
Detroit girl goes viral for her impressions of Black icons
Clip: Season 52 Episode 12 | 6m 17sVideo has Closed Captions
Eight-year-old Rosie White gains national attention from her viral social media videos.
Robyn McKee, or Rosie White as she’s known online, has gained national recognition online for her video impressions of Black icons and captured the attention of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Obama. One Detroit’s Daijah Moss talks with Rosie, 8, of Detroit and her family about the inspiration, challenges and moments they’ve shared along the way.
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American Black Journal is a local public television program presented by Detroit PBS

Detroit girl goes viral for her impressions of Black icons
Clip: Season 52 Episode 12 | 6m 17sVideo has Closed Captions
Robyn McKee, or Rosie White as she’s known online, has gained national recognition online for her video impressions of Black icons and captured the attention of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Obama. One Detroit’s Daijah Moss talks with Rosie, 8, of Detroit and her family about the inspiration, challenges and moments they’ve shared along the way.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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An 8-year-old Detroit girl is doing her part to make sure Black history is celebrated all year long.
Rosie White is well known on social media for her impersonations of African American pioneers, both past and present.
"American Black Journal" contributor Daijah Moss caught up with Rosie and her family to find out what inspires her to recreate these moments in Black history.
- [Malcolm X] I'm the Minister for Muslim Temple number seven.
- [Police Officer] Never heard of you.
- [Malcolm X] Where is he?
- [Police Officer] Nobody here by that name.
- [Person] Wait a second, what is your name, fella?
- [Malcolm X] Don't worry about what my name is.
- We are content creators.
We call ourselves The Big Three, which is a nod on Detroit's automotive legacy.
We typically make videos about our culture.
This is our talent, Rosie, where we do movie portrayals, that's really popular on our content, Black history, anything funny that's, you know, culturally inclined with our community.
On Instagram, that's our biggest platform, and that has always been, you know, where we got the most love, and the most comments, or the most interaction.
Black history specifically is how we started.
Our first viral video was the Rosa Parks video, and it got about 580,000 views.
- One day I was trying to work, and then I hop on the bus, and then the driver tell me to sit on the back.
And then I said, "No, I'm not sitting on the back."
- It was an accident, you know, I was just reading her a paper from school, homework, you know, she's three, you know, read this package about Rosa Parks to your student, ask her, to your child, ask her what she learned.
And I, you know, said, "All right, Rosie, tell me what you learned."
And she said it back, every single word.
- So I was three, of course, she didn't know, she thought I wasn't listening.
So soon as she asked me, "Hmm, Rosie, tell me what you learned?"
I said everything to the end on that paper, everything.
So then she ran around the house, tried to find everything that looked like Rosa Parks.
And then she got her phone out, and then she told me, "Rosie, say it again."
And I said everything from the start.
And then everybody can ride the bus, and African can ride the bus now, me, Rosie Parks.
- We continued making the videos.
There were no worries, because she absolutely loved to do it.
I absolutely love to dress her, you know, Halloween, it's actually my favorite holiday, and it's because I like to dress up, I like to create, and then A'Blesyn's just so great with the camera, it just all came together.
- Our videos help because it's like, it's not only educational, but it's also fun.
So like, when you're watching it, you're learning, but you don't really realize that you're learning something.
- Every time when my mom write a script, I'm just learning about history, like every time, like, "He did this?
Oh wow, she did this, oh wow."
- Now what's going on, Robin?
- Well, my mom's teaching me about Black history, and I teach others.
- My favorite history is Carter Woodson, because he's the father of Black history.
Even my auntie, she gave me this book all about Black people.
And I was scrolling through it, and I saw a lot of important people that changed the world, like Carter Woodson, I did not know he's the father of Black history.
So I told my mom, "Mom, we should talk about Carter Woodson."
And she said, "We're gonna add that in our rap, the Black history rap."
♪ Carter Woodson led the fight ♪ To promote Black achievements ♪ ♪ And stop racist stereotypes ♪ Black, Black history (hands clapping) ♪ ♪ Black, Black history (hands clapping) ♪ My mom and sister inspire me, because they helped me out.
- Some of the things we record, they're fun, lighthearted, it is just cool.
And then some are like, "Oh, we gonna be here a while," like, yeah.
(Kenya laughing) - But with the Harriet Tubman video, we were on Belle Isle, in the midst of the winter time, and ice on the river, shooting that video, we were tiptoeing on grass.
- I was a conductor for eight years, of the underground railroad.
It was serious.
- We didn't have all the nice equipment.
I had a light, like a flashlight, so she can get a good lighting, 'cause it was dark, you know?
And Rosie had on like little, like this costume, and she was trying to get the best, she is really, really particular about her shots, so we were all just towing together, like.
- I am Harriet Tubman.
- It gave us the actual feel of what she did for our people, 'cause we were like complaining, and she did that on a regular basis.
- My work, as Moses, was serious business.
- We're more focused on people like, you know, more popular.
So it's really like a reminder, a refresher.
- Rosie videos are important because she's teaching more current state of people, and you know, not necessarily the horror that came with Black history, but the celebration that we are in now.
- We have two of the greatest businessmen in front of me.
All I can say is wow.
- We were doing this for family fun, so the outpour of love and support we're getting is really astounding.
- Hi, baby.
- Hi.
- You know Rosie?
- When people say, "Hey, I was having a bad day, thank you for your videos," my only response usually is, "Mission accomplished," because that's all we wanted.
- I want them, the boys and girls, to feel like they at school, by teaching Black history, like Carter Woodson, Rosa Parks, these people that changed the world.
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Clip: S52 Ep12 | 17m 34s | Renowned poet Nikki Giovanni talks with contributor Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ. (17m 34s)
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American Black Journal is a local public television program presented by Detroit PBS