Raven-Symoné Addresses “I’m Not African American” Claim That’s “Haunted” Her For A Decade
Raven-Symoné feels her comments from a decade ago about not wanting to be labeled as an African-American were taken out of context.
On the latest episode of her podcast, Tea Time With Raven and Miranda, the former child star clarified her controversial comments from her sit-down with Oprah on Where Are They Now?, which she confessed “has haunted me since 2014.”
Raven declared, “A lot of people thought I said that I wasn’t Black. And I never said that.”
When asked by Oprah about labels and a tweet that could be perceived as the actress “coming out,” Raven shared, “I don’t need a categorizing statement for it. I don’t want to be labeled gay. I want to be labeled a human who loves humans. I’m tired of being labeled — I’m an American, I’m not an African American. I’m an American.”
On the podcast, Raven clarified, “Now, when that aired, I felt like the entire internet exploded and threw my name in the garbage. There was so much backlash from my community and others that misunderstood slash didn’t hear the exact words that I said.”
She noted, “When I say that African American does not align with me — that label – It doesn’t mean that I’m negating my Blackness or I’m not Black. It means I am from this country. I was born here. My mom, my dad, my great-great-great-great-great — that’s what I’m saying. The pure logistics of it. I also understand how much blood, sweat, and tears they soaked into this earth in order to create the America that I live in today — free, happy, tax-paying American citizen.”
The Cheetah Girls star rehashed the topic after her Where Are They Now? clip resurfaced during a Real Time With Bill Maher segment that spotlighted Idris Elba’s sentiments on how people “are obsessed with race” because he doesn’t consider himself to be a “Black actor.”
Watch Raven’s full breakdown above.
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