Hodgetwins - Mom claims racism after teacher sings “Monkey” Happy birthday song to her son
Aired: 2025-10-04
Duration: 08:36


=== The Racist Birthday Song (07:04) ===

[00:00:00]  Hi Legend, did you have a birthday last week?
[00:00:03]  Yes.
[00:00:03]  Legend Whitaker just turned six years old.
[00:00:06]  Can we say happy birthday to you?
[00:00:08]  He attends Floral Avenue Elementary in Bartow, where his class and teacher celebrated with a song.
[00:00:14]  Happy birthday to you.
[00:00:17]  But what happened next?
[00:00:19]  Would you like the funny song now that I sing to you?
[00:00:22]  Stirred up hurt feelings and anger.
[00:00:24]  Happy birthday to you.
[00:00:27]  You live in the zoo.
[00:00:30]  You look like a monkey.
[00:00:33]  And you smell like one too.
[00:00:37]  Happy quiet, everybody.
[00:00:40]  Hey, that is wild.
[00:00:45]  You live in a zoo.
[00:00:47]  You little monkey.
[00:00:49]  Well, how did it go?
[00:00:50]  Let's hear that again.
[00:00:51]  Because I've never heard of that before.
[00:00:54]  I don't know, man.
[00:00:55]  It's been a long time since you was a kid.
[00:01:00]  You look like a zoo.
[00:01:04]  You look like a monkey.
[00:01:07]  And you smell like one-too.
[00:01:14]  That is crazy.
[00:01:15]  I never heard of that, but I did some investigating.
[00:01:20]  So this is a monkey.
[00:01:22]  You smell like one, too.
[00:01:23]  Hey, you live in a zoo.
[00:01:25]  You live in a zoo.
[00:01:26]  You look like a monkey.
[00:01:28]  And you smell like one too.
[00:01:31]  Man, you gotta be crazy to say that nowadays to a black kid.
[00:01:34]  Well, this is the thing.
[00:01:35]  This is like really popular in white communities.
[00:01:40]  Because it turns out they've been doing it for years, but nobody ever...
[00:01:45]  I wasn't exposed to that.
[00:01:47]  I didn't.
[00:01:47]  I think it's that.
[00:01:48]  And I heard it's in a children's movie.
[00:01:51]  Yeah.
[00:01:52]  You know what, Keith?
[00:01:53]  I think I do remember that when I was a kid.
[00:01:54]  They used to do that.
[00:01:57]  Now, look back on it, man.
[00:01:58]  It was being racist.
[00:02:02]  No, but it's not inherently racist.
[00:02:04]  It's just a, what's the word?
[00:02:06]  I think it's tone deaf.
[00:02:08]  Yeah, it's 2025.
[00:02:09]  Yeah.
[00:02:09]  It's sensitive as black people are.
[00:02:12]  If that's something you do in your white communities, you say, oh, look, we got a little Negro in there.
[00:02:17]  I'm going to sing it to him, man.
[00:02:18]  This is going to be funny.
[00:02:20]  We're going to treat them just like the white kids.
[00:02:22]  Yeah.
[00:02:23]  That's what you call equality, right?
[00:02:25]  Well, I don't know.
[00:02:26]  Let's see the rest of the story.
[00:02:31]  I don't think he liked it.
[00:02:33]  He liked it.
[00:02:33]  The happy birthday song, but he didn't like that.
[00:02:36]  She did a bait and switch on him.
[00:02:37]  So you want the funny song?
[00:02:39]  He was like.
[00:02:41]  No, no, he didn't want to say no.
[00:02:43]  No, watch his face turn.
[00:02:46]  What happened next?
[00:02:47]  Would you like the funny song now that I sing to you?
[00:02:50]  Stirred up hurt feelings and anger.
[00:02:53]  Happy birthday to you.
[00:02:56]  You live in the zoo.
[00:02:59]  You look like a monkey.
[00:03:02]  And you smell like one-too.
[00:03:08]  Well, it kind of spots.
[00:03:09]  I don't know.
[00:03:12]  Legend says the song hurt his feelings.
[00:03:14]  His mother, Desiree Prayther, says the teacher sent her the video and she went straight to the main office.
[00:03:20]  I automatically...
[00:03:21]  So that teacher's a blue.
[00:03:23]  You gotta be an idiot.
[00:03:28]  Well, she's tone deaf.
[00:03:31]  You're not very bright either.
[00:03:34]  Well, Kevin, she's today's climate, Keith.
[00:03:37]  She's not keeping up with black culture.
[00:03:40]  Honestly, she's not.
[00:03:42]  All right, let me keep this.
[00:03:43]  But I don't think they, I don't think she did that maliciously.
[00:03:47]  I don't think she did that.
[00:03:49]  I don't think that.
[00:03:50]  And I think that black woman, I think she coached her kid for the news show.
[00:03:54]  Kevin, people always posting like on Twitter where it's Freedom Speaks.
[00:03:58]  Be sit, people be posting pictures of us portraying us like two apes.
[00:04:06]  That hurts my feelings.
[00:04:07]  No, it don't.
[00:04:09]  Those people do not affect me.
[00:04:11]  But they're being racist, though.
[00:04:12]  They can be racist.
[00:04:13]  I mean, you gotta know.
[00:04:14]  I'm living the American dream.
[00:04:16]  Okay, I'm talking about.
[00:04:17]  So you can go on Twitter and they go two little ape twins right there.
[00:04:23]  You get upset.
[00:04:24]  No, but no.
[00:04:25]  Okay.
[00:04:25]  My question is this.
[00:04:27]  Okay, I'm going to read these comments.
[00:04:30]  Don't y'all know the history of the been calling black people monkeys and apes and chimps and chipping out and all that stuff?
[00:04:38]  Yeah.
[00:04:38]  Right?
[00:04:39]  Yeah.
[00:04:39]  I mean, you got to be, I mean, I guess I'm.
[00:04:42]  Living on a rock.
[00:04:49]  Yeah, okay.
[00:04:50]  Let's listen.
[00:04:50]  Chief, she crazy to send that to that kid's mama.
[00:04:53]  Yeah, but she's obviously she's oblivious.
[00:04:55]  But I'm telling you, do you agree?
[00:04:58]  She probably coached the kid to trump things up a little bit.
[00:05:02]  Of course.
[00:05:02]  Yeah.
[00:05:04]  As a black woman, you see that you live in a zoo.
[00:05:07]  You look like a monkey.
[00:05:08]  You smell like one, too.
[00:05:10]  This is racist.
[00:05:11]  That's what I'm saying.
[00:05:12]  She's like, yes, I hit the jackpot.
[00:05:15]  I'm going to get about 250 G's out of these people.
[00:05:19]  The main office.
[00:05:20]  I automatically said that's unacceptable.
[00:05:24]  And I don't feel, I don't think nothing's funny about it.
[00:05:26]  Prayer says there's a history of black people being described that way, which makes it extremely upsetting.
[00:05:32]  My skin is boiling.
[00:05:33]  I don't even like racism and to know where we come from and our ancestors.
[00:05:38]  And for us to be labeled like that because when they call us money, they basically saying that we're ugly, we act like a monkey, and all this and that.
[00:05:45]  I don't like that at all.
[00:05:47]  Polk County Public Schools District staff and the HR department are reviewing this.
[00:05:51]  I followed up with additional questions.
[00:05:53]  Like, is this the first time this teacher has sung this song to students?
[00:05:57]  And I also asked, while this is being reviewed, will the teacher still be in the classrooms?
[00:06:02]  I've not heard back yet.
[00:06:03]  I don't play games about my child.
[00:06:05]  In a letter to the school board, Prayther asked for an apology, immediate disciplinary action, and counseling for her son.
[00:06:12]  After receiving no response, she decided.
[00:06:15]  Yeah, she's trying to get the counseling to be evidence in her loss.
[00:06:19]  Yeah.
[00:06:20]  She's creating a paper trail.
[00:06:22]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:22]  Decided to show up in person.
[00:06:24]  Daddy just kept saying it's an active investigation.
[00:06:27]  They can't answer no questions.
[00:06:28]  Man, that nose ring is godballer.
[00:06:31]  Yeah, that damn investigation is closed.
[00:06:33]  What are you investigating?
[00:06:34]  The video, are you still investigating?
[00:06:36]  We already know who, win, and where.
[00:06:43]  So I don't think they was being intentionally being racist, but that's being racially racially insensitive.
[00:06:49]  Well, and they've been living on a rock.
[00:06:52]  You gonna sing it to a black kid and then send the video to his mama?
[00:06:58]  Do you want to get sued?
[00:07:01]  This woman, whoever sent that, has got to be a Democrat.

