Um, What? Raven-Symone Says She Wouldn't Hire Someone with a Black-Sounding Name

Raven-Symone | Photo Credits: Corbis

You'd think a person named Raven-Symoné would be a little more sympathetic to people with unusual names.

On a segment on The View, the co-hosts were discussing a recent study that showed Americans are more likely to discriminate against people with black-sounding names. Then -- just in case viewers weren't familiar with stereotypes about black-sounding names -- they showed a YouTube video called "Top 60 Ghetto Names" that included entries like "Shaniqua," "Laquisha" and "Watermelondrea."

Raven-Symoné had some thoughts.

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"Just to bring it back, can we take back 'racist' and say, 'discriminatory,' because I think that's a better word," Raven-Symoné asked. "And I am very discriminatory against [names] like the ones that they were saying in the [video]. I'm not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It's just not going to happen. I'm not going to hire you."

Check out a clip of her comments from Us Weekly:

This struck many people as racist and hypocritical.

"The whole world is trying to tear us apart and you want to discount the value of some other Black person because she, TOO, has a Black name, Raven hyphen alternate spelling of 'Simone?'" blasted Jamilah LeMieux at Ebony

"It is ironic because Raven-Symoné is quite possibly the single, blackest name in pop culture today," wrote Damon Young at The Root.

Do you think Raven-Symoné stepped in it with her remarks?

This article, Um, What? Raven-Symone Says She Wouldn't Hire Someone with a Black-Sounding Name, originally appeared on TVGuide.com.