This month, Raven-Symone put her foot in her mouth…again. The once little Olivia from The Cosby Show and now co-host on The View had some downright rude remarks about people with “Black sounding” names. After a clip of the Top 60 Ghetto Black Names was shown on the talk show, Raven said that she would not hire a person with a name like the ones mentioned in the video. “I am very discriminatory against words like the ones that they were saying in those names. I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea.” This statement comes after she claimed to not be African American and referred to Africa as a country and not a continent last year.
Raven’s attitude towards “Black sounding” names is not anything new as there are many people that feel the same way. According to THE Journal, statistics show that Americans are likely to make racist assumptions based off of people’s names which Whoopi Goldberg mentioned before Miss Symone’s rant.
There are people all over the USA with “Black sounding” names but does that mean that they are not qualified for a job? In fact there are many students on Temple University’s campus with names that may seem “ghetto” to others. For those individuals with those unique names, who are persuing a degree from one of the best schools in the country, knowing that they may not even be considered for a job simply because of their name is probably nerve rattling. The fact that there are people who judge others because of the names they were given at birth is even worse.
Temple Update asked students around campus what they thought about what Raven had to say. Arionna Hart, a junior, said, “I think Raven-Symone has forgotten her Blackness growing up in a White ran industry…” Although the nearly thirty year old actress grew up in the industry, she always played an African American girl. From Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper to Dr. Doolittle and That’s So Raven, she was always Black in those shows. It seems that now that she is older, she wants to be perceived as different.
Of course in this day and age it is okay to be different but being rude has never been accepted. Hopefully Raven-Symone will apologize for her words, think before she speaks next time and also take into consideration that her name (Symone) has an alternative spelling.
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