How These White Celebrities are Raising Black Children
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
A woman who called a Black child a slur has raised a backlash but also thousands of dollars
A video showing a Minnesota woman openly admitting to using a racist slur has garnered millions of views. A crowdfunding effort has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the woman relocate her family. The flurry of monetary contributions has reignited multiple debates, from whether racist language and attacks are becoming more permissible. The Rochester Police Department investigated and submitted findings to the Rochester City Attorney’s Office for “consideration of a charging decision,” spokesperson Amanda Grayson said in a statement. But shifts in the political and cultural climate have emboldened some people to express racist and bigoted views against people of color or those they consider outsiders, an expert says. The donations did and did not surprise Dr. Henry Taylor, director for the Center of Urban Studies at the University of Buffalo. The latter is about holding people accountable for actions that cause injury, the former is about “consequence culture,’ he says, referring to “cancel culture’ “That is what many people want to see this woman in this case’’
NOTE CONTENTS: This story contains a term that refers to a racial slur.
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A video showing a Minnesota woman at a playground last week openly admitting to using a racist slur against a Black child has garnered millions of views. Maybe equally viral has been a crowdfunding effort that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the woman now relocate her family.
In the video, a man in Rochester, a city roughly 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Minneapolis, confronts the woman for calling a 5-year-old boy the N-word. The woman appears to double-down on the racist term and flips off the man confronting her with both of her middle fingers.
The woman, who could not be reached for comment, has since amassed over $700,000 through Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo for relocation expenses because of threats she received over the video. The fundraising page said she used the word out of frustration because the boy went through her 18-month-old child’s diaper bag. The Associated Press has not verified this assertion.
“I called the kid out for what he was,” she wrote, adding that the online videos have “caused my family, and myself, great turmoil.”
The flurry of monetary contributions has reignited multiple debates, from whether racist language and attacks are becoming more permissible to the differences between “cancel culture” and “consequence culture.” Many want to see the woman face some sort of comeuppance for using a slur, especially toward a child. Others say despite her words, she does not deserve to be harassed.
The NAACP Rochester chapter started its own fundraising campaign for the child’s family. The GoFundMe page had raised $340,000 when it was closed Saturday per the wishes of the family, who want privacy, said the civil rights organization. It was speaking on behalf of the family of the child, who the organization said was on the autism spectrum.
“This was not simply offensive behavior—it was an intentional racist, threatening, hateful and verbal attack against a child, and it must be treated as such,” the NAACP Rochester chapter said in a statement.
The Rochester Police Department investigated and submitted findings to the Rochester City Attorney’s Office for “consideration of a charging decision,” spokesperson Amanda Grayson said in a statement Monday.
GiveSendGo did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Some say defending the woman defends racism
The donations did and did not surprise Dr. Henry Taylor, director for the Center of Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo.
But shifts in the political and cultural climate have emboldened some people to express racist and bigoted views against people of color or those they consider outsiders. A more recent backlash, from the White House to corporate boardrooms, against diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives have amplified those feelings.
The racism “hovering beneath the surface” comes from blame, Taylor said. “People are given someone to hate and someone to blame for all of the problems and challenges that they are facing themselves,” Taylor said.
The volume of monetary contributions in the Rochester case is reminiscent of the surge of support for individuals like Kyle Rittenhouse, Daniel Penny and George Zimmerman. Rittenhouse, Penny and Zimmerman were cleared of wrongdoing or legally found to have acted in self-defense or in defense of others — Penny and Zimmerman after the death of a Black victim and Rittenhouse after fatally shooting two white protesters at a racial justice demonstration against police.
Backlash against ‘cancel culture’ persists
In the woman’s case, a contingent of supporters just want to fight cancel culture, said Franciska Coleman, an assistant professor of law at University of Wisconsin Law School, who has written about cancel culture and social regulation of speech. For some it can include donating to anyone who people are trying to “cancel,” Coleman said.
Some people are focused on how “it just seems too much that this mother of two young kids is getting death threats and rape threats,” Coleman said.
Conservative commentators have gone online to applaud her for not capitulating to angry internet mobs while acknowledging she used a hateful word. “No one’s excusing it. But she didn’t deserve to be treated like a domestic terrorist,” conservative podcast host Matt Walsh said in a Facebook post.
Some fight over justifications and consequences
There’s an important distinction, Coleman said, between “cancel culture” and “consequence culture.” The latter is about holding people accountable for actions and words that cause injury such as with “this poor child.”
That is what many people want to see in this Rochester woman’s case. Because a formal system of punishment may not impose consequences for the woman’s racist behavior, people who support cancel culture believe that they “have to do it informally,” Coleman said.
