"I understand my history": Raven-Symoné clarifies 2014 statement about not being an African American

Raven-Symoné, the American actress and singer, recently clarified a headline-making comment she made during a 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey about not being "African American."

On Tuesday, the 38-year-old posted a new episode of the podcast Tea Time With Raven and Miranda with her spouse, Miranda Maday, on her YouTube channel. The video added an excerpt from the 2014 interview where Oprah asked her, "So you don’t want to be labeled gay?" Raven shook her head and replied, at the time,

"I don’t want to be labeled gay. I want to be labeled a human who loves humans. I’m tired of being labeled — I’m an American, I’m not an African American. I’m an American."

Oprah seemed concerned and seemingly warned her saying "Oh girl, don’t set off Twitter."

During the podcast, the actress expressed that she received a lot of backlash for her comment, at the time, because people thought she said she wasn't black. Raven, however, clarified that she spoke about the label "African American," and not her "blackness". She added,

"I understand my history. I understand where my ancestors come from. I also understand how much blood, sweat, and tears they’ve soaked into this earth in order to create the America that I live in today: free, happy, tax-paying American citizen."

The That's So Raven actress went on to tell her viewers that she understood her history and where her ancestors came from. However, she said, her words were taken out of context.

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Raven-Symoné addresses old interview where she said, "I’m not African American"

Raven-Symoné publicly revealed that she was part of the LGBTQ community in 2013. She has been married to Miranda Maday since June 2020. The pair have a YouTube channel together and host a podcast named Tea Time With Raven and Miranda.

On March 2, 2024, Raven-Symoné addressed the hate she received for her comments about her race in a 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey titled "We need to talk..." The actress mentioned that she was rehashing the topic because it started to circulate on the internet again.

It began with a segment on Real Time With Bill Maher where the host showed a clip of Idris Elba previously saying that people "are obsessed with race." Maher then showed the excerpt of Raven-Symoné saying she was not African American. The Cosby Show actress said,

"I wanna talk about something that has haunted me since 2014. He is commenting on something I said to Oprah back in 2014."

The podcast then showed the video where Raven-Symoné spoke to Oprah about being labeled gay. The actress, at the time, said that she was tired of labels, including "African American." On Tuesday's podcast, she said that after the interview aired she "felt like the entire internet exploded and threw my name in the garbage." Raven added,

"There was so much backlash from my community and others who misunderstood slash didn’t hear the exact words that I said. And the exact words that I said is ‘I’m an American, not an African American.' A lot of people thought I said that I wasn’t Black. And I never said that."

Miranda Maday then chimed in asking the actress, a few times, what she actually meant by her statement at the time. Raven-Symoné responded,

"When I say that African American does not align with me — that label – It doesn’t mean that I’m negating my Blackness or I’m not Black. It means I am from this country. I was born here. My mom, my dad, my great-great-great-great-great — that’s what I’m saying. The pure logistics of it."

Raven-Symoné is about to star in a new coming-of-age comedy, Quarter, along with Ali Wentworth, Brooke Shields, Arnon Manor, and more. The release date has not been set yet.