One year after Raven Symone got a huge negative reaction from the world due to comments she made about her identity, the actress appears to be getting a lot of work. Most recently, The View announced that Raven would be the new co-host for the show. Raven Symone, though she’s admitted to being of African descent, made statements which suggested that she did not identify with that portion of her heritage. During the interview with Oprah Winfrey where she broke her ties to Africa, she also refused to be labeled as a homosexual despite her known attraction to women .
“I’m tired of being labeled. I’m an American; I’m not an African-American. I’m an American. I don’t want to be labeled gay. I want to be labeled a human who loves humans.”
Once her statements got a negative response, she made a follow up statement explaining herself. Feeling misunderstood, Raven explained to E! News that she wasn’t denouncing her race, only her background.
“I never said I wasn’t black, I said I wasn’t African American — to me that’s a difference. Thank you to Ancestry.com for sending me my DNA test… I am from every continent in Africa except for one and I’m also from every continent in Europe except for one.”
Still, fans just could not support Raven’s ideals. People especially were concerned that many of her statements made no sense. Instead of trying to decode the statements, which Raven claims were misunderstood, people on social media simply labeled her as “dumb.”
Yall pray for Raven Symone can’t nobody in the world be that dumb.
— Jarrett (@Went_ToJarrett) March 28, 2015
There are all kinds of Dumb people in the world. And Raven Symone is everyone of them.
— Magnificent (@Grant_Maestro) March 28, 2015
That’s So Raven was my absolute favorite show. Too bad Raven Symone is dumb and confused now.
— Bankroll_tj (@justbeing_TEE) May 28, 2015
It became noticeable after a while that as Raven Symone continued to not only refuse to identify with Africans, but make statements that made her seem under-educated, she was suddenly on almost every talk show being interviewed and trending on social media. Many people in the African-American community, which Raven supposedly does not belong to, believe that the actress is being set up and put in the public eye to make a mockery of herself and the black community.
I think tv shows just have Raven Symone on now cuz they know she’ll say something dumb and get everyone talking about it
— Tiger Lily (@WoodlandDreams) May 14, 2015
The View is definitely reaping the benefits of Raven Symone’s dumb comments. She has helped expose the show to a new demographic but……
— erin ashley (@bellametaphor) May 14, 2015
When I was a kid I looked up to Raven-Symone. Now she is a disgrace to the black community. Aka a SELLOUT!
— Hollee Brown (@Holleewood92) May 14, 2015
Since Raven Symone’s highly publicized statement about her racial and sexual identity, she has landed two very large roles in entertainment. First, she was cast in the Fox drama series Empire , which was one of the most watched series in 2014. Next, as previously mentioned, she became the co-host of The View . She has since used her talk show platform to discuss even more of her views to a broader audience. One statement made while on The View , she was forced to publicly apologize for. The statement was one in which she sated that people have animal traits after Michelle Obama was compared to an ape.
Do you think Raven Symone is getting paid to be a sell out?
See video of Raven Symone’s comments that made social media label her as “dumb.”
[Image via T he Grio ]