=== Calling a Black Kid a Monkey (01:30) ===

[00:07:05]  Gotta be.
[00:07:06]  What's Florida, Kevin?
[00:07:07]  No, but all these schools are filled with Democrats.
[00:07:11]  Man, a Republican.
[00:07:12]  Man, I ain't singing that to no black kid.
[00:07:13]  They're gonna call me racist.
[00:07:15]  Yeah, that's why I think maybe, I don't know.
[00:07:19]  You can't, like, white people, y'all got the high IQs.
[00:07:23]  Right?
[00:07:24]  But I don't think it's racist because they do that to the white kids.
[00:07:27]  It's just a tradition.
[00:07:29]  And I do remember a song come to mind.
[00:07:32]  I don't remember it.
[00:07:33]  I remember.
[00:07:34]  No, you don't.
[00:07:34]  They're saying, hey, you want the monkey song?
[00:07:36]  I said, y'all want the monkey song.
[00:07:38]  Happy birthday to you.
[00:07:40]  You live in a zoo.
[00:07:42]  You look like a monkey.
[00:07:43]  You smell like one, too.
[00:07:44]  I say, yeah.
[00:07:47]  I'm a little monkey.
[00:07:48]  I'm a little monkey.
[00:07:49]  I'm going to start chimping out.
[00:07:52]  That's crazy.
[00:07:53]  Yeah.
[00:07:56]  Obviously, she's looking for a payday.
[00:07:58]  Yeah, I think she's hurt too.
[00:08:00]  Because black people are sensitive about how they look.
[00:08:04]  I know I don't look like a monkey.
[00:08:07]  So that song's not going to offend me.
[00:08:09]  If you think you look like a monkey, that song's going to offend you.
[00:08:12]  If you think you look like a monkey.
[00:08:14]  You see what I'm saying?
[00:08:15]  I'm not saying you do look like a monkey.
[00:08:16]  Yeah, but that work, we were called monkeys, Kevin.
[00:08:19]  I mean, you've been called monkeys.
[00:08:20]  I don't deny that.
[00:08:21]  Yeah, I don't deny that.
[00:08:22]  We were called that growing up.
[00:08:23]  Yeah.
[00:08:24]  Spitchuck, all kinds of stuff.
[00:08:25]  Yeah, so, I mean, I could totally, I could actually see it from her point of view.
[00:08:30]  I can see it with her, too.
[00:08:31]  I can see it from white people's point of view because y'all really don't give a damn how black Black people