Former “The Cosby Show” and “That’s So Raven” child star “set the Twitter on fire” Sunday night, according to Oprah Winfrey.
Social media ignited in response to 28-year-old Raven-Symoné’s sexual orientation and exhaustion with being labeled — she’s not gay, she’s a human who loves humans; she’s not African-American, she’s simply an American.
“Oh, my lord,” Winfrey said, as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “What did you just say? You’re going to get a lot of flak for saying you’re not African-American. You know that, right?”
Raven said even though her ancestors are in Africa, she doesn’t know which country. But she does know her family’s roots are in Louisiana, which makes her an American — a colorless person.
“(Raven) has a right to define herself however she wants,” said UF director of African-American Studies Sharon Austin. “But it’s not so much the way she defines herself, it’s the way society defines her.”
During the Reconstruction Era, blacks were classified by the “one-drop rule,” where regardless of pigmentation, if a person had just one African ancestor, he or she was considered to be black.
“That’s kind of still in effect now,” Austin said. “When people look at you, if you have even one distant relative that is black, you are black. It’s not like that in other countries.”
UF health education and behavior student Debra Gaskin said she doesn’t personally feel categorized by the one-drop rule but instead from stereotypes associated with being black.
“People get so used to different negative stereotypes being associated with a certain label,” the 19-year-old said. “That’s what makes them shy away from being labeled that way in the first place.”
Gaskin said she doesn’t take offense to Raven’s bold statement. She agrees that color lines are not gone. But unlike Raven, Gaskin doesn’t have a preference of what word to use in reference to her skin tone.
“Black, African-American, whatever people call it,” Gaskin said. “It’s all in the intent behind what the person is trying to say. If you call me African-American with the intent of demeaning me, then yeah, I’ll be offended.”
Gaskin said she believes it’s human nature to label each other, and regardless of Raven’s rebelliousness, labels aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Melissa Davis, administrative assistant for the UF English department, agreed that societal labels aren’t going to disappear.
“We call people gay, we call people old, we call people ugly,” Davis said. “We, as humans, need to put a name to something.”
Davis said the most powerful statement from Raven was simply “I’m an American,” and that’s the piece social media should spread like wildfire.
“She’s saying ‘this is who I am first.’ Like standing up and saying, ‘I’m a woman’ or ‘I’m a man.’ It’s a label, but it’s a label we can all wear.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 10/16/2014]