She and Taylor agree that, in conventional societal thinking, using racist slurs against someone who has frustrated or even provoked you is never acceptable. Those who think otherwise, even now, are seen as being on the fringes.
But donors on the woman’s GiveSendGo page unabashedly used racist language against the boy, prompting the site to turn off the comments section. Others excused her behavior as acting out of aggravation. There are communities where the racial slur is only unacceptable in “racially mixed company,” Coleman said.
Social media websites and crowdfunding platforms have helped people around the world speak with each other and with their wallets. It’s intensified by the anonymity these platforms allow.
“Feeling that no one will know who you are enables you to act on your feelings, on your beliefs in an aggressive and even mean-spirited way that you might not do if you were exposed,” Taylor said.
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This story was first published on May 7, 2025. It was updated on May 8, 2025, to make clear that Franciska Coleman, an assistant professor of law, was expressing an opinion of a certain group, not her own, when she said people who support cancel culture feel they have to informally impose consequences.
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Tang reported from Phoenix. Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Woman Who Appeared to Hurl a Racist Slur at a Child in a Viral Video Has Raised Over $600,000 in Donations for Herself
Shiloh Hendrix, the White woman who appeared to hurl a racist slur at a Black child in a now viral video, has raised more than $600,000 in donations for herself on a fundraising page. Hendrix appeared to call a 5-year-old child the N-word at a park in Minnesota last month, and she now claims her family has been “attacked” and they may need to “relocate” The fundraising page was initially flooded with donations from people expressing racist beliefs and sympathies in public notes that accompanied their donations. The City of Rochester shared a statement about the incident in a Facebook post on Thursday, May 1, writing that officials were “aware of a deeply disturbing video recorded at one of our City parks that contains racial slurs.” The fundraising goal was originally set at $50,000, but it has since been increased to $1 million after that initial amount was reached.
Hendrix appeared to call a 5-year-old child the N-word at a park in Minnesota last month, and she now claims her family has been “attacked” and they may need to “relocate”
The fundraising page was initially flooded with donations from people expressing racist beliefs and sympathies
A White woman who appeared to hurl a racist slur at a Black child last month has raised more than $600,000 in donations for herself on a fundraising page.
Video of the Minnesota woman, who has since been identified as Shiloh Hendrix, began circulating on social media after she seemingly called the 5-year-old the N-word on a playground in Rochester on Monday, April 28, according to NBC News.
The man recording the video, who has since identified himself as Sharmake Omar, told the outlet that he knows the boy and his family, and the child is on the autism spectrum.
In the video, Omar can be heard confronting Hendrix, who is seemingly holding her own child, after she allegedly used the slur.
Hendrix, who uses the N-word several times in this video, exclaims, “Mind your f—— own business,” and then claims that the 5-year-old child “took my son’s stuff.”
As Omar asks Hendrix if she thinks that merits calling “a little child” the N-word, she replies, “If that’s what he’s going to act like.”
Swings (stock image). Getty
After the altercation went viral, Hendrix set up a fundraising page which she titled “Help Me Protect My Family,” on GiveSendGo.
She claimed in the page’s description that she is now in a “dire situation.”
“I recently had a kid steal from my 18-month-old son’s diaper bag at a park. I called the kid out for what he was,” Hendrix wrote, contending that members of her family were “being attacked” and her personal information, including her address and phone number, had been leaked.
She asked for funds “to assist in protecting my family” and potentially “relocate.”
Hendrix’s fundraising goal was originally set at $50,000, but it has since been increased to $1 million after that initial amount was reached, according to CBS affiliate KIMT.
The fundraiser raised at least $624,000 as of Sunday, May 4.
In an update to the page, Hendrix expressed gratitude for the “overwhelming support” that she and her family received, stating, “I’ve never felt so scared, yet reassured in my life.”
The GiveSendGo page was flooded with people expressing racist beliefs and sympathies in public notes that accompanied their donations, which prompted the crowdfunding service to mute the comments section, The Washington Post reported.
In a statement to the outlet, Jacob Wells, the founder and chief executive of GiveSendGo, said the company “does not endorse or condone the personal views or actions of individual campaign organizers or their supporters, nor do we control the motivations of donors.”
Swings (stock image). Getty
The City of Rochester shared a statement about the incident in a Facebook post on Thursday, May 1, writing that officials were “aware of a deeply disturbing video recorded at one of our City parks that contains racial slurs.”
“The City of Rochester is firmly committed to fostering public spaces that are inclusive, welcoming, and safe for all residents and visitors—spaces where individuals of all backgrounds can relax, play, and connect with friends and neighbors,” the statement continued, adding that the Rochester Police Department (RPD) was “actively looking into the matter.”
