Raven-Symoné faced serious heat because of an Instagram post addressing many iconic men in hip-hop. The television star reposted a photo including T.I., Jay Z, Diddy, and others gathering at the Roc Nation pre-Grammy brunch. The original post featured a caption that snidely criticized the men's success: "A group of so-called 'successful' Black men (minus Khalid [sic] racially) who became rich and famous from perpetuating the worst Black stereotypes to the ears and eyes of the whole planet like drug dealing, pimping, murdering other Black men and disrespecting Black women. I know, making observations is being a hater. Cheers."
Raven added a set of emojis—the monocle, the mouthless face, and a yellow heart—that suggested she agreed with the sentiment.
This didn't go over well. Instagrammers promptly roasted Raven and continued to do so on the comment section of the Shade Room's Instagram reposting. "Speaking your truth through the lyrics in your music is not perpetuating stereotypes," Instagram user sir_q wrote, "if you took it as glorification of drugs, hoods, and gangs then you missed the message, it was about showing the world what you had to go through, what you ACTUALLY had to go through to make it to the very point you have arrived at in your life and career, raven you have yet to experience hardship, so you are not qualified to speak on the "stereotypes" that you claim they have perpetuated."
Another pointed out Raven's history of air-headed opinions on blackness. "[L]ast time we all checked she told reporter that she wasn’t African-American but she was just American so technically she’s been banned from the family cookouts forever ago," said user jazzislay_. The Shade Room also captured other reactions that appeared Raven's post.
Raven eventually deleted the offending post but stood by her opinion in a follow-up. "Deleted my post because the comments were not something I want my underage followers looking at," the post claims. "I'm not deleting because I don't believe in what I said."
Riling up people with poor opinions has been Raven's thing for a while. She once called Beyoncé 's "Formation" video "hilarious and amazing" and said she misses "Beyoncé singing a ballad in a dress." There was also a petition to get her removed from her hosting gig at the View. Raven left the daytime talk show in 2016 to star in the That's So Raven spinoff, Raven's Home.
