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‘The View’ Responds To Petition To Fire Raven Symone

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 03:48 PST, Oct 31, 2015

Raven Symone is no stranger when it comes to finding herself in the midst of a controversial firestorm. She speaks her mind, many times upsetting viewers with her opinions. Therefore, it was no surprise when a petition was started, urging the daytime talk show The View to remove Symone from their panel.

Che Scott-Heron of London created the petition on Change.org, petitioning Barbara Walters to have Raven Symone removed from The View.

“Raven Symone has been spouting her ignorant and self hating spiel on the view for Long enough, from stating that she wouldn’t hire somebody for having a ghetto name, to openly complaining about reverse racism, the final straw was her comment about the recent viral video of the school police officer assaulting the student, where Raven Symone said “get off your phone in school then,” Scott-Heron wrote.

“African Americans and black people around the diaspora need a voice representative of their views and not a voice representative of what white people want us to say. We need strong black rolemodels in prominent positions on television an Raven Symone cannot provide that. That is why I ask that we petition to remove her from The View.”

The petition has now garnered 116,927 supporters, leaving only 33,073 needed to reach their intended goal of 150,000. It was originally created after Symone made several comments at a rountable discussion, seeming sympathizing with resource officer Deputy Ben Fields, who recently made headlines when a video of him slamming a teenage girl to the ground went viral.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, when the topic of Ben Fields and the Spring Valley High School assault was brought up, Symone decided to share her thoughts and opinions on the incident.

“The girl was told multiple times to get off the phone,” Symone said during the round table discussion. “There’s no right or reason for him to be doing this type of harm, that’s ridiculous. But at the same time, you gotta follow the rules in school. First of all, why are there cell phones in school? This shouldn’t even be a problem to begin with, and he shouldn’t have been acting like that on top of it.”

Raven’s fellow co-host, Michelle Collins, did not agree with her comments, and said, “You cannot lay a hand on a student.” Raven continued by giving a complete rundown of Field’s record, making it seem as though she was agreeing with Collins. However, she again started sympathizing with the officer.

“He was actually sued for false arrest, excessive force and battery in 2007 after a couple accused him of manhandling them,” the former That’s So Raven star said. “He has a record and he’s still hired, but at the same time, get off your phone.”

Symone’s comments outraged viewers, and sent social media into a frenzy, with many people calling her comments “ignorant.” However, despite the backlash she has received, and the large number of signatures on the petition, a representative from The View told Gossip Cop that Symone was in no danger of losing her job. “We love Raven,” the rep said in a statement. “She is confident, genuine and opinionated, all qualities that make her a great addition to the panel.” Even with the criticism and the petition, Raven still spoke on the incident during Thursday’s episode of The View.

“There is an issue with police officers in predominantly ‘minority’ type of schools taking kids for disorderly conduct right to prison. That’s a problem,” Symone said.

What do you think about Raven Symone’s comments? Do you think she should be removed from The View? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Neilson Bernard/Getty Images]

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