JUST SAYIN’-Good for Raven (Symoné Christina Pearman)! It is about time someone spoke the truth. Labels? What are they anyway? For what real purpose? Are they no more than convenient, artificial misnomers created by lazy Americans to perpetuate differences? Raven states unequivocally that she won’t be defined by labels. I add, especially those labels that are constructed by ill-informed, poorly researched people who don’t know any better and often use those terms to denigrate others!
Raven is definitely not African-American because that is a term erroneously made up by a misguided but well-intentioned Jesse Jackson. There are Irish-Americans and Polish-Americans, he thought, so don’t we deserve a category as well—“African-Americans” (but before that, Negro and Colored and … ). Personally, I think we would be so much better off if we eliminated such designations altogether.
Incidentally, I can’t help but recall when “white society” imposed the one-drop rule on Blacks. Disregarding what you looked like or with which community you identified, you were Black if even “one drop” of Black lineage could be traced to you—it was considered a stigma then.
Today, decades later, a great many from the Black community have turned that process on its head. They utilize the one-drop rule for their own purposes. They want to claim, as Black or African-American, every prominent multi-racial person—people like President Obama, Halle Berry, the Rock, and Raven-Symoné among many other contributors.
Such people are being victimized by a segment of society that wishes to rob them of their real identity by labeling them Black rather than what they really are—multi-racial. Then, if such people reject that label, they are subject to ridicule, resentment, anger—they are re-victimized. Think of all the recent Tweets and Facebook entries aimed against Raven for her candid statements, for example. Let’s be real--President Obama is the first multi-racial President, not the first Black President.
Remember when the then-new LAUSD Magnet Program asked students (in order to qualify for admission) to list the ethnicity of the parent with whom they most identified? What a disaster that was--until many of us recognized the damage and worked not only to have that question removed from the application form but also, eventually, from the decadal U. S. Census questions which now allow a person to list as many ethnic categories to which respondents feel they belong.
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It is a shame that (just as Oprah predicted) there would be blow-back when Raven discussed¸ on air, this issue and her honest feelings about herself. Not everyone has to agree with her assessment of herself and the world in which she finds herself. But, good golly, do people have to fit into a very circumscribed and restrictive pigeon hole in order to get the approval of others? If any one of us looks far enough back into our roots, I dare say that not one of us is pure any label—nationality, religion, ethnicity--and must certainly be related in one way or another to someone in every designation along the way--gay, straight, communist, socialist, slaveholder, slave, intellectual, mentally challenged.
The reality is that Raven is more than her unwanted labels. She involves herself in multiple causes that affect all of us—not just the Black or LGBT or entertainment communities. What a role model! Raven-Symonéactively supports the following charities:
- Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
- Give Back Hollywood Foundation
- Red Cross
- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
- Variety Power Of Youth
- Women Alive Coalition
- Young Storytellers Foundation
How many of us can claim the broad variety of volunteerism in which she so obviously and enthusiastically engages? Thus, before we criticize and label others in any way, maybe we should check to see what is in our own bucket lists.
In reality, Raven is what she says she is—a human first, then a multi-racial woman who is gay and a loving daughter, friend, partner, co-worker, volunteer and philanthropist, and entertainer. She is colorful and colorblind. She is a role model not only for young people of similar backgrounds but also for all the rest of us who have forgotten to remember who and what we really are.
She concluded her interview with Oprah by saying, “I don’t label myself. What I really mean by that is I’m an American. I have darker skin. I have a nice, interesting grade of hair. I connect with Caucasian. I connect with Asian. I connect with Black [hasn’t Tiger Woods called himself a Cablasian—Caucasian, Black, and Asian?]. I connect with each culture. . . . Aren’t we all a melting pot? Isn’t that what America’s supposed to be?”
This young woman has it right. We are all human—related to each other in one way or another. Tall, short, blue eyes, brown hair, café au lait complexion. What’s in a name, after all? You must recall from your early days, “a rose by any other name. . . .”
Isn’t that the American dream?! Shouldn’t we consider every culture as part of our own—genetically, historically, and through interaction?
Just sayin’.
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written A Quick-and=Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition, Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 83
Pub: Oct 14, 2014