PEOPLE reached out to the RPD for comment on Sunday, May 4, but did not receive an immediate response.
‘I’m Just Their White Daddy’: Teddy Swims Opened Up About Preparing To Raise A Mixed Child
Singer Teddy Swims and his girlfriend Raiche Wright are expecting their first child together. Swims said he doesn’t know how to give advice on raising a biracial child as a white man. But he hopes to be supportive in any way he can to help his child navigate their life being safe and open. You can find Swims’ full interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast. The couple confirmed their relationship in July 2024, and they announced their pregnancy at the start of 2025.. Coco Jones, who was also a guest on the show, chimed in and said, “You got some soul on ya, dog. You’re white with seasoning [laughs].’“I know that kid will go through struggles I never went through. You have to play it as it goes,” he said.
Neilson Barnard / Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Wright, who is mixed race (Black and white), and Swims, whose real name is Jaten Collin Dimsdale, confirmed their relationship in July 2024. They announced their pregnancy at the start of 2025.
During a recent interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast, the “Lose Control” artist shared how he plans to navigate conversations about raising a biracial child as a white man.
Frank Hoensch / Redferns / Getty Images
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“We get looks all the time going places,” Teddy said. “Especially her [referring to Wright]. She’s got a Black dad and a white mom. She’s shared with me so many times about how it feels. She’s like, ‘I’m never Black enough or I’m never white enough.’”
Erika Goldring / Getty Images for BMI
“She’s gone through a lot more. She’s a way better person to tell that story, especially to my child. I would never want to tell that story for her, because she’s so elegantly living through that and knowing what that’s like.”
He went on to say that while he’s used to the stares they’ve received, he knows it affects her more than it does him, because it’s something she’s dealt with her whole life.
Michael Buckner / Variety via Getty Images
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And while he can’t shed light on what it means to walk through the world as a person of color, he does hope to help his child navigate their life being safe and open.
“I hope I can create that safe space. I know that kid will go through struggles I never went through. You have to play it as it goes. I’ve never been through being mixed, so I don’t know how to tell that kid how to deal with that.”
Christopher Polk / Billboard via Getty Images
“I’ll only be as supportive as I can and tell him, ‘Son, daughter, cis-baby, whatever it is — be you, baby. Be you. Be whatever you want to be. Be whatever feels authentic to you. Don’t let nobody tell you different. Don’t let nobody tell you you’re not allowed to be this or that. That’s all I can really do until we get there.’”
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He playfully added, “I don’t know how to give advice on being a mixed baby. I’m just their white daddy [laughs].” Which is when Coco Jones, who was also a guest on the show, chimed in and said, “You got some soul on ya, dog. You’re white with seasoning [laughs].”
I appreciate how honest his point of view was. You can tell he doesn’t want to speak on an experience he’s never had, but he’s still wants to be supportive in any way he can. Instead of retelling stories he’s heard from his girlfriend, he wants to give Wright the space and opportunity to do that for herself.
You can find Swims’ full “Club Shay Shay” interview below:
Celebrities With Trans Kids, From Charlize Theron to Naomi Watts
Michelle Visage spoke about parenting a trans child at the 35th GLAAD Media Awards in March 2024. In response to Trump’s anti-trans executive order seeking to redefine gender at a federal level, Visage wrote an Instagram Story saying, “You will not erase my child” Marlon Wayans first revealed that his eldest child Kai uses they/them pronouns in a November 2023 appearance on The Breakfast Club. “As a parent, I just want my kids to be free: free in spirit, free in thought, free to be themselves,” he said at the time. Jennifer Lopez introduced her child Emme Maribel Muñiz with they/Them Pronouns while performing at the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation’s Blue Diamond gala in 2022.
“It’s an even better child, because they’re authentically themselves,” Visage said. “Just love your kids and it’ll magically cure everything.”
In 2025, in response to Trump’s anti-trans executive order seeking to redefine gender at a federal level, Visage wrote an Instagram Story saying, “You will not erase my child,” as Attitude reported. “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king,” she added. “The palace becomes a circus.” — James Factora
Marlon Wayans
Marlon Wayans Opens Up About the Importance of Supporting His Trans Son “As a parent I just want my kids to be free – free in spirit, free in thought, free to be themselves.”
Yes, the comedian who famously starred in 2004’s White Chicks has a trans kid. And in a heartwarming turn of events, Wayans is extremely supportive of his child. He first revealed that his eldest child Kai uses they/them pronouns in a November 2023 appearance on The Breakfast Club. “As a parent, I just want my kids to be free: free in spirit, free in thought, free to be themselves,” he said at the time. “The more you know yourself, the more you live your truth, the happier your existence. So if they can’t get that in a household with their father and their mother, how the fuck do I send them out into the world with that kind of confidence?”
