The mother of Keaton Jones is defending herself against accusations she is ‘racist’ after photos emerged of her and her family posing with Confederate flags.
A video of Keaton went viral after his mum, Kimberly, uploaded a heartbreaking video of him talking about being bullied, on her Facebook page.
The devastating video has been viewed millions of times, with many people commenting to offer support to Keaton and Kimberly, including a host of celebrities – Justin Bieber, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo.
In the video, Keaton spoke out about how he was too frightened to go to lunch after cruel bullies ‘poured milk on him’ and shoved ‘ham down his clothes’.
Keaton says these attacks were on account of him ‘looking different’, with the bullies telling him he was ‘ugly’.
Keaton cried as he revealed he had no friends, asking the questions all too many of us have asked at a difficult age: ‘Why do they bully? What’s the joy in it’?
Posting on Facebook, the angry mother wrote about the fear Keaton had experienced at the hands of bullies:
For the record, Keaton asked to do this AFTER he had me pick him up AGAIN because he was afraid to go to lunch. My kids are by no stretch perfect & at home, he’s as all boy as they come, but by all accounts, he’s good at school.
Talk to your kids. I’ve even had friends of mine tell me their kids were only nice to him to get him to mess with people. We all know how it feels to want to belong, but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere.
Before long, people had spotted other photos on Kimberly’s Facebook page, including photos posed with the Confederate flag and guns with the caption: ‘I stand for the flag’ – which have now been deleted.
Responding to the backlash, Kimberly told CBS This Morning:
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She said:
I feel like anybody who wants to take the time to ask anybody who I am or even troll through some other pictures, I mean I feel like we’re not racist.
I mean, people that know us, know us.
It was meant to be ironic and funny and extreme. I am genuinely truly sorry. If I could take it back, I would.
Keaton’s sister, Lakyn, has also taken to social media to insist her family are not racist – and in another tweet explains an Instagram account believed to be her mother’s is nothing to do with them, nor are the GoFundMe pages.
The Instagram account was deactivated some time on Monday after MMA’s Joe Schilling posted a screenshot of a conversation with the user, who wrote to him ‘what happened to us whites sticking together?’
One GoFundMe account which had been set up has also been shut down following the backlash, the page had raised more than £45,000.
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