EBONY Magazine’s Senior Editor, Jamilah-Asali Isoké Lemieux, has just penned an editorial taking Raven Symone to task for her on-air comment that she wouldn’t hire any black person with a “ghetto” name. Following is an excerpt of her column. A link to the full op-ed can be found at the end. It is a must read, in our opinion. — Ed
by Jamilah-Asali Isoké Lemieux, EBONY Magazine’s Senior Editor
A person who is both legally and professionally known as “Raven-Symoné” used her enviable platform as a co-host on ABC’s The View to rail against Black names.We could honestly stop talking right here, because the story—and the jokes—write themselves. Her name is Raven hyphen alternate spelling of “Simone,” complete with what could be considered a gratuitous accent mark (it does not change the pronunciation of “Symone/Simone,” it is there for decoration; she essentially has the equivalent of plastic furniture covers at the end of her name,) and yet she feels compelled to punch down at those who also have names that are also Black as a dice game at a church fish fry, but may not have hit the faux French mark as well as her own. Only a blindfolded person with no sense of smell being asked to hold a plate of meat and walk into a den full of dogs could match her lack of self-awareness.
How dare you, Raven hyphen alternate spelling of “Simone?” Sitting there with a head full of colorful weave, the same sort of hair that was “ghetto,” “tacky,” “low-class” and “unacceptable” until it made it’s way until the pages of mainstream fashion magazines? And using “Watermelonandrea” as your example, playing off the same racist language used by people who have done us so much harm? Olivia Kendall would never.