During a 2024 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Wayans continued to model supportive parenting by candidly describing his path toward acceptance, as People reported at the time.
“Those are my babies,” Wayans told Hudson of his children. “I went through the five stages of grief to get to the beautiful, magical place called acceptance.” (Elsewhere in the interview, Wayans joked that Kai is “the same child they was before — they just got a beard now. Okay? Same baby.”)
In February 2025, Wayans went head to head with Soulja Boy after the rapper made homophobic remarks about him and transphobic remarks about his son. Posting a screenshot of Soulja Boy’s remarks, Wayans wrote, “You know you can get cancelled for transphobic slander like this… Fortunately for you that you don’t have a career.” — James Factora
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez Used They/Them Pronouns to Introduce Her Child on Stage “They’re my favorite duet partner of all time.”
In 2022, Jennifer Lopez introduced her child Emme Maribel Muñiz with they/them pronouns while performing at the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation’s Blue Diamond gala. Joking that she doesn’t get to perform often with her child because “they are very, very busy, booked and pricey,” Lopez said that “they’re worth every single penny because they’re my favorite duet partner of all time.” The two then took the stage and performed a cover of “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.
Elon Musk is upstaged by his son in sweet moment during White House visit
Elon Musk brought his son, X Æ A-12, to the White House on Tuesday. The 4-year-old ran around the Oval Office and mimicked his father. Elon was there to push for funding cuts to federal agencies. The tech billionaire is also a father to nine other children. He welcomed X with his former girlfriend, Claire Elise Boucher, who goes by the stage name Grimes. X was born in May 2020, two years after the pair first crossed paths at the Met Gala. The pair also have a third child together, Techno Mechanicus Musk, born in June 2022, and his parents have opted to keep him out of the public eye. They also welcomed a daughter via surrogate in December of that year.
The new head of the Department of Government Efficiency brought his son, X Æ A-12, to the Oval Office to watch the president sign an executive order requiring that all federal agencies cooperate with Elon’s department.
The tech billionaire donned a simple outfit despite the setting, opting for black jeans, a black coat and a dark shirt, complete with a black cap and black dress shoes.
WATCH: Elon Musk Family Life
His son, who goes by X, wore a camel coat with black pants, a blue collared shirt and a blue sweater to stave off the cold.
X was blissfully unaware of the room he had been brought into and proceeded to run around the office with childlike mischief. He even mimicked his father at one point as he was answering questions from the media.
Trump paid X a compliment after seeing his antics, calling him a “high IQ individual”.
© Getty Images Elon’s son joined his dad at the White House on Tuesday
Elon defended the president’s latest executive order to the press, stating that: “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get.”
Fans of the Tesla Motors CEO took to Twitter (which Elon bought and renamed X) to express their delight at the growing young boy.
“Elon Musk’s kid stole the show in the Oval Office today,” said one user, while another called the display “cuteness overload”.
© Getty Images X ran around the Oval Office while Elon answered questions from the press
This wasn’t the first time that the world had seen little X’s antics: he also charmed crowds at Trump’s pre-inauguration rally, where Elon spoke about his plans for the four years ahead.
Elon welcomed X with his former girlfriend, Claire Elise Boucher, who goes by the stage name Grimes. He was born in May 2020, two years after the pair first crossed paths at the Met Gala.
Despite their breakup in September 2021, the couple welcomed a daughter via surrogate in December of that year. In line with her older brother’s computing-themed name, their daughter was named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, and given the nickname Y.
© Getty Images The 4-year-old mimicked his father
They also share a third child together, Techno Mechanicus Musk, who goes by Tau; he was born in June 2022, and his parents have opted to keep him out of the public eye.
Elon is also a father to nine other children. He welcomed six kids with his first wife, Justine Wilson, whom he married in 2000 and split from in 2008.
They sadly lost their firstborn, Nevada, at just 10 weeks old; he passed away from complications related to sudden infant death syndrome in 2002.
© Getty Elon and Grimes welcomed X in May 2020
Elon and Justine then welcomed twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004, the latter of whom has been outspoken about her views against her father.
The former couple also welcomed triplets Kai, Saxon and Damian in 2006.
Finally, he shares three children with Shivon Zilis: twins Strider and Azure, born in November 2021, and an unnamed child, born in 2023.
Source: https://www.theroot.com/how-these-white-celebrities-are-raising-black-children-2000055399/