Raven-Symoné Sounds Off On ‘Black-Sounding’ Names On ‘The View’

Raven-Symoné, whose full name is Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman, spoke out on The View that she would not hire someone with a “black-sounding name,” such as “Watermelondrea.”

RAVEN-SYMONÉ WOULD NOT HIRE WATERMELONDREA

While discussing an article in The Journal about how Americans tend to make racist assumptions based on certain names, which led to the mention of the YouTube video “Top 60 Ghetto Black Names,” Raven-Symoné stated that she would discriminate against people with such names, and would not hire someone with a name like “Watermelondrea.”

“Just to bring it back, can we take back ‘racist’ and say ‘discriminatory’? Because I think that’s a better word,” Symoné said. “I am very discriminatory against words like the ones they were saying in those names,” Symoné said after watching a clip from the video listing the names. “I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It’s just not gonna happen. I’m not gonna hire you.”

“That’s not their fault,” comedian Michelle Collins chimed in, to which Symoné merely giggled.

Whoopi Goldberg seemed a bit shocked at Symoné’s strong reaction to the video, which is clearly supposed to be a joke.

Symoné received a considerable ammount of backlash on social media about her remarks, with comments about her being, not only discriminatory against her own race, but also a hypocrite, as she herself bears a rather “black” name.

Ebony writer Jamilah Lemieux wrote an article, “Raven-Symoné Rips Black Names, But Forgot About Her Own.” “A person who is both legally and professionally known as “Raven-Symoné” used her enviable platform as a co-host on ABC’s The View to rail against Black names,” Lemieux wrote. “We could honestly stop talking right here, because the story – and the jokes – write themselves. Her name is Raven hyphen alternate spelling of “Simone,” complete with what could be considered a gratuitous accent mark…”

Lemieux goes on, explaining that “we can’t have a hierarchy of black names. You are either with your family, or you aren’t. Being named ‘Naima’ or ‘Aaliyah,’ ‘Asha’ or ‘Imani’ doesn’t make you better or more sophisticated or more African than someone named ‘Shatasha,’ and the people who are dumping Shatasha’s resume in the trash because of her name are happy to throw yours in there too, boo.”

Twitter has also been flooded with comments about Symoné’s remarks.

How does my name affect my work ethic? Am I less proactive because of my name? Negate my credentials because of my culture? #RavenSymone

— KENYAMIRROR (@DJMADAMK) October 9, 2015

Not cool! Judging people solely from their name is abhorrent. I don’t know why you’d be in favor of discrimination. #RavenSymone

— Lilah G. Asher (@LilahAsher) October 9, 2015