Coco Jones is being praised for handling racist taunts with grace.
The “ICU” singer and actress was in New York City, serving fashion and beauty during a September New York Fashion Week photo shoot, when trouble arose.
Jones, 28, wore a Tommy Hilfiger blue denim mini skirt, a white fitted button-up with a plunging neckline, a navy blue blazer, and black slingback heels.
Her hair flowed to mid-waist length in loose curls. One person described her as “Barbie chic.”
However, the former Disney actress still faced a harsh critic.
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Footage circulated on social media shows Jones capturing content in the ensemble near a busy intersection.
A woman is overhead yelling, “Ewwww,” as Jones posed next to a Manhattan street light.
The disruption caught the singer’s attention, but she did not respond; instead, she smiled and said, “Thank you.”
It is unclear whether she was speaking to a separate off-camera bystander or misinterpreted the heckler’s “Ewwww” as an expression of approval.
Nonetheless, the heckler’s attempt to derail the “Bel Air” star’s photo shoot continued.
“Ugh. Got dang. Ugh. You’re really so freaking Black!” the woman exclaimed.
Jones initially glanced at her antagonizer. She didn’t stoop to her level, avoiding any chance of confrontation.
Instead, she locked her gaze on the camera, uttered “I’m Black and I’m proud,” and moved through various poses.
By the time the individual yelled out, “Blackie,” Jones and her team were ready to move to a different location.
“That strut after the insult was pure power move, she turned ugly energy into a runway moment. I live for turning a bad reaction into content that actually works in my favor, some of us just know how to flip a room,” read a reaction expressing approval of Jones taking the high road.
The short clip ends with Jones back in her hotel room, high-spirited and beaming after a successful day at Fashion Week.
Her fans agreed that she bough beauty and grace to the “concrete jungle,” especially considering the racism she faced.
An X user tweeted, “The fact that someone tried that hard to get a reaction and she just glowed right past them is insane. like imagine putting all that energy into hate and the person you’re targeting is too busy being stunning on a photoshoot to care. she made it look effortless, which means it definitely wasn’t.”
The entertainer previously spoke about dealing with colorism in the industry. For a time, she felt the lack of representation contributed to hardships in her career.
“I definitely feel like the industry for dark-skinned Black women has gotten better and better, especially since I was a young girl,” she told People in 2023.
Another fan reaction read, “The camera person should’ve swooped around and caught the person saying it so we can see for ourselves. CoCo did right and paid her dust.”
Another social media user commented, “I’m glad she ignored that and kept going!”
Jones married Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell in August.
The pair began dating in 2023 and announced their engagement in 2025. Their Greenwich, Connecticut, wedding was attended by friends like Ciara and Russell Wilson and several NBA superstars.
Coco Jones kept her cool and showed NO energy to a racist hater who randomly started insulting her while she was doing a photoshoot in the streets of New York
https://t.co/p59gYXsr32
— Slime
(@ItsKingSlime) October 21, 2026
Coco Jones Has the Perfect Response to Heckler Who Hurled Racial Insults During NYC Photo Shoot
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