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Raven-Symone Says She’d Discriminate Against “Ghetto” Names, Gets Slammed on Twitter

Um, say what? Raven-Symone caused a minor uproar on Twitter after she claimed that she’d readily discriminate against any job applicant with a “ghetto” name on an episode of The View on Thursday, Oct. 8.

During a conversation addressing a new study released in the Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, the outspoken talk show co-host admitted that she would definitely not consider any names that sounded too ethnic if she were an employer looking to hire.

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“Just to bring it back, can we take back ‘racist’ and say ‘discriminatory,’ because I think that’s a better word,” she said during the show. “And I am very discriminatory against words like the ones that they were saying in the video. 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 former child star, 29, looked defiant when her co-hosts pointed out that a child’s name is probably determined before he or she is able to have a say.

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“Is that mean?” she asked at one point, unsure why her statement caused such a hubbub at the table.

But the backlash didn’t end there. On Twitter, Symone’s blunt words caused many fans — and fellow media commentators — to share their outrage.

“What if their name was Pam Smith and then [they] showed up at work looking like YOU, Raven?” Fox Sports host Mike Hill wrote.

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“The same Raven that had a disney show episode where she didn’t get hired b/c of her race. Ur confused @ravensymone,” a reporter from San Diego noted.

“Please educate yourself,” YouTube star Tyler Oakley wrote.

In 2014, Symone faced similar backlash after she told Oprah Winfrey that she considered herself American, not African-American during OWN’s Where Are They Now? series.

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“Oh girl, you’re going to set Twitter on fire,” a shocked Winfrey replied.

In June, the former Cosby Show star sat down with Us Weekly and addressed that big moment.

“[Oprah] told me that black Twitter’s going to hate me forever. She was right,” Symone said at the time, laughing. “I love you, Oprah. She’s like everybody’s rich aunt. She’s really close to you, but she’ll never give you any of her money.”

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