Raven-Symoné is clarifying a headline-making remark she made in 2014.
On Tuesday, the previous Disney Channel star shared a brand new episode of her podcast Tea Time With Raven and Miranda, during which she recalled receiving hate a decade in the past for telling Oprah Winfrey that she doesn’t contemplate herself to be “African American.”
“Lots of people on the web thought I mentioned that I wasn’t Black, and I by no means mentioned that,” the previous youngster star informed her co-host and spouse, Miranda Maday.
When requested by Maday what she meant, the That’s So Raven alum mentioned, “After I say that ‘African-American’ doesn’t align with me, that label, it doesn’t imply that I’m negating my Blackness or I’m not Black. It means I’m from this nation. I used to be born right here.”
She continued, “I perceive my historical past. I perceive the place my ancestors come from. I additionally perceive how a lot blood, sweat and tears they’ve soaked into this earth so as to create the America that I stay in at this time: free, joyful, tax-paying American citizen.”
The Cosby Present alum then famous, “I additionally know that after I go to one other nation, individuals don’t say like, ‘Hey, take a look at that African American over there!’ They are saying, ‘That’s an American.’”
Maday agreed together with her spouse’s perspective, saying, “I feel it makes a lot sense, as a result of I don’t go round introducing myself as a Welsh American or as an Italian American. My mother was born right here, so I’m an American, for all intents and functions.”
Raven-Symoné mentioned she was revisiting her phrases after the clip not too long ago resurfaced on an episode of Actual Time With Invoice Maher throughout a dialogue about race. She mentioned the remark “has haunted me since 2014.”
Throughout her 2014 chat with Winfrey, the actress addressed her dislike for having to label herself, each by way of race and sexuality. “I’m bored with being labeled,” she mentioned. “I’m an American, not an African American.”
Winfrey warned her that she would obtain flack for her wording, saying, “Oh woman, don’t go set Twitter on fireplace.”
On the time, the Cheetah Ladies star defined why she didn’t establish as an African American. “I don’t know the place my roots go,” she mentioned. “I don’t know the way far again [they go] and I don’t know what nation in Africa I’m from, however I do know that my roots are in Louisiana.”
She added, “I’m an American. That’s a colorless particular person, as a result of we’re all individuals. I’ve a number of issues operating via my veins.”