Raven-Symone has been saying some things that have had black people given her the side eye. Recently on the View she admitted that she wouldn't hire anyone with a ghetto name. The irony of this is Raven-Symone said this while wearing a bright red mohawk which many would argue looks ghetto. While we do not have control over our names, unless we legally change it we have control over our attire. Raven-Symone has lived such a privileged life she has become blind to the plight of people of color. What Raven doesn't realize is respectability politics is just another form of racism. I find it odd that Raven-Symone who is African American seems to understand nothing about racial discrimination. If you don't hire someone because their names sounds black your practicing discrimination. The person who bases someone's qualifications on a name with total disregard for their experience, education or work ethic is being very foolish. This employer may have very well been the best person for the job but lost out on a star employee. I think we should stop making assumptions about who black people are based upon some stereotypical image one might hold in our minds. For example; A person named Shanika may be a honor student, live in an affluent neighborhood and be more ambitious to someone named Ashley.
I have encountered many people with so called ghetto names who have more class than those with English names. Job discrimination is a real problem and it's heavily raced based along with discriminating against where one may live. I hope Raven-Symone uses her privilege as a rich black woman to educate herself about the fabric of society instead of upholding the part of society that deems stereotypes as truth and names a representation of one's character. We need to educate ourselves as people and start seeing people of color as people who don't have to have a name like Amanda or Heather to be labeled as intelligent or civilized. We shouldn't have to be assimilated or prove we are "not like the others". So what is in a name? A name is assigned to you at birth it does not define you. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMy name is Kiara and writing is the way I express myself. Archives
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