The Raven-Symone Syndrome

"I'm tired of being labeled," she said. "I'm an American. I'm not an African American; I'm an American."

"I mean, I don't know where my roots go to," Raven explained. "I don't know how far back they go...I don't know what country in Africa I'm from, but I do know that my roots are in Louisiana. I'm an American. And that's a colorless person."

"I don't label myself. I have darker skin. I have a nice, interesting grade of hair. I connect with Caucasian. I connect with Asian. I connect with Black. I connect with Indian. I connect with each culture."

I'm gonna start off by saying this isn't a piece to bash Raven-Symone as a person. Because to be honest this isn't solely a Raven-Symone issue. The reason why she’s the namesake for this syndrome is because she personifies the problem. That interview and her views on the subject really magnified the end result of a learned way of thinking.

In many ways and for many years we have been made to feel a level of shame for being black. The best example to support that is the “mixed complex”. We’ve all experienced this in some form…..

“Girl your hair is soo pretty… what you mixed with?”

" Girl you know I have a little Indian on my mom’s side.”

And that’s only one example of this thought process. Some of us may actually have different bloodlines in us and that’s not the problem. It’s the mentality that being black or African American alone is inferior.

Because this is a learned behavior we have to ask… where did it come from? To narrow it down to one sole source would be difficult. But one of the sources is the amount of pain or struggle that’s attached to being black. Being made to feel inferior and not worth the basic human rights.

The mentality that we don’t have any real substantial culture of our own can be enough to make you search for any other established culture to latch on to. So again I say I’m not here to tear her down as a person, I’m here to point out the flawed thinking that effects us all.

My question to her is….. What is it about being black that makes you want to distance yourself from it?

When I bring up this interview with my peers it’s almost always the same reaction. Of course there’s the shock factor, but there’s a small tinge of disgust and almost anger about it.

This leads to my self reflection. Even though this thought process doesn’t manifest itself to such extremes as Raven, they still manifest. Let’s identify these issues and work to fix them before our kids are raised with the Raven-Symone Syndrome…….

#empowerment #race #africanamerican #ravensymone