# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/41 "2013-06-22T02:39:04Z")
I have often said that Paula Deen is to Southern women as Flavor Flav is to black people. It’s possible I was giving her too much credit. Whatever gets her off the television is OK by me. Now if only we can dig up some dirt on Guy Fieri. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/42 "2013-06-22T02:47:17Z")
> [@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?” You’re living in the century when every phone is a camera, dude! WHY haven’t you posted that picture? ---
**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 22, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/43 "2013-06-22T02:54:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You’re living in the century when every phone is a camera, dude! WHY haven’t you posted that picture? I was coming back from lunch and my phone was on my desk. I went out for a smoke later, but he was gone. And if he saw me take his picture, he might’ve wanted to talk to me. 😃 Maybe I could’ve used that opportunity to hear his feelings on Prop 8. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/44 "2013-06-22T04:06:36Z")
When will Emeril apologize for his human-cayenne eugenics program or Guy Fieri apologize for his third world sweat kitchens? ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/45 "2013-06-22T04:21:16Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Whatever gets her off the television is OK by me. Now if only we can dig up some dirt on Guy Fieri. Well, there were those allegations of homophobia a while back: > **[Guy Fieri Homophobia Controversy Erupts](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/guy-fieri-homophobia_n_1020736)** > > Guy Fieri Homophobia Controversy Erupts ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/46 "2013-06-22T04:36:51Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Now if only we can dig up some dirt on Guy Fieri. Everybody knows he’s working for a fish-alien to help her take over the human race. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/47 "2013-06-22T04:47:09Z")
> [@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”? Back in 1976, when my great-aunt, who was about the age Deen is now, told the story of the charming “pickaninny” who was on the bus with her and my mother gave me a laser look that told me not to correct the woman, I could maybe - MAYBE - accept that someone who was no longer in the prime of her life might have completely missed the civil rights era. However, I remember 1986 really clearly. It may have been over 25 years ago, but it was really not okay to say that then. Really. If Paula Deen didn’t learn the lessons of the 60s and 70s by 1986, it’s probably fair to say she’s not going to learn them, ever. And I’m not all that sanguine about what her sons learned from her, either. This is not a case of “times have changed” the way it might have been back in the mid-seventies. The cultural change happened long, long ago and if people missed that boat, they had to have been trying pretty hard to ignore it. > [@Spud](#): > > 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’ve never said that word without quotation marks around it. If I was pissed off at an African American person and I wanted to call him a name, it would be “asshole” or “shithead”, just like it would be for someone of any other race. It wouldn’t occur to me to use a racial slur because I was mad at someone. ---
**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, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/48 "2013-06-22T05:23:39Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I’ve never said that word without quotation marks around it. If I was pissed off at an African American person and I wanted to call him a name, it would be “asshole” or “shithead”, just like it would be for someone of any other race. It wouldn’t occur to me to use a racial slur because I was mad at someone. I never said anything about using it as a slur or insult, and I’m not quite sure how you say something with quotation marks around it (air bunnies?). The question she was asked is if she had ever said the word. After her first honest response of “of course” it went down hill quickly for her to the point she couldn’t climb back up. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/49 "2013-06-22T05:24:02Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > 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. My wife can definitely attest to this. It’s crazy. At multiple jobs people will always go up to her with their rantings about minorities or how Barack HUSSEIN Obama is literally Hitler. She’ll look at them and ask, “you have seen me with my husband, who’s black, right? And you don’t notice the pictures of my obviously mixed nephew at my cubicle?” They’ll either try and backtrack or they’ll glare at her and never talk to her again, which isn’t a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![WisdomofLife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/34f0e0/32.png) [@WisdomofLife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WisdomofLife)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/50 "2013-06-22T05:46:18Z")
I read that court transcript and Paula Deen is going to have a hard time winning her public image back. She repeately lies and constrants herself so many times throughout her testimony. The prosecutor basically pounded her on every turn. When she tires to counter the prosecutor, it makes her more guilty. “We all tell our colored jokes.” :smack: I think everyone knows she is weird, but it get weird weird. When she wants to have someone favoring her side, she wants to him them a massage:confused:. Also, she has some company meeting in her bathroom at her home. What is weird also about this bathroom is that it has counch for people to sit on and talk. Who puts a counch in their bathroom :eek: Also she is also a really s(8$%\* business woman. Claims not to know how to work email, claims not to know the name of the positions and duties of the people she hires, claims not to know how much net income she makes off her business deals, and claims not to know how much money she give to her brother to keep his/her restaurant afloat (Prosecutor said that there was 300,000 dollars that Deen used on her brother 's business). I will admit that there are alot of business owners who never taken a school course on business management, but when a business gets to be a million dollar empire. you think she might take a interest from the people she hires how to know how to run a business better. She might make a comeback, but she will alot of her fanbase and profit from it in the end. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/51 "2013-06-22T06:18:50Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I never said anything about using it as a slur or insult, and I’m not quite sure how you say something with quotation marks around it (air bunnies?). The question she was asked is if she had ever said the word. > > After her first honest response of “of course” it went down hill quickly for her to the point she couldn’t climb back up. “Putting quotation marks around it” in the proverbial sense, i.e. If you’re quoting someone who said it in conversation. Which, of course, shouldn’t be considered racist in that context. Which brings this brilliant [piece of satire](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LaKCSql0rs) to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/52 "2013-06-22T06:19:51Z")
