Raven-Symone Backtracks On Her Attack On ‘Ghetto’ Names Like ‘Watermelondrea’

Raven-Symone’s recent return to pop-culture awareness is is often peppered with unexpected statements. She nearly caused Oprah to faint by saying she doesn’t want to be labeled as gay or African American. That’s Raven’s prerogative, but she has taken her brand of controversy to The View, where she doles out uncomfortble opinions such as Rosa Parks not being “forward” enough to grace the $20 bill.

Raven’s latest mess involves the above clip, which began as a discussion about a viral video, in which children say “ghetto black names” like “Fo’Landra” and “Elephantisha.” Raven then assured her fellow View panelists that she would never hire someone with a such a name:

“Just to bring it back, can we take back ‘racist’ and say ‘discriminatory,’ because I think that’s a better word. And I am very discriminatory against words like the ones that they were saying in those names. I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It’s just not going to happen. I’m not going to hire you.”

The backlash was swift, as is often the case with The View‘s current incarnation. Even Raven’s father (and former manager), Christopher B. Pearman, spoke out on Facebook to distance himself from Raven’s odd comments. Pearman has no idea what influenced Raven’s words, but “she says some dumb sh*t!” Raven took to her Facebook page for damage control:

“My comments about discrimination have spun out of control … As an equal opportunity employer, I have never discriminated against a name….even though I said I would, it’s not true. My comment was in poor taste. My lack of empathy towards name discrimination was uncalled for.”

Raven backtracked on her words and contradicted herself, but at least she did not issue a non-apology. Now, I’m not sure what possessed her to zero in on “Watermelondrea” as a prospective name, but some questions are better left unanswered.

(Via Raven-Symone on Facebook)

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