Thursday’s ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’ saw Cheyenne grapple with how to handle discussions of race with her young daughter, after revealing the 7-year-old was herself the victim of racism.
Cheyenne Floyd was forced to teach her daughter, Ryder, a tough lesson about the world early on in life.
On Thursday’s all-new episode of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter, Cheyenne revealed that Ryder, whom she shares with ex Cory Wharton, was called a racial slur during a playdate.
Ryder, 7, was at an indoor play place — which Cheyenne would not name — when she says a little boy called her the N-word and told her to get out of the way.
The shocking revelation not only brought up tough feelings for Cory and Cheyenne, it forced the pair have a conversation about race with Ryder early — and a conversation about race with each other.
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“It’s hard because we can’t control the ignorance of other people,” Cory told Cheyenne during a sit-down between the two. “Daddy didn’t respond well to when I was called that growing up, you know what I mean?”
“Right,” Cheyenne agreed. “But I remember growing up, multiple conversations with my parents of them talking about race.”
While Cory called Cheyenne “lucky” that she had those conversations in her home growing up, the reality star said that growing up biracial, with a Black father and a White mother, he didn’t have as much of an open dialogue when it came to race in his home.
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“In my house it wasn’t like that,” he shared. “I was raised by my white mother. We never talked about color. Even when these situations would arise and I would be getting racist phone calls–“
“Would you tell your mom?” Cheyenne interjected.
“Not really. I would just keep it all in,” Cory admitted.
The shocking and candid conversation sparked something greater within the co-parents. Cheyenne gathered her husband Zach Davis, and Cory and his longtime partner Taylor Selfridge together for a call with B the Growth founder Brittany Hogan, and Color of Change, in the hopes of gaining more tools and knowledge for all the members of Ryder’s blended family to be able to handle future situations.
After suggesting that one of the easiest ways to teach some of these lessons to Ryder would be through books, Cheyenne sat down with the 7-year-old and read her a story about about overcoming adversity.
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“She’s still a kid, so everything to her is still a story. I just want her to hear the stories and to empower her,” Cheyenne said in a confessional. “Maybe one day something happens at school and [she] just picks it up from the story and she says, ‘Well I did this because the story did this.'”
Encouraging Ryder to stand up for herself and others, the mother-daughter duo turned the traumatic moment into more than just a learning lesson, but one that was empowering and impactful.
Teen Mom: The Next Chapter airs Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET on MTV.
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