Oprah Winfrey warned her off. Even so, Raven Symone — best known for her roles on “The Cosby Show” and “That’s So Raven” — did something truly brave for a young actress: She rejected the identity politics that so often prevails in our public life.
Here are the words her critics find so outrageous and incendiary:
“I’m tired of being labeled,” she told Winfrey. “I’m an American. I’m not an African-American. I’m an American . . . I have darker skin. I have a nice, interesting grade of hair. I connect with Caucasian.
I connect with Asian. I connect with black. I connect with Indian. I connect with each culture.”
The critics came at her fast and furious. Some called her delusional. Others said she was self-hating.
Still others accused her of running “away from her blackness.”
Her response was equally clear: “I never said I wasn’t black. I said I’m not African-American. I think it is only positive when we can openly discuss race and being labeled in America.”
Good for her for not backing down. Remember, her remarks came in the context of being asked by Oprah about being gay, where she freely admitted she is in “an amazing, happy relationship with my partner. A woman.”
In short, any honest person looking at what she said knows this woman didn’t reject either her race or her sexuality. All she rejected were the labels.
After warning Symone that she’s “going to get a lot of flak” for what she said, Oprah called her “a melting pot in one body.”
“Aren’t we all?” replied Symone. “Isn’t that what America’s supposed to be?”
So Raven — and so well said.