Hypocrisy, conformity, and gaffes: That’s so Raven

Apparently, many young African Americans possess a character flaw that will get their resumes tossed, at least if they apply to work for Raven-Symoné (sic). The co-host of The View admitted a short time ago that she is “very discriminatory” when it comes to nonstandard, black-sounding names.

“I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea,” she said. “It’s just not gone happen. I’m not gonna hire you.”

She didn’t say whether they should use aliases instead. Nor did she offer to explain the etymology of her own hyphenated, misspelled name. That being said, it’s not every day that a celebrity tells millions of Americans it’s acceptable to violate employment discrimination laws when it comes to black people. One can only assume she thought it was funny. But all of this giggling over ghetto names and watermelon reeks of exactly the kind of Don Imus foul up that can ruin a career. Many African Americans are appalled, and judging by the public reaction, the former child star is fast becoming a 21st century Clarence Thomas—another black reprobate uninvited to discussions about African American advancement.

But is the little girl from The Cosby Show really a self-loathing racist as so many accuse her of being? I doubt it. It would take more than a stupid punchline to convince me she’s headed to a meeting of the Aryan Nations. What lies at the root of her comment, I believe, is the notion that status comes only with conformity, and that to be different from the mainstream—to be “other”—is punishable by marginalization. Despite her own eccentricities, her wisecrack was nothing more than the admonition of an unwitting conformist who thinks she’s different—the condescending posture of a successful American woman who wanted to school all those ghetto girls out there (snap-snap!) and tell them to stop giving their kids those names, ‘cause honey they will never get a job'.

“It’s just not gone happen…”

How heartbreaking it must have been for her fans to learn, on air, that many of them are the very individuals who need not apply if she’s in charge of the hiring. And the notion that people with names such as Shonda, Ta-nehisi, Quvenzhané, Condoleezza, and Shaquille would be unemployed in Raven-Symoné’s America exposes how ill-conceived her ideas on this matter are, especially at a time when a “skinny kid with a funny name” is president of the United States.

Discrimination of any kind is never funny and should never be a punch line. We should aim for a society that promotes inclusion—a society where even shock-jock pop stars won’t deride an individual because of appearance, preference, or a phonetically misaligned construction that has been that person’s identity since birth.

I expect Raven-Symoné to be unemployed soon. My guess is she will find it hard to secure a job with her name on the application.