In an episode of her podcast, the actress clarifies her controversial comments where she refused to call herself an 'African American' during a 2014 chat with Oprah Winfrey.
- Apr 3, 2024
AceShowbiz - Raven-Symone is clearing the air. On Tuesday, April 2, "The Cosby Show" alum clarified her controversial comments where she refused to call herself an "African American" during a 2014 chat with Oprah Winfrey.
In an episode of "Tea Time With Raven and Miranda" podcast, Raven-Symone discussed her past remarks that earned her years-long backlash. In the episode, titled "we need to talk…", the actress explained that she decided to talk about the matter after the topic started to resurface after a "Real Time With Bill Maher" segment mentioned Idris Elba saying that people "are obsessed with race."
"He is commenting on something I said to Oprah back in 2014," Raven-Symone said before playing her infamous interview. "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."
"And the exact words that I said is that, 'I'm an American, not an African American,' " the "Cheetah Girls" star added. "A lot of people thought I said that I wasn't black. And I never said that."
She further divulged, "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," Raven-Symone stressed.
In the 2014 interview, Oprah asked, "So you don't want to be labeled gay?" to which Raven-Symone replied, "I don't want to be labeled gay." She continued, "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."
