The women of “Teen Mom: The Next Chapter” left their homes for Florida on this week’s episode — and it didn’t take long for Cheyenne Floyd to feel like an outsider because of her race.
Not only was she the only Black star of the show to go on the trip — which also included Leah Messer, Briana DeJesus, Catelynn Baltierra, Amber Portwood, Maci Bookout and Jade Cline — but, as Jade noted when they went out to a honky tonk bar, she was also one of the only Black people anywhere they went.
It left her feeling pretty uncomfortable from the jump, before viewers watched her call her father Kyle to explain the situation. Saying they were filming “in like the middle of nowhere,” Floyd added that it was “feeling very awkward.”
“I feel like every room I walk in, I’m the only Black person and everyone turns and looks at me and it’s uncomfortable,” she said. “Where I’m at here, I don’t feel like the safe only Black person in the room. I don’t feel safe.”
“I can’t complain or I can’t say anything or then I’m like the complaining Black person,” she continued, as her father reminded her she shouldn’t hesitate to speak up about feeling uncomfortable. “What’s frustrating is that I’ve seen the Confederate flag since we’ve been here, on the shirts, in the market. I walk into a room, I find the exits, I see where my escape route is because I can see who’s around me. But, once again, the other girls, you don’t notice it because you don’t even have to look for it.”
The group later went to a rodeo, where Cheyenne was visibly disturbed by a man cracking a whip as he rode atop a horse. She walked out at that point, with Maci and Jade following close behind.
“It’s so uncomfortable on so many different levels,” she told them, before the show cut to her later that night venting to a Black producer on the show.
“Why is it I’m the only f—ing person who sees all the Confederate flags? Why am I sitting there? You saw it, I saw it. So, what the f—?” she asked, clearly upset. The producer, however, tried to convince her that the situation was “still worth a conversation” on camera, telling her, “because you’re working with all these white people and they don’t know it and they need to know it.”
“If they didn’t see it in the first place then that’s the problem. You saw it, I saw it,” she said, before sitting down with the other girls. “But, understand, you’re Black, I’m Black. Since we’ve gotten here, I’ve literally felt like the uncomfortable Black girl in the group, as always, I’m always singled out for being Black. Always!”
“It’s frustrating. But I can’t say that because that’s not politically correct,” she continued to both production and her costars. “I literally put my mom, my dad, Zach, my sister in a group chat and said ‘Help me.’ I’m so uncomfortable, this s—t is scary. This whole trip, I’ve tried to go with the flow, but this is so f—ing uncomfortable.”
She then asked the other girls if they noticed any Confederate flags at all at the rodeo, letting them know a ton of people were wearing them on their t-shirts. The ladies said they hadn’t.
“And that’s the difference. I can point them out and you guys don’t see it!” she continued. “The things people were saying that I hear, but no one else hears is uncomfortable. Too much for me. Way too much.”
She added that one person there, wearing a Confederate flag on their shirt, told her to “Go home,” before Briana said that neither she — a Hispanic woman — or her Black children had experienced any racism at the same rodeo before. She did, however, hear women around the group “talking s—” this time.
After Cheyenne brought up Jade’s comment about her being the only Black person at the bar, Maci said they would always leave with her if she ever voiced discomfort. “Understand that being where we’re at, being who I am, being the only one, you don’t get that voice all the time,” Floyd responded. “You don’t get that option. You have to stay where you’re at.”
Maci, however, said she would be more proactive about speaking up and removing them from any uncomfortable situations in the future as well, telling Cheyenne, “It’s not your job all the time.”
The conversation ended with Floyd asking aloud, “Why is it that we have to go through this?”
“Teen Mom: The Next Chapter” airs Tuesdays on MTV.
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