# Guys, I have some rather disturbing news about Paula Deen... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585 "2013-06-21T20:29:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/21 "2013-06-21T22:42:36Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > That’s a whoosh, right? > [@](#): > > … bankrupting three of my least favorite Southern women: Paula Deen, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Nancy Grace. No whoosh there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/22 "2013-06-21T22:51:51Z")
I think a lot of people, even black people, were ready to giv her a pass over “nigger”. I know that for me, I just assume everyone over a certain age is quite familiar with the word. It would be more shocking if she hadn’t said it. So I was actually relieved when she owned up to it…even though the way she did it was dumb. However, the having-people-dress-like-slaves thing is real hard to overlook. I bet she’s eating an entire tray of deep-fried macaroni and cheese right now. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/23 "2013-06-21T22:56:13Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > When was the use of the “n” word? > > The Daily Beast article (linked in the Slate article) claims a former employee is stating that the language was used in his presence, but doesn’t say when, right?. > > The only time stamp mentioned is 1986. > > Is she being fired for using a naughty word 25+ years ago? Or is it because of her excuse “I’m from the old South”? The actual stuff in the lawsuit (including the wedding bits) were from 2007. The “nigger” comments were only tangentally related to the actual suit, which was against one of Deen’s restaurants rather then the woman herself. More then you might want to know [here](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/paula-deen-racial.php) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/24 "2013-06-21T23:03:26Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > The actual stuff in the lawsuit (including the wedding bits) were from 2007. The “nigger” comments were only tangentally related to the actual suit, which was against one of Deen’s restaurants rather then the woman herself. > > More then you might want to know [here](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/paula-deen-racial.php) Thanks for that. I didn’t know that the woman who brought the suit is white. So I’m glad I actually got the–wait for it!–straight dope on this. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/25 "2013-06-21T23:09:15Z")
I expect the usual “whatever happened to freedom of speech?” crap to start from the usual people who don’t quite grasp the concept that it doesn’t mean freedom from any kind of backlash. (That’s a notion that many on both sides of the political spectrum seem to misunderstand.) I’m just surprised that it’s this that’s taking her down rather than her sitting on the diabetes news, though I always expected her to come out with a _Paula Deen Cookin’ for Diabeetus_ book at some point. (I still think she got diabetes from improper relations with Wilford Brimley.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/26 "2013-06-21T23:10:00Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > However, the having-people-dress-like-slaves thing is real hard to overlook. Then I suppose hiring really skinny Jewish people wearing stripped pajamas as servers for the Nazi themed party isn’t going to happen either. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/27 "2013-06-21T23:26:07Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I really don’t understand how anybody as aggressively stupid as Paula Deen has become as successful and famous as she has. She’s (ahem) “no-nonsense”\* and has a thick drawl and cooks high-fat fried food… um, welcome to Georgia, I can introduce you to fifty women who match that description in a variety of ages and complexions at the nearest Wal-Mart- what made her a millionaire? Well, the spot for the flagship stereotypical, home-cookin’ middle aged Southern woman in pop-culture seems to have just opened up. So I guess one of those other fifty woman will get their chance. > [@monstro](#): > > I didn’t know that the woman who brought the suit is white. Heh, my gf and I called she’d be white before we saw the article. We knew a lot of woman of Deen’s generation and economic background in Northern Florida who, while otherwise nice people, had a lot of nostalgia for the South of their childhoods and a resulting…ambivalent attitude towards the Civil Rights movement. While they managed to keep it more or less under wraps while black people were around, they literally seemed incapable of helping themselves from sharing racist jokes and anecdotes when talking to other whites, even whites they knew were unfomfortable with it. Even Deen’s attempts to excuse herself are the same, it’s definitely a “type” down here. > [@Chimera](#): > > Then I suppose hiring really skinny Jewish people wearing stripped pajamas as servers for the Nazi themed party isn’t going to happen either. Ah, a simpler time. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/28 "2013-06-21T23:42:16Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Even Deen’s attempts to excuse herself are the same, it’s definitely a “type” down here. I guess I kind of caution myself against viewing people through these kind of generalizations? My life has been peopled with women who share Paula Deen’s background and folkways. I’d like to think they aren’t all daydreaming of me dressed up like Aunt Jemima when I say hello to them. Not that I’m saying I’m shocked about these allegations. I’m just saying that a girl can make herself go crazy assuming people align with the worse of their “types”. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/29 "2013-06-21T23:43:28Z")
