Raven-Symone has issued an apology for her comments on “The View” last week that she would not hire people who have “ghetto black names” like “Watermelondrea.”
“My comments about discrimination have spun out of control. I’d like to begin by saying that I was not attacking a specific race, but repeating a name that was said in a viral video which has received over 2 million likes,” the actress wrote on Facebook Sunday.
“I have been denied many jobs because of my skin color, body size, and age. Each time I was rejected, my self esteem was negatively effected, so i empathize with those who feel victimized by what I said,” she continued. “But I should not be part of the problem, I should be part of the solution.”
“As an equal opportunity employer, I have never discriminated against a name….even though I said I would, it’s not true” she said. “My comment was in poor taste. My lack of empathy towards name discrimination was uncalled for.”
On the Oct. 9 episode of “The View,” Raven-Symone and the other co-hosts were discussing a recent study that found people often will make racist assumptions based on someone’s name.
The panelists then played a YouTube video of kids rattling off “ghetto black names,” including “Fo’Landra” and “Elephantisha.”
“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,” Raven-Symone said on the show. “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.”