I have a feeling that Paula will go on being a southern celebrity within a certain segment of the population who doesn’t mind a dash of recism in their deep fried bacon mac & cheese. She’ll be a little worse for wear but she’ll never be hungry or poor again.
I’m also amused at the thought of Anthony Bourdain laughing up a storm at this entire fiasco. The only way his day could get better is if Guy Fierri were caught in a full throated homophobic rant or a porn video surfacing, starring Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee.
I don’t think this would have been nearly as big a deal if she hadn’t already been taking on water from the “sugar diabeetus” news and just people getting tired of her in general already.
She’ll probably become openly political and an outspoken tea party icon, which is porn for ugly people. She has the extra calling card to them in that she can cater.
Once again, the question she was initially asked was NOT if she had used it in an insulting, joking, or pejorative manor… it was if she EVER had said the word. I find it hard to believe anyone of her generation from the south could say no. I also have never used it in an insulting, joking, or pejorative manor.
The next question where she was asked in what context is where she showed her racism.
I am not defending her, nor am I advocating use of the word… but I realize the word exists and it will be used in some context. It has been typed in several of the responses from people saying it appalls them. That is fine… how else can you explain to someone what they shouldn’t do.
And to eulalia to put it in perspective… the grandfather in question was born in 1909… my Dad was born in the early 30’s. By the time I was born in '61 I also knew very well that it wasn’t a word to be used.
I was never a Paula Deen fan. I found her style of deep-fried bullshit to feel as phoney as her hair, spray tan, and teeth, and her cooking to be too unhealthy. I’m not in the least surprised to find that she lacks almost any kind of insight and has now learned the harsh lesson that her place of power, privilege and money is not just a natural part of the world order, but is really a fragile and fleeting gift that she callously and casually abused.
I do think is is possible that she can learn from this episode. I hope she does.
The news is just full of episodes where she seems so clueless about race issues. Her story of popping the blisters on the hands of her baby sitter’s daughter and how the baby sitter then got arrested for spanking her for that act. Her clueless responses to her ancestors owning slaves- “Oh, 35. That’s a lot.” Other comments by her about how that ancestor committed suicide following the civil war because he lost his “workers” (ahem, “slaves”).
Are you saying that all white people hate black people even now? I know some white people who still have racist views, but I would not say that is the norm nowadays. Perhaps things are a lot worse where you are than they are where I live, but I grew up in Detroit, so I think I’ve seen a decent representation of modern racial tension.
True, but then “Dr.” Laura fell from grace after an 11-n-bomb tirade. Until a magic virus mutates that whithers the tongue after an abundance of odious words, it’s the best we’ve got.
This has nothing to do with changing anybody’s heart. The network felt it would hurt their bottom line if they were associated with her, so they told her to go away. That’s actually a good sign in its way: they concluded that being associated with someone who came off as a clueless racist would hurt their business.
Dr. Laura still has a show, though. Paula Deen will be quickly picked up by another network and it won’t take long for people to forget what happened. Especially 'round Thanksgiving time.
Case in point: myself. I had completely forgotten all about Dr. Laura’s racist tirade. I had to google her name to jog my memory.
So I have no sympathy for the people who bemoan the disproportionate power of the “offenderati”. If people buy what you are selling–whether it is funny commentary, no-nonsense advice, or buttery biscuits–it doesn’t really matter how gross or mean your views are. In this consumer-driven society, you will always have a venue.
Dr. Laura does still have a show, but she’s on satellite radio instead of huge national networks, and I expect that means she lost the vast majority of her audience. She said so many horrible things that I didn’t remember the racist stuff either and it’s too bad anybody listens to her, but that was another case where the biggest producers and sponsors did not want to touch someone who said that kind of awful crap. It’s hard to kick someone off the air forever - the dirty secret, I think, is that the public loves forgiving people after they get ruined. It makes people feel big. So Paula Deen will probably work again but I doubt she’ll enjoy this level of success.
The first time I ever heard anyone say the En word I was twenty years old. It came from the mouth of a ready-to-retire Black Army Sergeant. That was the first time I had ever been in the same room with or spoken to a Black person.
I know. A lot of people don’t believe this but there were no Black people that I knew of where I grew up.
Short of Little Black Sambo from my little golden book, whom I thought was an exotic and clever child, I had no preconceived notions about Black people until I met them. They just weren’t a topic of conversation in our little all-Lutheran, all-Norwegian town. (Well., there were the African children we sent clothing and money to, but we knew little about them.)
Within weeks I was working in a military youth center with children of all ages and cultural/racial backgrounds. Had a lot of catching up to do. About all I can say about that is that I came to the concept pretty clean of preconceived notions. And it was a great place to learn because in the Army the main prejudice at that time was only one of rank.
I did know that Black people called themselves the En word! Then all that changed.
Will Paula learn not to say forbidden words? I doubt that. Even if she does, will that prevent her from thinking forbidden thoughts? Censorship of any kind of language or idea has unpredictable repercussions.
Refraining from derogatory language is just being professional in my book. At least people know what she’s all about now and they can make their choices accordingly.
I didn’t think I’d spend two hours of my Saturday watching Paula Deen parodies, but whoever made that is a national treasure. Here’s a few more of his that I couldn’t stop laughing at (NSFW language):
