Photo: TikTok
Everyone in her comments has now gotten emotionally invested, waiting for the DNA test's results with bated breath.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on May 10, 2023
A mom on TikTok made a post recently that would eventually leave millions of people tuning back into her page to figure out the question even her partner is asking.
On April 22, 2023, Raina posted a video with the caption “stop denying,” and explained what she means in the video’s text overlay, which says “proving to my [baby daddy] that our daughter does look more like him.”
People suggest a DNA test after the dad doesn't believe their daughter is his.
The original video first shows a photo of their baby girl — an adorably chunky little baby — before morphing into an actual camera feed where the father sits staring. The point of the “morph” filter is to show how similar the baby’s face looks to his, but he’s not having it.
He shakes his head and quickly turns away from the phone, still in disbelief that the child is his, and it’s pretty obvious why he would think that. The baby appears white and has light skin while the father is Black and has darker skin.
Raina and thousands of commenters are adamant that they look alike, so much so that they’re calling for her to get a paternity test to prove her claims.
Raina also posted a comparison video of herself with the baby, suggesting they look more alike however viewers were divided. Some argued that the little one was more similar to her father—so now, everyone is confused.
There are calls all over the comments for the parents to conduct a DNA test, and with what originally seems like a joke, Raina uploads a third video showing her on the Walgreens website (or app) and ordering an at-home Paternity DNA test.
Now, with the teasing that Raina has done, people have gotten invested in the situation and want to know what the results of this potential paternity test are. While Raina continues to goad the naysayers in the comments, thousands just want to know the results.
Most—if not all—of the comments suggesting the man is not the child's father seem to be rooted in the idea that a Black man could not father a child that appears white but in the complicated world of genes and DNA this is absolutely possible. This belief is also the source of a unique form of racism experienced by parents and children who appear different in race.
A famous case in 2010 saw a Black couple living in London give birth to a seemingly white baby girl. According to the BBC, there are three potential reasons for the baby's unexpected appearance: "dormant white genes which entered both of her parents' families long ago, a genetic mutation unique to her, or albinism." Black parents can harbor a long-dormant Caucasian DNA from an interracial coupling.
However, in this case, it could be much simpler — Raina is not Black so it's very possible that her child wouldn't have dark skin either, even though she is absolutely still mixed race.
2017 research also suggests that it can take up to 20 months for a child's skin pigment to develop or change.
Raina and her baby's dad did end up getting a paternity test done.
On April 28, 2023, Raina uploaded a video responding to a comment that read “I’m suddenly emotionally invested in this situation. Sooo anxious for the results.” Her own caption for the video reads “Our appointment came up today and we’ll have the results in the next couple days or so. It will be up and I can’t tell you how excited I am to stunt on y’all.”
The video shows them walking into a LabCorp office where the doctor swabs the inside of the baby’s dad’s mouth, as well as the baby’s mouth.
Raina is convinced that once the results come back, she’ll be able to prove all the naysayers wrong once it comes back positive. However, it has now been nearly two weeks since the upload of that video.
There has been no update on the paternity test in nearly two weeks.
In fact, there hasn’t been a single post on Raina’s account, period. No upload, no video, nothing. In the comments of her last video, she’s been teasing that they know the results, but there’s still been radio silence.
Last Thursday, May 4, 2023, Raina commented that she would post the results the next day, and then the next day, she told someone to “come back tomorrow,” and then nothing.
Some people claim that her silence means the test results came back with unfavorable results. “It’s Saturday now boo-boo where [are those] results? Cause [he’s] not the father,” someone commented. Someone else commented a show of support, saying “It’s been 3 tomorrows! I’m loving the engagement y’all are getting,” implying that they’re withholding the results just to farm more views.
Considering her last video — the one at the doctor’s office — now has more views than the original video, sitting at 5.4 million, this is a strategy that could work well for them. However, she might want to think about uploading the results soon lest she is forgotten by the ever-changing TikTok algorithm.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.