I’ll be honest, I was trying to avoid this topic.
But it seems like Paula Deen, the Food Network’s Southern sweetheart-turned-headache after admitting she has used racial slurs, can’t stay out of the news.
And in a bad way.
Turns out, after losing something like a dozen sponsors, her empire continues to crumble. Random House’s Ballantine Books said on Friday it would not release Deen’s forthcoming cookbook, “Paul Deen’s New Testament: 250 Recipes: All Lightened Up,” as well as four other cookbooks she was contracted to write.
I guess her plea for forgiveness on NBC’s “Today” last Wednesday didn’t help.
Deen, 66, and her brother are being sued for racial and sexual discrimination by a manager of their Savannah, Ga. restaurant. It was during a deposition that Deen admitted she used the N-word in the past.
Deen went on the national morning show and said this:
“If there’s anyone out there that has never said something that they wish they could take back, please pick up that stone and throw it so hard at my head that it kills me. Please. I want to meet you.”
She has a point.
I’m not saying what she did was right. But consider this: there was a time when that word, as horrible as this sounds, was commonly used. And haven’t we all used a derogatory term or offensive slur in our lifetime — even if we wholly regretted it after?
The differences are these: First off, Deen is a celebrity and held to a higher standard — can’t help it — than others. And secondly, she’s being sued for discrimination — not for the racial slur, per se.
I haven’t been much of a Deen fan lately, especially after the controversy surrounding her diabetes diagnosis and the kinds of diabetes-unfriendly meals she has built her entire career on. I get that this is a business and you gotta do what you gotta do. But like Deen, consumers have choices, too, and people have decided they’d rather support someone who’s not duping them.
Americans tend to be extremely forgiving to celebrities. Look at Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr. And look at how we root for fallen celebs like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. So will we forgive Deen?
Would you?
7 Comments
Last year’s movie “Django Unchained” pretty well sums up how I feel about the southern plantation mentality. It’s not just the word that is offensive, but the whole slavery culture that it represents.
Hey Cat … let me first say that I don’t condone the use of racist or derogatory language in any way … but I think they’re coming down on Paula Deen unfairly hard … by they, I mean the news, media, and corporate America … they are the ones that can break her … and they’re doing their best and it looks like they’re succeeding …
… I’ve never had an interest in Paula Deen .. and I don’t really care about her … but I don’t get all the heat she’s getting for something she admitted to saying years ago … would she just have been better off by not admitting to using the word??? … I bet we’ve all done or said something that we’ll never admit to … and we probably lie about it all the time …
… I don’t think she should be judged solely on her admission of using the word many years ago … look at her in all the years that have passed since then … in that time, can it be proven that she’s a racist??? … I don’t know, some have already jumped to that conclusion …
… damn, I know I’ve used the N-word when singing along to some of my favorite music …
CAT: I may be out of touch but Ms. Deen’s cooking is not my cup of tea. Not sweet tea either. She is one celebrity chef I change the channel when she comes on. I found that she lacks creativity in her cooking and is basically doing standard recipes. She should be forgiven because as she said, she is not the only one is the room who has used the slur. But, media needs a victim for its stories. I wonder if the POTUS has ever used it?
When the “scandal” first erupted, I thought that the Food Network and other sponsors who dumped her were being unfair to her. She was sweet on the air but I rarely watched her show even though I kinda liked her personality.
Then the “Today Show” fiasco. First cancelling an appearance because she was “tired.” Then when she did appear, I think it did more harm to her than good. Some of her comments and answers to Matt Lauer’s questions left me shaking my head. It was like “what century is she living in?”
The thing I dislike about this whole episode is the unfair and misguided characterization of all white southerners as racist. The mentality seems to be … find one Southern racist then the whole group is guilty. Why is this so easy to buy into? Find one confederate flag then everyone from the south is a racist. a tornado touches down and destroys several multimillion dollar homes and businesses in Raleigh and one mobile home park outside of town and everyone in Raleigh lives in a mobile home. Some people need to travel more. In my lifetime I’ve been called a cracker, honky, ugly American, and FN haole. Never will forget taking a nice stroll with the kids through the Ala Wai and a carload of kids yelled out the window at us ‘Go home FN haoles.’ ‘This ain’t your island FN haoles’ etc. Maybe one day people in Hawaii will be apologizing to Caucasians like me for calling us FN haoles. If you think it is different than the above think again. the intent is the same and the hurt the same.
