Utah teen shamed for wearing 'racist' dress to prom sparking cultural appropriation debate

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Keziah Daum is not apologizing for wearing what she calls a "beautiful" Chinese cheongsam dress to her high school prom, despite receiving backlash from thousands of people online, some of whom called her a "closet racist" and accused her of cultural appropriation.

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Daum, 18, posted an album of four prom pictures on Twitter on April 22 with the simple caption, "PROM." One of the photos in the album includes Daum crouching down in the traditional Chinese dress, posing with a group of her friends with their hands folded together — a gesture many deemed inappropriate.

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It didn't take long for the Internet to respond. As of Monday evening, Daum's post has been retweeted nearly 4,400 times and now she's fielding hundreds of angry comments.

"What's the theme of your life? Ignorant?" one user asked.

"This isn’t ok. I wouldn’t wear traditional Korean, Japanese or any other traditional dress and I’m Asian. I wouldn’t wear traditional Irish or Swedish or Greek dress either. There’s a lot of history behind these clothes. Sad," another added.

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But some followers didn't think Daum had the right to determine whether the gesture or dress was racist or not. "If you’re not Chinese don’t decide whether it’s racist or not," one Twitter user replied.

"If you're not Chinese then you have no right to speak up about this," another echoed. Some called on the teen to simply apologize and "move on." "I'm Chinese & think it's fine if u wore a qipao cuz it's pretty. But u need to apologize for the pose. It doesn't matter that u didn't mean any harm or that it wasn't ur idea,"

another agreed. "You did it cuz YOU were ignorant that it's offensive. Apologize for unintentionally mocking and move on," one Twitter user wrote. "You’re trying to make yourself the victim when all you had to do was apologize and learn," another added.

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