Raven-Symoné (Hollywood Branded/CC BY 2.0)

By Sonya Eskridge
Special to the NNPA via The Chicago Defender

 
(NNPA)—This really isn’t Raven-Symoné’s week: first she rumbled with the Beyhive, and now she’s defending racist remarks about First Lady Michelle Obama.

Can someone please come get their homegirl, Raven-Symoné? The “Empire” star got stung by the Beyoncé’s loyal (if overzealous) fans this week after she posted a video of Lil Kim performing.

In her excitement, she called Lil Kim The Queen Bee.

Well, The Beyhive had a problem with that, and they decided to camp out in the comment section to just sting her into submission. That method of intimidation clearly didn’t work because she came back with the following response.

To be fair, Raven didn’t even mention Bey in her video caption, and Lil Kim was calling herself The Queen Bee well before Destiny’s Child ever emerged onto the music scene. On the other hand, we all know the Beyhive is not to be reasoned with because they will sting first and ask questions later.

However, there is pretty much no defending what she said on “The View” today when she basically excused former Univision personality Rodner Figueroa for comparing Michelle Obama to a monkey.

“The View” host Rosie Perez pointed what the now-fired anchor said as an example of the Latino community’s problem with race. “There is a secret in the Latin community–specifically the Caribbean, South American, Central American Latin community. They are very racist,” she stated. “They never want to be in the same group as black people. And it’s very, very sad. And he did say Michelle Obama looked like a cast member of the ‘Planet of the Apes.’”

Rosie telling her that what he said was wrong, Raven didn’t see the problem. “But was he saying it racist?’” she asked. “I don’t think he was saying it racist.”

“Oh please!” Rosie cut in, trying to . “I am the Latin person here on this table and I would like to tell you that it was racist. Period,”

Raven still wasn’t convinced, though, and she shrugged off the possibility that what he said was racist. “Some people look like animals,” Raven reasoned. “I look like a bird. So can I be mad if somebody calls me a Toucan Sam?”

Ignorance must be bliss. Just because one doesn’t acknowledge that something is racist in tone, doesn’t mean it isn’t.

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