I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt until I read some of her testimony. > [@](#): > > “That’s kind of hard. Most — most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks. Most jokes target — I don’t know. I didn’t make up the jokes, I don’t know,” said Deen. “They usually target, though, a group. Gays or straights, black, redneck, you know, I just don’t know — I just don’t know what to say. I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person.” > > Though she said she does not tell “racial” jokes herself, Deen said she was “sure” members of her family have told jokes that contained the N word and that her husband “is constantly telling me jokes.” Billips asked whether Deen is “offended at all by those jokes.” > > “No, because it’s my husband,” she said. I’m not racist but my husband is so that’s OK??? Seriously??? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/30 "2013-06-21T23:44:54Z")
You guys might not believe this, but right now, right outside my office in Burbank, CA, there’s a guy with a big sign that reads: I LOVE PAULA DEEN It’s time we take back our country. I’m not kidding. I felt like saying, “Hey, buddy. Where’s your hood?” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/31 "2013-06-21T23:50:15Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > You guys might not believe this, but right now, right outside my office in Burbank, CA, there’s a guy with a big sign that reads: I LOVE PAULA DEEN It’s time we take back our country. > > I’m not kidding. I felt like saying, “Hey, buddy. Where’s your hood?” He’s probably a shill for Big Butter. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/32 "2013-06-21T23:59:52Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I guess I kind of caution myself against viewing people through these kind of generalizations? My life has been peopled with women who share Paula Deen’s background and folkways. I’d like to think they aren’t all daydreaming of me dressed up like Aunt Jemima when I say hello to them. I didn’t say they were. Just that those who were racist seemed to have a similar way of showing it, and a similar pattern of behavior (the “I hear these jokes from my husband, he’s the racist one” is another thing I heard more then once). Certainly there are plenty of older, professional, upper middle class white woman in the South who aren’t racist. But for those that are, the shared experience of growing up in the Jim Crow South, with family members who were committed to segregation and then having the world more or less turn against that view seems to have created a weirdly consistent pattern. A kind of conspiratorial racism. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/33 "2013-06-22T00:02:54Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think a lot of people, even black people, were ready to giv her a pass over “nigger”. I know that for me, I just assume everyone over a certain age is quite familiar with the word. It would be more shocking if she hadn’t said it. So I was actually relieved when she owned up to it…even though the way she did it was dumb. > > However, the having-people-dress-like-slaves thing is real hard to overlook. > > I bet she’s eating an entire tray of deep-fried macaroni and cheese right now. Exactly. I appreciated her honesty in owning up to having said the word in anger decades ago and having learned since to not say it any more. People learn and change. But that wedding stuff is … wow. Uh no she aint larned nuttin. Might not be possible for her to. Butter brain is the clinical diagnosis I think. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/34 "2013-06-22T00:03:31Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > I was in the audience for that Oprah taping (the one where the mixer explodes). Everybody in the audience got a plate of food - a piece of fried chicken and a slice of pound cake. That isn’t it. It was a show about entrepreneurs. It featured Paula, Taryn Rose (shoe designer), and the Sugar Rush guy who makes cakes. Paula didn’t cook anything, just told her sob story about being broke after her mean ol’ husband left her with two little boys and no resources but her cookin’. On Biography, the boys were in their early twenties when her sandwich-making and cafeteria-managing businesses went big and she divorced her husband’s sorry ass. Edit: or was it the Sugar Rush guy mixing up pound cake? