Kindergarten Graduation Crowd Didn’t Clap for Black Student, Cheered for Others

Elementary school graduation ceremonies are all about accomplishments and progress, a step forward in a child’s life. But one recent kindergarten ceremony is being interpreted as yet another step back when it comes to societal acceptance and unity.

While recording her daughter walking across the stage, and then sharing it to TikTok, one mom noticed something unsettling — her daughter, who is Black, didn’t receive nearly the same applause as a white student. No one wants to make everything about race, but sometimes, we just can’t ignore it, especially when the division feels obvious. Here’s what happened.

TikToker @wendybblountt, who goes by Wendy, took to the platform in May 2025 to vent (and find out if she was overreacting) about a situation involving her kindergarten-aged daughter that left her feeling extremely unsettled.

Like most parents, Wendy filmed her child walking across the stage at kindergarten graduation, but there was one moment that stood out, and not in a good way — the applause.

At the start of her video, you can hear plenty of cheering and clapping from the crowd after a student was called up. But when the teacher announces Wendy’s daughter’s name, her tone noticeably drops, and so does the crowd’s reaction.

The applause also toned down quite a bit. Then comes another student, a white child, and the applause picks back up.

According to commenters, Wendy wasn’t imagining things. Many pointed out they also heard a clear difference in how her daughter was received. "The racism was very loud," one person wrote, while another added, "I definitely hear a difference."

Those two comments alone racked up over 60,000 likes, showing just how many people noticed that the claps faded for Wendy’s daughter, but not for the next child.

One viewer even called out the way the teacher announced the students. When Wendy’s daughter, Dakota, was introduced, the teacher didn’t exactly sound enthusiastic while saying Dakota wanted to be an art teacher.

But when Jack came up right after her, the tone shifted, and there was noticeably more excitement when the teacher said he wanted to be a scientist. "You can hear the enthusiasm in her voice when she mentions the little boy, yet she's dull speaking on her," pointed out one person, whose comment received over 23,000 likes.

And it seems like this wasn’t the first time Wendy felt race played a role in how her family was treated. She captioned the video, "This is just an example of what I’ve been dealing with in this neighborhood… SMH…" and tagged Houston as the location.

In a follow-up video, Wendy explained that her family is new to Texas, and shared some of the unsettling experiences they've had so far. After joining a local Facebook business page to promote her party planning company, she posted a photo from a child’s birthday party and was banned without explanation.

When she reached out to the couple running the page, the husband claimed she was "posting too much" and that "no one verified you lived here." He then asked her to send in her lease, even though she had already confirmed she lived in the community. Wendy gave them her address, but the Facebook admin continued to press her for more documentation to prove her residency.

Eventually, she was removed from the group and later received a message from someone accusing her of joining a neighborhood page she supposedly didn’t live in. On top of that, she claimed her daughter is often referred to as "that little Black girl" at school.

Given these experiences, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to believe the lack of applause for Wendy’s daughter was an accurate observation.