TwitterHis name is Cayden Jace Jenkins.
This little boy from Atlanta, Georgia has become the subject of yet another racial controversy in America. After bringing him to work after school, his mother's coworker, who has been identified as Gerod Roth but uses the alias Geris Hilton, took a selfie with the 3-year-old toddler and posted it to his Facebook account on Sept. 16, sparking a viral controversy through online racial prejudice.
While there's nothing seemingly offensive about the image, which has since been deleted from Facebook, the racially-charged comments that accompanied the photo were downright disgusting.
"He was feral," Roth wrote.
"I didn't know you were a slave owner," one Facebook friend commented.
"Help feed this poor child today."
"I'll feed you but first let me take a selfie."
The comments continued to roll.
Cayden's mother, Sydney Shelton, didn't know the post existed until a coworker showed it to her a following day. She took the opportunity to properly introducer her son to the world.
"This is Cayden Jace! The love of my life, the apple in my eye, my EVERYTHING. All this lovely personality wrapped up into one small person's body. When people hear about them, these are the pictures I want them to know about, " Jace wrote in a caption for a collage of photos of her son and her sharing happier moments.
"We are above all this nonsense that has been going on. Cayden and I truly appreciate all of the love that we have been shown in the last 24 hours. You guys warm my heart, more than words could ever express."
She ended the caption with #HisNameIsCayden—the origin of the now trending Twitter hashtag, which hundreds of people have been using to retweet the photo and express their outrage.
As for Roth, he was fired from his job from Polaris Marketing Group. Michael Da Graca Pinto, president of the group, asserted in a statement that the company does not condone his behavior and that "it has no place in the world."
Still, Roth doesn't seem to realize the error of his ways. He maintained that he is not entirely at fault during an interview after the incident unfolded.
"I just really feel upset, not only with myself, but also the character that was based off the comments that my friends had made," Roth said in an interview with FOX 5. "Cayden has been victimized, but I have been targeted."