The suit between Paula Deen and her accusers is not settled and sponsors are dropping like flies. What happens if the court finds out she was not the discriminatory racist she is being painted out to be? Bet not a soul will apologize. How convenient this is a case based in Savannah GA. Because everyone enters with their PREJUDICE that all southerners are racist. Chew on it before answering please. What if Paula Deen were actually Paula Akana and she called her Caucasian head chef a FN haole… is that somehow OK?
I once had a coworker is Redmond WA ask me about bar fights in the south. After I stopped laughing I explained to him that in Raleigh, NC where I grew up we had the highest concentration of PhD s in the USA. Especially in the sciences. I also told him I had never seen a bar fight ever near where I grew up. The next day I brought in an article from a local paper in Seattle that was about the bar fights in Renton and Ballard over the weekend. None existed in the Raleigh paper. A coworker in Hawaii once asked me low SAT scores in NC. My response was that 99% of high school eligible students took it. In Massachusetts only 13% took it and most were private school students. Comparing top 20 % NC students with the rest of the USA and we scored very high. Easy to believe Southerners are all stupid I guess. When I told them I was a Thunderbird graduate some started to laugh. I guess they thought I was talking about the cheap wine you find in 7-11. One person walked up and shook my hand. Seems he was the only one who had read that it was the #1 International Program in the nation. hard to get into, hard to excel. But as a Southerner it was easy to believe I was stupid.
I had another co-worker say he’d never go to North Carolina because rednecks scared him. Or the co-worker who asked if all southerners were expert whistlers. A favorite question I got was whether or not the KKK was still active in my hometown. My response was why would I know this? Answer, I am from the south therefore I MUST BE A RACIST. and by association I must know all of the other racists. Went home from work at lunch… HR thought it was funny.
Paula Deen should have never used the N word, no question about this. Just do myself and others from the south one great big favor and realize her actions do not reflect the rest of us. PRETTY PLEASE? And just because many people on Oahu have called myself and my family a haole or FN haole doesn’t mean you are one either.
Fair enough?
I agree with your evaluation of the situation. I remember my youth in Hawaii (1948) when we use to do a counting game called ‘EENY MEENY, MINY, MOE CATCH THE _______ BY THE TOE”. Only in Hawaii where we didn’t think about racial issues in the 40’s and 50’s. Let’s forgive!
I, too, grew up on the mainland (more specifically Indianapolis). We had everything from rednecks, to biggots (no they’re not the same) of all colors, to the Grand Do Da of the KKK (big mansion near our house), to Black Panthers, to Native Americans, to… well you get the picture. My siblings, and I, were not raised in a biggoted household, but we were all exposed to it. Both from external influences, and some family members. Dad is Potawatamie, Mom is 2nd generation German. Both families had things to say. That’s just the way things were in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I always went my own way. I made friends all over the place. Having said that, I can see where Ms Deen may have slipped up a time, or two, given the environment she grew up in. The south was still dealing with a lot of stuff in the times she grew up. And, I have no doubt things passed her lips that are considered not very pc by todays standards. Hell, I said things on the football field to get into another guys head that aren’t very nice. And, in return, I got called a breed (one of the nicer things) many times.
This whole Paula Deen thing is yet another example of the 24 hour news cycle. Or, better put, the 24 hour “Let’s look for something to blow completely outta proportion, and make news with it… And be overly creative while we’re at it” news cycle. We’ve seen it time and again how lives are ruined by this schlock journalism. And, I know a little about that; Having graduated with a BA, and MA in one of the top journalism schools in the country.
Ms Deen may come back from all of this. There may be some serious blowback towards some of the media, and her ex-sponsors. But, when it’s all said, and done, a year from now it really won’t matter. And, I’m sure there will be other fish for the media to fry/crucify. And Ms Deen will be okay.
As a sidebar; I found Hawaii one of the more racist places I had ever been when I came here well north of 30 years ago. I had worked all over the country, and was frankly shocked at what I found when I arrived. A bit of a tan, and all of a sudden everyone thought I was portagee. (Boy, the jokes I heard) Until I opened my mouth. (my pidgin was non-existant) Some friend put me on the front row at the Noodle Shop, and got Frank Delima to tee off on me. That was funny… Some of the other stuff was not. It still exists here, more than people like to admit, amid all of the pc posturing and rehtoric. It is one of the ugly underbellies of our society here.
Is there a fix?