The father of Raven-Symoné, the embattled co-host of TV talk-show The View, spoke out in support of his daughter, who has been under fire in recent days for saying that she would not hire someone with a black-sounding name.
In a Facebook post Saturday, Christopher B. Pearman, who is also Raven-Symoné’s ex-business manager and the author of Daddy’s Little Girl!, sought to silence her critics while also acknowledging that she is a “grown ass woman making grown ass mistakes.”
“Children grow up and become influenced by many things, situations and people,” he wrote. “I certainly don’t agree with what she said … but she is damn near thirty years old. She’s a grown ass woman making grown as mistakes. We all have been guilty of this …
“I did my best as her father, mentor and career manager,” he continued. “I believe I did a Wonderful job. Aside from this inexcusable gaffe, her 29 years in the entertainment industry has been quite successful, for there have been only an Elite Few Child Stars to last this long and have little to no controversy. For this, I am Very Proud!”
Raven-Symoné was roundly condemned on social and mainstream media last week after she said, “I’m not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It’s just not going to happen. I’m not going to hire you.”
The comment came during an on-air discussion about a new study released in the Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, which found that Americans make racist assumptions based on people’s names.
This is the not the first time Raven-Symoné has seemed to diss blacks. Last year she rankled social media when she told Oprah, “I'm tired of being labeled. I’m an American. I’m not an African American; I’m an American.”
What’s ironic about her prejudice against black names, as Damon Young noted in a piece on The Root, is that “Raven-Symoné is quite possibly the single blackest name in pop culture today.”
Word, Damon. Word.