‘I’m Not About to Hire You If Your Name is Watermelondrea’

Imagine the outcry if a white conservative man said this on national TV.

Raven Symone

Daily Mail: The View has become the center of controversy once again, this time after Raven-Symoné admitted that she would not hire someone with a ‘black’ name.

‘I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea,’ the former child star said to her shocked co-hosts during Thursday’s episode of the ABC show. ‘It’s just not going to happen,’ she continued. ‘I’m not going to hire you.’

Raven’s comment came while the women discussed a recent UCLA study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, which found that Americans make racist assumptions based on people’s names. Whoopi Goldberg introduced the topic and then played a popular YouTube video, titled ’60 most ghetto names’, for the audience. The countdown video featured names like ‘Grapedrankisha’ and ‘Fri’Chickenisha’.

‘Just to bring it back, can we take back “racist” and say “discriminatory”, because I think that’s a better word,’ Raven asked after the clip ended. Whoopi nodded, saying ‘It’s a much better word,’ but her agreement was short-lived as Raven continued to speak.

‘And I am very discriminatory against words like the ones they were saying in those names,’ she said, referencing the video before admitting she would never hire a ‘Watermelondrea’.

Whoopi’s hands flew to her chest following the comment and she gave the audience a horrified look, but Raven pointed at her reaction and laughed. ‘But that’s not their fault,’ co-host Paula Faris chimed in disagreement with Raven, as Michelle Collins tried to lighten the mood by saying, ‘Would you not hire me if I was King’Kong’Quisha?’, referencing another name in the clip.

‘Is that mean?’ Raven asked, seemingly confused that her co-hosts and audience weren’t laughing along with her. Joy Behar then swiftly changed the topic, saying that white people were fond of naming their children after fruits and vegetables.

But Raven’s comments were far from being forgotten as critics took to Twitter to point out the irony of her words. ‘How do you, a Black person with an ethnic name, justify proudly endorsing discriminatory hiring practices on a nat’l [sic] platform?’ asked one user.

‘Not only does “Raven-Symoné” looks and sound ethnic,’ he added. ‘She’s saying this while wearing a bright red mohawk.’ ‘Dear Raven Symone, have you ever heard of that lesson about the stones and the glass houses,’ wrote another.

‘I guess it’s a good thing that @ravensymone wasn’t an interviewer when Whoopi and Barack and Oprah and Condoleeza were looking for work,’ tweeted one user.

Some on Twitter said the comments were even more shocking as the actress had once starred in an episode of That’s So Raven in which her character lost out on a job because of the color of her skin.

That’s so racist