Mariah Carey
by Jeroslyn JoVonn

December 20, 2022

WATCH: Mom of Black Autistic Child Shares Son’s Happy Rendition of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’

Jennifer White-Johnson took to Twitter last week to share a video of her son’s winter concert where Knox, 10, stole the show with his excited rendition of Mariah Carey’s beloved hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You.”

“Timeline cleanse if you need one! Knox tonight at his 4th-grade school winter concert singing @MariahCarey ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’,” she wrote.

“#AutisticJoy on full display! My kid is everything! I hope Mariah sees this!!”

Knox’s performance caught Carey’s attention and garnered a response from the singing icon.

“Your kid IS everything!!!!!! Knox, you made my day. Your JOY gives me and everyone watching JOY,” Carey tweeted. “THANK YOU for reminding me why I wake up in the morning and do what I do. I love you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.”

Knox returned the love through a thank-you video to the “Queen of Christmas” that his mom shared on Twitter.

“Thank you, Mariah ,for making me feel so alive in my life. I’ve never felt so overjoyed in my life, Amen,” he said.

White-Johnson credited Knox’s charisma and love for life with the freedom and love she and her husband, Kevin Johnson, instilled in their son from an early age.

“We don’t want to shush our son and we don’t want to make it a point to say you’re being too loud when all he’s really doing is being happy,” Johnson told “good morning america.”

She touched on what it’s like raising a Black autistic child and how Knox has broken some of the expectations others placed on him.

“Even going further, with a Black autistic child, there’s certain expectations of what that child’s behavior is going to be like,” she explained. “I’ve even heard various people say that they’re surprised he can even emote to that degree because they didn’t think that young, autistic children could do that.”

White-Johnson continued:

“And it’s like, well, he’s still a human being and he has feelings and he has emotions that he’s excited to share,” she said. “And while he’s still navigating this kind of experience that he has, he knows that he’s free to explore what that means for him.”

Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas To All! concert special airs tonight on CBS and Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET.


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