"I'm an American. I'm not an African-American; I'm an American." With that simple statement, child star Raven-Symoné articulated a message of racial healing that all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition," and the Obama administration have been unable to achieve.
The cute little girl from The Cosby Show who grew up to be the adolescent star of Disney Channel's That's So Raven sat with Oprah Winfrey for a "Where Are They Now" segment.
Oprah steered the conversation toward the question of Raven's sexuality as the former Disney star raised eyebrows when she tweeted an affirmative response to last year's Supreme Court decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act.
Oprah asked Raven if the tweet was her way of "coming out," Raven pushed back with a pro-American message. Rather than allowing herself to be categorized and divided into an identity group by Winfrey, she said, "That was my way of saying I'm proud of the country," she says. "But, I will say that I'm in an amazing, happy relationship with my partner. A woman."
When Oprah tried to force Raven into a category and label her as "Gay," she pushed back again. "I don't want to be labeled 'gay,'" Raven says. "I want to be labeled 'a human who loves humans.'"
And then Raven went even further and told Oprah she didn't like to be categorized into any hyphenated identity group, even "African-American."
"I'm tired of being labeled," she said. "I'm an American. I'm not an African-American; I'm an American."
It was at this moment that Oprah's hair appeared to catch on fire. She literally had to keep herself from jumping out of her chair at the politically incorrect remark. "Oh, girl! Don't set up the Twitter on fire... Oh, my lord. What did you just say?"
"I mean, I don't know where my roots go to," Raven calmly 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."
Oprah then pressed the issue by assigning criticism of the comments to un-seen critics who would take objection with her proclamation of being a mere "American." However, it appears from her animated response that Oprah, herself, is the one who takes issue with the lack of divisiveness in Raven's statement. "You're going to get a lot of flak for saying you're not African-American. You know that, right?"
"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."
"You are a melting pot in one body," Oprah says.
"Aren't we all?" Raven asks. "Isn't that what America's supposed to be?"