Raven-Symoné’s week on The View has been an interesting one. Earlier this week, during a segment discussing Rodner Figueroa’s firing from Univision for comparing Michelle Obama to something from Planet of the Apes, Symoné made comments that seemed to defend the Univision host.
As Rosie Perez was attempting to explain racism within the Latino community, Symoné raised eyebrows with her comments.
“But was he saying it racist-like? Because he said he voted for her later. And I don’t think he was saying it racist,” Symoné said.
Even though Perez insisted that the comment was racist, Symoné still challenged it.
“Not Michelle Obama. Michelle, don’t fire me from this right now, but some people do look like animals,” Symoné joked.
“So can I be mad if someone called me Toucan Sam?” Symoné said.
Now Symoné is attempting to clarify what she meant.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Symoné talked about why she thinks her comments caused drama. “I don’t think they heard what I said,” she said. “I did not defend the man. I said that what he said was very distasteful. And I think that the organization is in the right to fire him. And I don’t believe that she looks like a racially charged animal that has been connected to the black community for years and years.”
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She also stated, “However, I do know people that look like animals!”
Symoné said she’s sticking to her guns and not going to back down. “I can’t—I’m not going to back down from what I believe in,” she said. “We should bring up the fact that on Instagram people do that every day. They post one picture of a celebrity and an object or an animal right next to each other. ‘Doesn’t this look like that?’”
Regarding Figueroa’s comments about Planet of the Apes, she stated, “He didn’t understand that that word is hurtful in some communities because of the connotation of it. I understand that. But also I think that there’s some people that look animals. I look like a bird. Everybody’s not racially angry. Calm down.”
Sure, everyone may not be racially angry, but people also realize the racial connotations in comparing black people to monkeys and apes. But of course, play dumb if you want.