A teen who said her parents cut her off financially for dating a black student is getting support from strangers across the country through a crowd funding page set up to help her pay for college.
Allie Dowdle, an 18-year-old high school senior, created the GoFundMe page in response to her parents' punishment.
Supposedly, racism died eight years ago. Unfortunately, there are countless stories since that election that prove the contrary.
When Dowdle showed her parents a picture of Swift, though, she was instructed never to see the young man ever again.
On her Go Fund Me site, Allie describes that her parents responded by "stripping me of all my resources including my personal savings, my car, my phone, and my education and leaving me on my own to pay for college." Although it appears that she is still being supported through her graduation from the private high school that she had been attending.
While Allie had earned several scholarships, she started a Go Fund Me page to help cover the remainder of the expenses of her first year of college.
Many have questioned whether fundraising to send a privledged white woman to college does anything to prevent racism. While Allie may not be getting future help from her parents, she will always have the private K-12 education and the color of her skin to put her ahead of many of her peers.
In that NY Daily News interview, Dowdle said that his daughter was "spoiled" and that “it became obvious that she needed to go out in the world and grow up.” Within that interview, though, he did concede that dating a black man may not have been his "preference." What got the father angry, he claimed, is that the couple started seeing one another in secret.
Do you think Allie is spoiled and deserves to be cut off from her family? Do you think Allie's approach of fundraising under the theme of "Say No to Racism" is appropriate? If you want to do more to stand up against racism and send deserving youth to college, consider making a donation to the NAACP.
Everyone should take note that the fight against racism can be won.
