People are sharing a Facebook post from an Aboriginal mother in Cairns, Australia, who has labelled the controversial "blackface parenting win" from last week nothing more than a child's admiration for his hero.
Social media was full of outrage last week when screenshots of the West Australian boy in blackface went viral.
But in Bec Bee's post, she alleged that the little boy was not acting from racism or discrimination, but instead out of idolisation of "a man who has achieved great successes even during pain."
"Unfortunately now this little boy who has been shown by the dark skinned community that his admiration for a black man is unacceptable and has learnt racism," she writes.
"I grew up in communities, out bush, in towns, cities have been over exposed to direct and indirect racism, we cannot expect people or generations to change unless we change or [sic] reactions!"
Bee accompanied the post with a photo of her young daughter's face painted white to resemble the "Thing" characters from Dr Seuss books.