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/35 "2013-06-22T00:15:47Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think a lot of people, even black people, were ready to giv her a pass over “nigger”. I know that for me, I just assume everyone over a certain age is quite familiar with the word. It would be more shocking if she hadn’t said it. So I was actually relieved when she owned up to it…even though the way she did it was dumb. I agree completely… had she sworn she had NEVER used that word I would know for sure she was lying. I really doubt there are many people on this board who could honestly say that the word has never crossed their lips. It is the context that sunk her. I come from a white family from the South, and there is no question that two generations ago that was the standard term. My grandfather finally came around to calling black people Nigro’s. He also was a well loved doctor in rural Tennessee who was one of the few who would treat the poor black population (he would frequently get paid in eggs). I just uttered the word a week or so ago. I was telling someone about an expression my Grandpa used to use. If someone had a family member who seemed to not match the rest of the family (darker, curly hair, etc.) he would say “there must be a nigger in the woodshed behind the family tree.” I didn’t say it in a way to try to offend, nor did I direct it at any individual. I hope it doesn’t make me a racist to provide a historical quote/anecdote. It was used more to explain that there could be more things in the gene pool than normally mentioned. Is this the part where I’m supposed to say that many of my friends are black? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/36 "2013-06-22T01:13:25Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > First off, make sure you’re sitting down before you read any further because what I’m about to tell you will completely shake you to your foundation. > > Ready?.. > [Sigh] Okay… [Paula Deen is a racist](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/21/paula_dean_apology_celebrity_chef_begs_for_forgiveness_for_using_racial.html) That’s funny, I thought [she was a vampire](http://friedsnickers.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/paula_deen-evil.jpg). Whenever I see her on the cover of one of her magazines in the checkout line, I lose a piece of my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/37 "2013-06-22T01:14:38Z")
Well, sure, there are two ways it’s okay for a white person to say nigger - when singing along to Tupac and when you say “Y’all, Paula Deen just got busted for saying nigger.” (Ugh, my brain doesn’t even like to think that word.) ETA - I’ve always kind of liked her creepy magazine pictures because I figure she’s just like me and always takes horrible pictures and so she tenses up and puts on a really weird smile and they have to Photoshop around it or something. I recognize another member of the sisterhood of awful pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/38 "2013-06-22T01:45:38Z")
Can I get a summary of this somewhere? I got that she admitted in a deposition to saying “nigger” in her life. She has an employee suing her, her restaurant, and her kids for how they treated said employee over the past 5 years. She held a dinner party of some sort where the blacks had to dress as slaves? Sorry - but searches right now put me into so much commentary, a quick summary is greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/39 "2013-06-22T01:47:45Z")
**Shakes** , I think what you meant to say is that “Paula Deen is an _oblivious_ racist.” We’re well into a few decades of it not being okay to drop “nigger” in a conversation, and laugh at racist and homophobic jokes, _especially_ if you’re in the public image business. This isn’t some poor cornpone grandma at a family reunion. This is a businesswoman who negotiates hefty TV and restaurant deals. Paula Deen clearly thought that everyone was in love with her and her folksy ways. Guess what? Not everyone likes that schtick, and you have to be fifty shades of tone deaf to realize that it’s best to keep your racial slurs and antiquated view to yourself (and perhaps your close circle of racist friends and family). I don’t know if I was willing to forgive her casual racism, **monstro** , as much as I was unsurprised by it. And the casual Klansmen who are up in arms about how uppity Negroes are taking down yet another innocent White woman can calm down. After the tearful Oprah interview and the soft-lit redemption special, she’ll be back. Maybe not on Food Network but somewhere else. She just has to serve a term of exile, craft the correctly worded confessional, found the Paula Deen Southern Poverty Law Center, and she’ll be golden. I really don’t know how anybody can leave the house in this day and age with their racism hanging out like that, instead of neatly tucked away. It seems **Sampiro’s** claims about her intelligence are fairly accurate. Let that be a lesson to all others! ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/40 "2013-06-22T01:56:50Z")
I watched the original apology video, and I do admit I feel a little sorry for her. She seems genuinely contrite and humiliated. I can certainly forgive her, but forgiveness doesn’t entitle you to a lucrative TV contract. The funny thing is, I suspect that the people who have decided to not renew her contract were probably on the fence about her given the diabetes and general unhealthiness of her cooking. This was purely a “don’t embarrass the brand” “dismissal,” if you can call it that. Folks who are this clueless about racism are bad for business. I am certain she’ll be back on TV. Dog the Bounty Hunter is back on TV already, isn’t he? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585.md?page=3)