice activists following Mallory’s appearance during Lil Baby’s Grammy performance.
The rapper performed his song “The Bigger Picture” during Sunday’s (March 14) awards ceremony and featured a depiction of police brutality with Insecure actor Kendrick Sampson. Later in the performance, Mallory and Atlanta rapper Killer Mike appeared, with Mallory delivering a spoken word act.
Samaria Rice reportedly posted to a Facebook account that People, Insider, and more previously reported as belonging to Rice with strong rebuke of Mallory and others.
“Look at this clout chaser,” she wrote. “Did she lose something in this fight i don’t think so. the problem they take us for a joke that’s why we never have justice cause of sh–t like this.”
Samaria Rice also called out prominent civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt in another post, calling them “ambulance chasing Attorneys.” She added “i hope not another family soul used y’all to represent them.”
Social media reacted to Rice’s criticism, some highlighting Mallory’s reported efforts that were seen as controversial last year following the death of Breonna Taylor.
Shaun King wrote a blog post in response to Samaria Rice’s comments, to which others offered critique.
Prior to Samaria Rice’s social media posts, Lil Baby released a statement describing his intentions for the performance at the Grammys. “My performance is important to me and I have to make sure it was right,” he said in part.
In November of 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by two white Cleveland police officers. Rice’s death was captured on security cameras and shared widely on social media. Last year, the US Department of Justice declined to bring federal criminal charges against the officers.
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