Raven Simone: Wrong for WHAT She Said… or WHERE She Said it?

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Raven Simone (aka Lucille Ball)
Raven Simone (aka Lucille Ball)

Over the week and the weekend, FaceBook was inundated with remarks abdout Raven Simone’s statement where she said on The View that she would not hire someone with a ghetto name. How could she say that…..?

Black folks went in, calling her names and attacking her character and mental state. Even her own father said “I raised her and she says dumb shit.” Raven did not have much support but was she wrong for WHAT she said or WHERE she said it? Let’s face it, most black folks KNOW she was right but she wasn’t supposed to say that in front of mixed company. We don’t like our community’s dirty laundry aired in front of other people. It’s supposed to stay in a neat lump under the carpet.

I cannot tell you how many countless times I have heard comedians, friends and even people at black events make fun of black mothers that name their babies, especially the girls, names that end with …quita, mika, tika or Tayuterus, Tamponia, LomLisha or whatever other insanely unfortunate name they come up with. It IS unfortunate considering that child’s future and ability to be taken seriously or get a job is now at risk.

Boys have escaped the phenomenon for the most part except for names like Jaquan, Deleriuos, Juterion, Uripedarious, Deinmate and Whoyouiya. You hear a lot of those names with young basketball and football players and for them the names probably work to help them get noticed and make millions but for black girls trying to get into corporate America with a name like “Ebola Covasiyay” is almost impossible. Corporations AND Black business owners immediately toss those resumes in the trash laughing so hard they miss it, not necessarily because the names are ghetto but because it’s also probably hard to take someone with a name like that serious. You would think somebody, hell a damn nurse would come into the room close the door and say to the new mother “Girl, are you SURE you want to name that child ‘Indigestion’?” We have Roots to blame for the phenomenon… Kunta Kinte and other slave names were supposed to separate us from the mainstream and it did just that. Made them discriminate even MORE and we have ourselves to thank for that.  Raven didn’t say anything MANY, MANY, MANY black people have not also said, she just said it in the wrong place.