Raven-Symone’ seems to like catching fire. In a segment discussing racial driven hiring practices based on “black” or “white” sounding names while hosting The View, Raven-Symone’ uttered the Twitter equivalent of fighting words.
“Just to bring it back, can we take back ‘racist’ and say ‘discriminatory,’ because I think that’s a better word. And I am very discriminatory against words like the ones that they were saying in the video. I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It’s just not going to happen. I’m not going to hire you.”
This discussion is a continuation of the UCLA study that found men with “black sounding names” are thought as being bigger, and more violent. Like any good firefighter responding to a burning building, the social media response was swift and furious. Aside from tweets making fun of her appearance, many people pointed out the irony of Raven-Symoné discriminating against someone with a “black” name despite having good career opportunities in spite of her “black sounding” name, and unconventional appearance.
This sound bite adds to her lengthy resume of questionable pearls of wisdom. Raven-Symoné’s greatest hits include not wanting to be labeled as African-American—“I’m tired of being labeled. I’m an American. I’m not an African-American; I’m an American,” then saying she’s from Africa but getting confused over the difference between a country and continent— “I am from every continent in Africa except for one and I’m also from every continent in Europe except for one.” And of course, there’s the time she defended an anchor who likened Michelle Obama to a monkey. “Was he saying it racist-like? Because he said that he voted for her later, and I don’t think he was saying it racist… Michelle, don’t fire me from this right now, but some people look like animals. I look like a bird. So can I be mad if somebody calls me Toucan Sam?”
It’s obvious Raven-Symoné speaks in a lot of double talk and isn’t well versed in the reality of discriminatory and racist’s practices, though in her clarification/apology, she admits to being discriminated against because of various factors ranging from her body type, skin color, sexual orientation and age. She even goes on to say, “As an equal opportunity employer, I have never discriminated against a name… even though I said I would, it’s not true.”
When the child says things like this, it’s only natural to wonder what the parents think. Raven-Symoné’s father, Christopher B. Pearman, published an open letter on his Facebook page.
“Children grow up and become influenced by many things, situations and people. I certainly don’t agree with what she said… but she is damn near thirty years old. She’s a grown ass woman making grown ass mistakes. We all have been guilty of this. Her Mother and I Love her Very much and will always support her and have her back. Even if sometimes……….she says some dumb S#%T!.”
