Who is Tamika Pratt? Her Role in Black Lives Matter Movement

Waqar Ahmad July 31, 2022

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Who is Tamika Pratt? Her Role in Black Lives Matter Movement — ‘All American’ is a TV series inspired by the real-life experience of Spencer Paysinger, an American Football player.

Tamika Pratt is a renowned name in ‘All American’. ‘All American’ is a TV series inspired by the real-life experience of Spencer Paysinger, an American Football player. The show’s story plot revolves around the racial discrimination faced by Black people residing around the world.

The show has currently aired its three seasons but already has caused havoc around the world and raised many moots. In one of the episodes titled ‘The Bigger Picture,’ the drama emphasized the correspondence between police and the Black people through Tamika Pratt’s murder.

If you are wondering who is Tamika and what happened to her, let’s dive into her story to find out!

Who is Tamika Pratt in ‘All American’?

In one episode of the third season of ‘All American’ a famous TV series, an African-American black woman known by the name Tamika Pratt is knocked down after being drifted off in her car.

Tamika’s incident appalled the main character Olivia played by Samantha Logan and she gets deeply dismayed by taking this into account.

While recollecting a scene in episode eight of the third season when Olivia gets intoxicated and gets into a car accident.

But as her mother is Laura Fine-Baker, who happens to be the District Attorney of Los Angeles County (portrayed by Monet Mazur), when the police got the wind of it, they decided to drive her home.

Olivia fathomed that Tamika wasn’t dealt with the same leniency as she was at full tilt and finds out that Tamika, who was also intoxicated at the time of her death, preferred to sleep so she may sober up instead of taking the wheel.

Olivia, startled by the inequity in treatment, soon feels a strong urge to join the ‘Black Lives Matter movement.

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Who killed Tamika Pratt?

The way Tamika’s story is narrated agonizingly reiterates the real-life tragedies that happened with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African-American people.

The young lady is said to have been killed by a police officer while she was dozing off in her car after being intoxicated.

The tragedy happens to align with a notable incident such as Derek Chauvin, the officer who was accountable for George Floyd’s death, was apprehended to prison for 22 years for the heinous crime he committed.

Still and all, the idea, the likeness of racial inequity and cop’s barbarity in the US, was hurled long before the scandal took place.

Olivia’s campaign for the Black Lives Matter movement emerged from her own experience with cops in a preceding episode.

Carroll dwelling on Olivia’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, several TV shows embodied the Black Lives Matter movement, systemic racism, and police barbarity. Nevertheless, you would be astonished to be aware that the showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll had flung Tamika Pratt’s storyline to the writers and penman in March 2020, before the cataclysmic Floyd incident rattled the whole nation.

In an interview with Entertainment, Weekly Carroll addressed the storyline while relating it to the reel shows taking this plot as it arises from the legitimate agitation of real people’s emotions.

Carroll herself being the mother of two young black boys, poured her heart out into this painstakingly dreadful script.

She articulated, “I hoped that by the time we got to this storyline that the thing I’d be battling the most is that it would feel outdated.”

Although, the eleventh episode broadcasted at a rather paramount and devastating point in time bearing into account the political turmoil in the USA.

On April 20, 2021, just half an hour before Derek Chauvin was condemned guilty in the court of law for brutally murdering George Floyd, another cataclysmic incident took place where a Black teen, Ma’khia Bryant, was lethally shot by the cops in Columbus, Ohio, which was equally rattling not just for the Black race but every conscientious person.

While addressing this peculiar incident with the TV Guide in April 2021, showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll voiced out that she had put out the storyline in March 2020, two months before George Floyd’s murder.

“I don’t know how I feel truthfully because these have been very difficult episodes to write, and to shoot, and to be immersed in and editing, while also being a parent of young Black kids”, she articulated to the publication.

She further added: “it’s one of those things where we pride ourselves on the show being an authentic portrayal of what youth, and especially Black youth, in America go through — both the trials and tribulations and the joy.”

“But this is kind of one of those times where you almost wish it had felt outdated.”

Carroll while thriving on the case further added, “It’s going to feel like I wrote it last week, and that breaks my heart because it means we haven’t made the forward movement that I was hoping.”

While in the first season of ‘All American’ in Episode 3 the plot also broached the relationship between the cops and the black community where two Black males Spencer and Jordan get halted by police in Beverly Hills. With Tamika’s storyline on board, Carroll particularly wished to ring up the curtain on the tragic experience of a young Black female, considering police incidents involving them do not get as much scrutiny as incidents with Black males appear to hoard.

The showrunner accentuated that Tamika Pratt’s story plot will droop over a few more episodes and entails more characters. As the story played out, Olivia leaks the bodycam footage of Tamika’s barbaric murder from her mother’s computer to corroborate that the cops accountable for the young woman’s murder are hauled into court for justice. This bold move of Olivia will prove to have some serious repercussions not just for her, her mother but possibly her whole family.

While continuing with Olivia’s move concerning Tamika’s justice Carroll remarked: “We were in a very unique position on the show because of the journey Olivia Baker’s been on, in terms of finding her voice and finding her power in social justice and activism and the fact that she’s a DA’s daughter — and not just any DA’s daughter, she’s a white DA’s daughter.

“We had a unique lens through which we could tell the story, and it’s not just in one episode, it’s a whole arc.”

Tanika’s real-life tragedies

While speaking for Tamika Tanya Pratt’s justice, the question arises whether the incident took place in real, no the storyline is fictional but the agitation it cause was most definitely real.

All American truly depicts the Police partiality and ethical crimes which were taking place in the United States. The reel story of Tamika where she was shot by the cop while she was asleep has an uncanny resemblance with the real storyline of George Floyd where the cop strangled him with his knee. The cop was hauled to court for his barbaric action and sentenced to jail for 22 years.

The other painful incident of the teenager Ma’khia Bryant who was shot by police outside her Foster home.