A white mother who was heard telling her adopted black daughter to carry a bag of rice on her head because ‘it’s in your blood’ has defended her comments after she was blasted online.
Kaylee Wilson, who has four daughters, two of whom are black, appears to have justified her words by saying ‘they are proud to be African.’
‘We’ve spent over 2 years living in various African countries learning the culture and spending time with the people,’ Wilson wrote in a followup post to her Instagram together with the African flags of Ghana and Nigeria.
‘They don’t get offended, and they LOVE when we partake in their culture. We look forward to moving back to Lagos soon!’
Wilson’s words came after she posted video of her nine-year-old daughter, Wella, struggling to balance a bag of rice on her head while shopping at a warehouse store.
‘Put it on your head, like an African,’ Wilson begins.
‘Come on, come on. You have to know how to do this. This is like in your blood,’ she tells her as the youngster struggles to place a 20lb bag of Royal Basmati rice on her head.
The girl could be heard saying ‘ow!’ upon feeling just how heavy the bag is.
A caption appears over the video stating, ‘We will do more training once we get to Nigeria.’
The video then cuts to Wilson attempting the same task and who also notices the sheer weight of the sack of rice when attempting to place it on her head.
‘Oh that’s pretty heavy! Oh gosh!’ she says aloud, before walking off down the aisle balancing it on top of her.
Online commenters were not impressed with Wilson’s choice of words towards the child she adopted in 2016 and came down hard on her.
‘It’s in ur blood was not cute thing to say to her,’ wrote one poster.
‘If this is what you willingly film I wonder what happens in privacy,’ added another.
‘You have no shame. That poor baby deserves so much better. Praying she finds a loving and caring family she deserves. Rather than being EXPLOITED repeatedly by the so called ‘family’ that adopted her,’ wrote a third.
‘The fact that you don’t know why your words are insensitive tells me all that I need to know… the historical context is so far beyond people being ‘offended’ or ‘sensitive,” another commented.
‘This is SO disrespectful, even IF she is an African since when is something from her culture IN HER BLOOD? Carrying a bag of rice is NOT in her blood!’ one follower stated.
‘I am AFRICAN and live in Africa and my parents have NEVER made me carry a heavy bag on my head. How carrying heavy bags on our head is in our blood, according to you, is diabolical,’ chastised another.
In another recent posting on social media, the family revealed how they are planning on adopting a third baby from Africa later this year.
It will see the family move to Nigeria for at least six months whilst the paperwork for their new adoptive child is completed.
‘We have realized even more the past couple months that adopting children is our main calling – to go get the children that God highlights to us and bring them back to our homestead to heal and be loved and raised in our family,’ Wilson wrote.