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Two "Dance Moms" Alums Are Calling Out Abby Lee Miller For Alleged Racist Remarks

Photo credit: Instagram
Photo credit: Instagram

From Seventeen

A Dance Moms alum is calling out Abby Lee Miller on Instagram, alleging that the reality show star made some racist remarks in the past.

Adriana Smith, whose daughter Kamryn Smith appeared on an episode of season eight of the hit show, told her story on Wednesday, writing to Abby, "don't act like you care."

"I recently posted on my [Facebook] that racism is not something we can disagree on and still be friends, which in turn is why we are not friends," Adriana wrote in her Instagram post. While Adriana doesn't ever say Abby's name, she mentions Abby's "cancer and jail time," as context.

"A statement from her that sticks in my mind to this day during my time of 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.'"

Adriana continued, writing, "That 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 high rank and all together superior to ME! This shows that you don't give a f*ck about me or where I came from."

She recalled another story from her time on Dance Moms as well. "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!' [Kamryn] told me she heard 'they needed a sprinkle of color.'"

"Poor baby!!!" she wrote. Adriana then spoke about her last interview for the show, when she was asked how Abby's comments made her feel.

"As tears streamed down my face I look over at my 7 year old and back at the camera and 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."

Adriana explained that her daughter was so upset that she had to leave the show. "She yelled at me and said, 'Mom now I don't even get to hang out with Jojo [Siwa] on the show, and I don't wanna leave my friends.' She said, 'Mom you ruined it. You ruined it for me.' Of course she was mad she was 7 and I felt so bad for her."

Later, though, Adriana said that Kamryn understood she had to leave. "My little 7 year old cried like a GROWN Black woman, and she stood up and said, 'Mom I understand and it's not right and I want to go home too..."

Former Dance Moms producer Kori Kingg responded to Adriana's claims in a Facebook post obtained by E! News.

"Some would say I should be quiet about this," she reportedly wrote. "But THIS THIS!?! THIS broke me as I was working on show and pregnant with my own black daughter. In hind sight, I too should have left. I should have stood with my sister, Adriana Janae Smith 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. It reminded me of when I 'found out I was black' at an age not much older than her."

Another alum, Camille Bridges, who was on season seven with her daughter Camryn, reached out to E! to say that her daughter also faced racism while working on the show.

"[Abby] tried to spin Camryn as being the poor one and there on scholarship. I shut that down immediately," Camilla claimed. "She loves appropriating our culture and never appreciating it. She did not give black choreographers on the show acknowledgment of their work. She continuously put Camryn in afros."

Camille said that "the environment was extremely hostile" on the show. She said they were "so relieved" when Abby left halfway through the season. "When she returned, I looked at Camryn and told her we're leaving. I didn't care anymore about the 'platform.' I was done," Camille continued. "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. It was a traumatic experience that I wish on no one."

These claims come amid the protests occurring around the world as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Abby Lee Miller, who has not responded to these women's statements, reportedly participated in #BlackOutTuesday on Instagram, but she later deleted the post.

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