Raven-Symoné, October 2022.Photo:Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
In the episode titled “we need to talk…,” the actress addressed a 2014 interview withOprah Winfreywhere she “felt like the entire internet exploded and threw my name in the garbage.”
Raven-Symoné explained that she chose to rehash the topic because it started to recirculate after aReal Time With Bill Mahersegment mentionedIdris Elbapreviously saying that people “areobsessed with race.”
The television host used a quote from her interview with Winfrey, 70, immediately after.
Looking directly into the camera, the Disney channel star confessed that the decade-old issue “has haunted me since 2014.”
“He is commenting on something I said to Oprah back in 2014,” she said before a clip of the infamous interview was inserted into Tuesday’s episode.
Raven-Symoné and Oprah Winfrey, 2014 interview.OWN
OWN
“So you don’t want to be labeled gay?” Winfrey asked at the time.
Shaking her head, Raven-Symoné sternly 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.”
Once the clip ended, it switched back to theTea Timepodcast.
Raven-Symoné, March 2023.Monica Schipper/Getty
Monica Schipper/Getty
“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,” Raven-Symoné explained.
“And the exact words that I said is that, ‘I’m an American, not an African American.'”
According to theCheetah Girlsactress, “A lot of people thought I said that I wasn’t Black. And I never said that.”
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“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," Raven-Symoné said. “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.”
She added that she understands her history and where her ancestors come from.
“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-Symoné added.
source: people.com
