Jada Pinkett-Smith joins her daughter, Willow Smith, and mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, on the cover of ESSENCE magazine’s March 2019 issue. This upcoming month is all about girl talk, and who better than Jada, Willow, and Adrienne to serve as experts on the subject?
The three women are quickly becoming household staples with their Red Table Talk series on Facebook Watch. Some believe that Jada, Willow, and Adrienne’s show is filling a void that the Oprah Winfrey Show left when it stopped airing in 2011. Red Table Talk, however, comes with a slightly different approach.
Jada, Willow, and Adrienne are not encouraging their viewers to make dozens of drastic changes to start living their best lives. Instead, the women are calling fans to have honest conversations that pay homage to their past life experiences in hopes of the future being a bit brighter. The talk is definitely turning into a revolution of the sort.
“Everybody has a place at the table because there’s not just one perspective,” Jada tells ESSENCE of her show’s format. “That’s what makes the show awesome to me,” she adds.
Sometimes there are disagreements as to who should be allowed to have “a place at the table.” The most recent discussion on white privilege led Jada onto a bit of a slippery slope in terms of true allies and frenemies. The celebrity mom brought up the instance of Anne Hathaway speaking out after learning of Nia Wilson who was killed by a white man on account of her status as an African-American woman. Anne called for white people such as herself to enact change.
Jada attempted to shed light on the actress as an example of white women who are “allies,” but she was swiftly shut down by her daughter and mother. “It is trust issues,” Willow said during the talk. Adrienne affirmed her granddaughter by saying, “and rightfully so.”
Jada Pinkett-Smith did not give up on her concept but rather proceeded to explain what she meant. “I understand that,” she said. “But at some point, when are we as black women going to be able to recognize an ally,” she asked.
You can catch Red Table Talk every week on Facebook. Read Jada Pinkett-Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Banfield-Norris’ full spread in the March 2019 issue of ESSENCE, which is available on newsstands nationwide this Friday (February 22).
Photo: Saint/ESSENCE
