Raven-Symone Weighs In on Empire's Use of the N-Word, Michelle Obama Ape Comments

Raven-Symone has been stirring up a lot of controversy lately. Now, the actress, who plays Jamal's ex-wife on Empire, has weighed in on another touchy subject -- the debate between her co-stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson about the Empire's use of the N-word.

"It's hard, because people use it in their everyday language behind the scenes all day, and some shows will air it and some shows won't," Raven told E! News. "And there's a lot of pain connected to it, but then there's a lot of brotherly love connected to it, and I feel like you shouldn't say a word you wouldn't let anybody else use."

This is not the first time this week Raven wasn't afraid to voice her opinion on a sensitive topic. On Wednesday, Raven got into a heated debate on The View over Univision host Rodner Figueroa's comments comparing Michelle Obama to an ape. Raven insisted that she didn't think Figueroa's remarks were racist and that "some people just look like animals."

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Many viewers took Raven's comments to be defending Figueroa, but the actress clarified that was not her intention. "I don't think I was defending," Raven said. "I think he got fired for a reason. It was very distasteful what he said, it was very distasteful. And I don't believe she looks like one at all. I don't believe she should've been casted, but I do know that a lot of people I know have animal traits."

"I think any time something is dealing with race, that is still an open wound and you try to look at it from a different standpoint, people are gonna get mad," she continued. "Especially when it's socially out, blasted, and people don't read the whole story. Just like a lot of my comments. People don't read into the whole story and start making things and they say, I said this and I said this and I'm trying to be a different race, but I'm not trying to be."

Raven was, of course, referring to her now-infamous "I'm not African American" remark she made on Oprah's Where Are They Now? in October.

"I never said I wasn't black," Raven explained. "I said I wasn't African American and to me, that's a difference." The actress recently used Ancestry.com to discover she's from almost every country in Africa and Europe, but that her family has been living in Virginia for 400 years. "How long do you have to be in one country before you're that?" Raven said.

Watch the full video below.