Mom Slams White Teenagers For Racist Caption On Photo Of Her Son

A mother in Louisiana is speaking out after a white teenager shared a Christmas photo of her black son with a racist caption.

According to reports from KTBS, a photo of two high school students carrying Sharon Martin’s five-year-old at a Christmas event at Byrd High School  surfaced on Instagram recently, and it included an offensive caption. A screenshot of the since-deleted photo–which shows two white teenagers holding Martin’s son–reveals that the caption read, “A Ghetto Christmas Carol.”

The mother said that she didn’t appreciate the racist undertone in the caption. “Really? Ghetto?” Martin said to the station. “Why? Because he’s black? I don’t know if they were trying to be funny or what,” she continued. “I don’t get it. I didn’t get it. Like why would they just write that? They could have left the ghetto part out and I would have been probably okay with it.”

Her son’s cousin, Danny Martin, also voiced similar concerns over the caption calling the five-year-old, “ghetto.”

“He’s five years old. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t know what’s being said. He doesn’t know about all the comments, posts on social media. He doesn’t know that. So it’s my job as his cousin to protect him from seeing that and also to protect any other child that’s affected by this that’s been happening anywhere in Shreveport.”

The child’s mother also added that she did not give the high school consent to take pictures of her son, though it’s still unclear as to why the child was at the event in the first place.

In response to the backlash, the mother of the teenager who posted the caption ended up issuing a statement to the station, apologizing for her son’s caption and the entire incident.

“Our son was referring to the title of a song that is popular among teens,” the mother’s statement read. “He had no intention of being malicious or hurtful to anyone, especially the child photographed, whom he has already written a letter to apologizing for the whole incident. Although, he did not intend to be hurtful toward anyone, his father and I feel that some counseling regarding cultural sensitivity is warranted.”

In addition, the Caddo Parish School Board–which oversees Byrd High School–also released its own statement to the station.

“The administration of Byrd was made aware of the post and immediately took action, contacting the parents of the student and the student,” the statement reads. “The post has been taken down. Caddo Schools does not condone and strongly opposes the comments made by the student. While we cannot speak to individual student disciplinary actions, administration has addressed the situation.”