“So now Raven Baxter wasn’t black”? Internet confused as Raven-Symoné questions if That’s So Raven character was black in viral podcast video

In the latest episode of her podcast, Atlanta-born actress, singer, and director Raven-Symoné discussed her famous Disney Channel character, Raven Baxter, from the fantasy teen sitcom That’s So Raven (2003-2007).

Around the 1 hour and 17-minute mark, Raven-Symoné talked about her “blackness” with guest Karen Allen and wife/fellow host Miranda Maday on Tea Time w/ Raven & Miranda when Allen observed that he enjoyed how Raven Baxter was “so f**king Black.” That’s when Raven-Symoné asked:

“Was she Black?”

When actor-comedian Karen Allen claimed that Baxter “felt Black as hell to me,” Raven asked why her character “felt Black to you?” Allen clarified that it was the “first time he was seeing a Black family” lead a TV show. The conversation took a turn when Symoné claimed:

“So you saw color? Take away the color, make them green. And hear the words. What color are they? Cuz let’s be one hundred… I think that show and the good shows matter because it is universal… Take away the color.”

When Miranda asked whether White people wrote That’s So Raven, Raven clarified that it was a “mix,” but “White men headed it.” Karen Allen pointed out that the Baxter family was from Timbuktu; Raven-Symoné further explained:

“That could be White. That could be White Timbuktu all day. And thank god it was blackfacing, so, you can see people of color and we can touch on we had the representation, but I think that was what was so beautiful about That’s So Raven. Because her best friend was White, the other one was Black. Eddie, to me he was more culturally Black than Raven was… quote unquote stereotypically Black.”

The whole discussion has now left fans of the show confused. For instance, Threads user @shanikasuevira shared part of the clip and wrote:

“Y’all please watch the whole interview (it’s really interesting) for more context but also… wth. So now Raven Baxter wasn’t Black? They casted an entire Black family. But b/c the writers were a mix bag… Raven is green? Bffr.”

Many people joined the conversation and clapped back at Raven-Symoné.

“The way that question p*sses me off like she can’t be serious,” a person wrote.

“As soon as I start liking her again, she says dumb sh*t like this,” a fan commented.

“I think she’s been having an identity crisis. In more ways than one, and it’s just starting to show more and more,” another user added.

Others continued to weigh in.

“‘Was she black?’ is a wild question. Raven was clearly for the culture. The way she spoke, danced, joked, and behaved. She was a black girl. Trying to erase and rewrite that kind of feels like gaslighting. Unnecessary and weird,” one netizen stated.

“Raven Symone is borderline mentally ill. I don’t understand her pervasive need to be colorless. She simply would not have been cast on The Cosby Show if she was green. It was a show about a black family. Black families ARE universal. One day she will learn that,” another fan noted.

“It was an inherently Black show made for Black girls, but it was so phenomenally inclusive that everyone ended up enjoying who Raven was as a person and friend. So much of her identity is rooted in being Black, so not sure where this take came from,” a third individual commented.

Exploring Raven-Symoné’s previous remarks about her blackness

During a 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Raven-Symoné mentioned her dislike for being labelled both in terms of sexuality and race.

“I’m tired of being labelled. I’m an American, not an African American. I am a human who loves humans,” she noted.

When Oprah warned her not to set Twitter (now X) on “fire” with her controversial comments, Raven further stated:

“I don’t know where my roots go. I don’t know how far back [they go] and 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. That’s a colorless person, because we are all people. I have lots of things running through my veins.”

Back then, the Cheetah Girls actress sparked backlash.

In an April 2024 episode of her podcast, Raven-Symoné told her wife:

“A lot of people on the internet thought I said I wasn't Black, and I never said that.”

When Maday, whom she married in 2020, asked what she meant, Raven-Symoné explained:

“When I say that ‘African-American’ doesn’t align with me, that label, it doesn’t mean that I’m negating my Blackness or I’m not Black. It means I am from this country. I was born here. I understand my history. I understand where my ancestors come from. I also understand how much blood, sweat and tears they’ve soaked into this earth to create the America that I live in today: free, happy, tax-paying American citizen.”

The 40-year-old Raven’s Home alum added:

“I also know that when I visit another country, people don’t say like, ‘Hey, look at that African American over there!’ They say, ‘That’s an American.’”

Miranda Maday agreed with his wife and weighed in:

“I think it makes so much sense, because I don’t go around introducing myself as a Welsh American or as an Italian American. My mom was born here, so I’m an American, for all intents and purposes.”

The same month, the couple appeared in an episode of the Bottoms Up with Fannita podcast and Miranda confessed to Raven-Symoné:

“I knew who you were [growing up], but you were not on my radar.”

Maday, however, clarified that after they met, she saw most of her shows, including That’s So Raven, Cheetah Girls, and College Road Trip. Regardless, she faced criticism but was later defended by Raven-Symoné, who told E! News at Tiffany Haddish’s Adult PROM: A Night Under the Stars benefit in May 2024:

“She didn't say anything offensive to a culture or me or herself, and they were miscategorizing her, period.”

In a subsequent TikTok post, the Emmy-nominated actress urged her followers:

“I'm here with my wife to tell you to stop it in the comments and stop with the death threats in her DMs. It is disrespectful to her and, in turn, disrespectful to me.”

Meanwhile, Miranda Maday noted:

“She isn't just Raven-Symoné to me. You guys must try and open your minds a little bit and understand there's more behind people that are celebrities. There is real life here.”

Elsewhere, she told E! News:

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“I think people are always going to be people, and they're always going to hate. They're always going to have opinions. It was done for us to make sure that we felt at peace and calm and we could kind of put the nail in the coffin about it and just put it to rest.”

Maday mentioned that she loves and supports his wife as well as her career, adding she has “seen it all” over the years and pushing the “false narrative” that she hasn’t is nothing more than “perpetuating gossip.”

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