Maybe I just have a messed up sense of humor, but I’ve had this SNL type skit in my head for the last 2 or 3 days where Paula Deen is back on the set at Food Network and she’s obviously been drinking and she’s calling everyone the n-word and when someone finally calls her out on it she says “n-- please. I _PAID_ to say this. Ima get my money’s worth!” Yeah, I know. Probably only funny to me, messed up sense of humor and all. ---
**Author:** ![split\_p\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@split\_p\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/split_p_j)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/53 "2013-06-22T06:20:28Z")
From my point of view, as a 41 year old black man, I don’t really see what the big deal is. This country in general hates black people, and always has. I grew up among white people, and I know they are obsessed with hating black people. I think it actually does more harm to force her off the air, as if that will actually change the anti-black bias in this country. This bias runs deep in the US, and a change can’t be forced. I think all these forced apologies and firings are pointless. You can’t change people’s heart like this. I would say leave her on the air and let the ratings be the judge. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/54 "2013-06-22T06:54:58Z")
> [@split\_p\_j](#): > > From my point of view, as a 41 year old black man, I don’t really see what the big deal is. This country in general hates black people, and always has. I grew up among white people, and I know they are obsessed with hating black people. > > I think it actually does more harm to force her off the air, as if that will actually change the anti-black bias in this country. This bias runs deep in the US, and a change can’t be forced. I think all these forced apologies and firings are pointless. You can’t change people’s heart like this. > > I would say leave her on the air and let the ratings be the judge. I can’t begin to relate to the BS you’ve had to endure in this country, but concerning her show remaining on TFN, in this situation, rating or not, she’s dead in the water. Advertisers (let alone the network itself) will treat her like a uranium fuel rod now. Pillsbury, Crisco, Nabisco, et al, will not want to be associated with the latest racist-of-the-year award winner. That’s showbusiness. And capitalism. Gawd bless America! ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/55 "2013-06-22T09:54:46Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > 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? I was born in the South in the fifties, and as a child I was taught that “Nice people don’t use that word,” so I never have, unless it might have been in quoting someone else with some disgust. It’s funny that I was told the same thing about cuss words and I grew up to swear like a sailor on occasion, but I still won’t use that word and I don’t like it when others do. I don’t know how racist you are, but I think we all may be to some extent. That just means we need to think about our attitudes and the words we use and try to weed that shit out. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/56 "2013-06-22T10:43:02Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I really doubt there are many people on this board who could honestly say that the word has never crossed their lips. I’ve never said or used the word nigger in an insulting way, ever. Never in a joke. Never as a pejorative. The only time I’ve ever availed myself to use the word is to discuss the word itself, like I am doing now. I’ve never even said it jokingly like, “what’s up my nigga!?” Frankly I find it disturbing and shocking that so many people here feel like everyone is secretly using the word nigger in jokes or insults behind black peoples’ backs. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/57 "2013-06-22T11:30:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …the foremost reason I would ever side with the North in a Civil War would be the appeal of bankrupting three of my least favorite Southern women: Paula Deen, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Nancy Grace. Not quite the Axis of Evil, but AWESOME nonetheless! ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/58 "2013-06-22T13:05:08Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > 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. Yeah, I’ve certainly said the word, but only referring to other people saying it, or talking about a joke making fun of racists, like Mel Brooks or SNL. Speaking of which, I’m now totally picturing Paula Deen in the Chevy Chase role in the word association interview with Richard Pryor. I love her magazine covers as well. They are [completely terrifying](http://www.psdisasters.com/2009/09/paula-deen-is-your-mother-home.html)! It makes me laugh to reflect that, with all the fashion magazines in the rack next to her cooking rag, hers is the most aggressively Photoshopped cover picture. > [@Algher](#): > > 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. Highlights: She admitted not just saying “nigger,” but calling a black person a nigger, in earnest. As in “Then this nigger came in the bank and held a gun to my head,” when she told her husband about a robbery where she worked. Some of her testimony showed clearly that she was trying to deceive through vagueness, and fudge facts so she looked less racist, but the lawyer pinned her down, and she came out looking racist and dishonest about it. Everyone agrees that when Paula was planning her brother’s wedding, she referred to a restaurant she’d been to where the waiters were all black men dressed in white coats and black ties, and that she spoke about possibly doing a similar thing for the wedding (but didn’t actually follow through). The plaintiff says Paula casually used racist language when discussing it and said they couldn’t do it because of how people would react. Paula says she didn’t use racist language, and merely mentioned how nice that restaurant’s setup had been, but that they couldn’t emulate it because people might misunderstand the intent. But when pressed she admits she knew that the restaurant was presenting the servers as though they were “house slaves” in the antebellum South. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/59 "2013-06-22T13:35:56Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I’ve never said or used the word nigger in an insulting way, ever. Never in a joke. Never as a pejorative. The only time I’ve ever availed myself to use the word is to discuss the word itself, like I am doing now. I’ve never even said it jokingly like, “what’s up my nigga!?” > > Frankly I find it disturbing and shocking that so many people here feel like everyone is secretly using the word nigger in jokes or insults behind black peoples’ backs. exactly. The word makes me sick my my stomach. I have never said it, ever ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585/60 "2013-06-22T14:07:38Z")
In a world where Don Imus is still pulling in plenty of dough, I don’t think Paula Deen has anything to worry about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-i-have-some-rather-disturbing-news-about-paula-deen/661585.md?page=4)