Abby Lee Miller Accused of Vicious Racism by Dance Moms Stars
Last month, Abby Lee Miller announced that she is done with Dance Moms, for good. That may be for the best.
As more and more people call out racism in our society, multiple alums from the show are pointing the finger at Abby for vicious, hateful behavior.
Adriana Smith, daughter Kamryn Smith, took to Instagram to share a difficult but important message.
"I recently posted on my FB that racism is not something we can disagree on and still be friends," she begins.
"Which in turn is why we are not friends," Adriana explains.
She is referring specifically to Abby Lee Miller, whom she accuses of saying vicious things to both her and her young daughter.
"A statement from her that sticks in my mind to this day"
"during my time on DMS8"
"is ‘I know you grew up in the HOOD with only a box of 8 crayons, but I grew up in the country club with a box of 64—don't be stupid"
"This my friends is not something or a statement that can be googled."
"Ask yourself what does that mean?"
"This to me shows that you think you are better than me and in higher rank and all together superior to ME!"
"Do you remember you told me, ‘Do you want me to tell you why you are really here?'"
"LOL as if I didn't know…again showing your superiority. Let me remind you what you said in case you forgot."
'You told me to ‘LOOK in the MIRROR! That's the only reason you are here!'"
"Kam told me she heard ‘they need a sprinkle of color!'"
"As tears streamed down my face, I look over at my 7 year old and back at the camera," Adriana narrates.
"And," she describes, "say, this is my EVERYDAY life as a black woman. This is nothing new to me."
"But what I'm not going to have happen is have this racist person have any part of my daughter's life as of this moment," she affirms.
"At that moment, I knew that it was more important for me to show my daughter that she had to stand up for what's right," Adriana states.
"And," she continues, "not care about anything else."
"But in that interview, my little 7 year old cried like a GROWN black woman," Adriana recalls.
"And," she describes, Kamryn "stood up and said, ‘Mom I understand it's not right here and I want to go home too….'"
That is absolutely heartbreaking, and Adriana is not the only one who remembers that moment with pain and clarity.
Former Dance Moms producers Kori Kingg also spoke on this, responding to Adriana's recollection on Facebook.
"Some would say I should be quiet about this. But THIS THIS!?!" her post begins.
Kori writes: "THIS broke me as I was working on show and pregnant with my own black daughter."
"In hind sight," she admits, "I too should have left."
"I should have stood with my sister, Adriana Janae Smith," Kori writes, "and supported gorgeous baby Kam and left too."
"Seeing a 7 year old little black girl be put in a box in a corner and treated so violently because of the color of her skin was heartbreaking," she says.
Kori remarks: "It reminded me of when I ‘found out I was black' at an age not much older than her."
By that, she means that she found out that the world would view and treat her differently -- worse -- for the color of her skin.
Camille Bridges, mother of Camryn Bridges, also addressed Abby's behavior to E! News.
"[Abby] tried to spin Camryn as being the poor one and there on scholarship." she recalls. "I shut that down immediately."
"She loves appropriating our culture and never appreciating it," Camille adds.
"She did not give black choreographers on the show acknowledgment of their work," she accuses. "She continuously put Camryn in afros."
Camille admits that she "cannot remember everything."
However, she confirms that "the environment was extremely hostile with her there."
"We were so relieved when she was gone especially when we thought she wasn't coming back," Camille reflects, referring to Abby's incarceration.
Abby's recent story has been her cancer battle, but before that, she spent months behind bars.
"When she returned," she shares, "I looked at Camryn and told her we're leaving. I didn't care anymore about the ‘platform.'"
"I was done," Camille affirms. "The woman is a mess. She is incredibly two-faced."
"She would say the most terrible things on camera, then tell Camryn how she was better than the girls on the team, mainly the ones she trained," she says.
"It was a traumatic experience that I wish on no one," Camille concludes.
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