The Civil Rights movement wasn’t about eliminating racism, it was about changing the laws that racists had put in place denying people basic human rights and dignity.
Paula Deen was about the same age as the students who had to be escorted to school by soldiers as people hurled the most vile and disgusting taunts at them. Anyone who could watch that, or see peaceful protesters attacked with pickax handles and fire-hoses, and not be disgusted by it barely qualifies as a human being.
I understand the purpose of the Civil Rights Movement. I’m perplexed that people on this thread believe that peoples views would have been immediately corrected over night because of it. The reason this laws had to be made, then forced on the southern states were because of the culture these people had and were raised on, Paula Deen being among them. Many Southerners even then, were probably ashamed or outraged at how black people were treated when protesting for the Civil right’s Movement, doesn’t mean they did believe black people were their equals and should go to school with their children. These were behaviors and social norms going on 100 years after the Civil War and the end of slavery. But Paula Deen slipping a racial slur in her own home, 15 or 20 years after the Civil Rights Movement is completely shocking, confirms that she runs or allows hostile, discriminatory work environments 30 years later and should pay some chick over a million dollars for it.
I feel like I have a firm hold on racism, it’s history and it’s current status. Pardon me if I feel like old southern people that were raised during the time on those principles may find that old beliefs die hard and sometimes, when those old people are having weak moments for what ever reason, those old beliefs slip out. Rather than act like I am horridly insulted, I would rather roll my eyes and move on. Before I write off Paula Deen as anything more than an old woman that is a product of her generation and upbringing, I wait to see what the court that has heard all the evidence and all sides of the story say, because the Media certainly isn’t giving her that respect.
I’m not sure what this has to do with the Civil Rights movement.
And Paula Deen is hardly an “old woman”: she is from the age of The Beatles, Woodstock, the Vietnam War protests, and the Stonewall riots. Her first time voting would have been between Nixon and Humphrey not Dewey and Truman.
What what has to do with the Civil Rights Movement?
My point is Paula Deen younger and most influential years would have been when the South was segregated and likely raised on principles and by people that believed blacks were second class citizens. Those views hardly died out with the onset of Civil Rights. It’s hardly surprising that she may have consciously or unconsciously held on to some of those biases or prejudice views. Her use of a racial slur, in her home, amongst friends/family, when talking about a violent situation and referring to the perpetrator, though in poor taste is hardly surprising and doesn’t say a hole lot about how she is in every day life. It doesn’t mean she fosters a hostile work place. The Media should do a better job reporting on the trial instead of putting out tidbits that make Paula seem much worse than she probably is. People that read it are too quick to judge on the situation.
Sorry, but considering that 66 is about 14 years shy of the life expectancy, I consider her an old woman. However, I’m in my 30’s and my 56 year old mother doesn’t seem to believe 66 is old either. Perspective I guess.
Basically, I don’t know how to make this more clear. The media is halfass reporting this story. A handfull of instances were pick out of Paula Deen’s ENTIRE life in an effort by the Plaintiff to paint her as a racist in an attempt to make the jury believe Bubba’s Oyster restaurant was a hostile place to work. So many people so readily believe the worst of the worst of Paula Deen based on 1) a couple of past experiences of Paula Deen, no evidence of frequency or normality of the behavior, not even any recent evidence and 2) she got on a lot of people’s nerves anyway.
Disregard all contrary evidence or possibilities that I have repeated stated and don’t bother to wait on the people that are actually getting all the evidence to decide.
I’m not saying that she is or isn’t racist. I’m not saying she should or shouldn’t be. I’m saying that people are making harsh judgments on cherry picked and incomplete information.
It’s so true! How can any of us in good conscience condemn Paula’s understandable reluctance to let black employees use the main entrance to her restaurant? Probably if we had grown up in the South we would all have done the same thing because everybody knows that it is impossible not to be racist if you are from there!
We should all be more like Paula because she knows it takes time to make a good judgement decision! She has not let any of this johnny-come-lately foofaraw about “civil rights” and “desegregation” change her mind about whether or not it is okay to let black employees work in the front of the restaurant where the customers might see them! Patience is the Lord’s virtue! And speaking of patience, you’ll need the patience of a saint to keep yourself from guzzling down this tasty gem of a dual purpose salad topping/gravy sauce! Here it is…
Nothing spells “refreshing summer salads” quite like a lukewarm mixture of sugar, flour and congealed bacon grease! As black people would say…“Drizzle me some of that ‘shizzle’, ‘homies’!” Then I bet they would probably rob a liquor store.
Obviously it’s you who didn’t watch the video. She didn’t describe how he lost his slaves, she lamented how hard he had it after he lost all the WORKERS who “HELPED” him operate his plantation. Bitch couldn’t even bring herself to call them what they were: SLAVES her grandpappy BOUGHT, probably at auction, and didn’t pay a damn dime for their labor.
She fucking called them workers. Workers!
Too bad the sonofabitch didn’t off himself before he’d sired Deen’s mamma.
No she isn’t and no they aren’t.
Apparently you haven’t read the deposition any more carefully than you watched that video.
When asked if she’d ever used the word “nigger” after that long-ago incident, her exact words were: “I’m sure I have.”
Get that? She’s sure she’s used that word other times. Sure of it.
Are you aware of what she says about the telling of jokes about Jews, blacks, “rednecks” and others? Her words:
“Most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks. … They usually target … a group. Gays or straights, black, redneck, you know,” she said in the deposition. “I just don’t know, what to say. I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person.”
Really now. She can’t determine what offends another person about black jokes and Jew jokes?
When Matt Lauer called her on it in her teary-eyed interview on the “Today” show, he asked: “Do you have any doubt in your mind that African-Americans are offended by the n-word?”
Did she say anything like, “Of course they would be,” or “No, no doubt at all. It’s offensive”?
Nope. She sidestepped the question entirely and … blamed black people.
“It’s distressing for me to go into my kitchens and I hear what these young people are calling each other,” she said. “These young people are going to have to take control and start showing respect for each other and not throwing that word at each other.”
Really now. It’s all their fault. Got it.
Fucking twat.
There we go. You like to believe allegations and rumors. I like to wait and hold judgment until the courts decide. Crazy I know:rolleyes:
I grew up in a home where the “N” word was freely used, and racism was the default. We lived in a small farming community, and our neighbors looked like us and believed as we did. I knew for as long as I can remember that the word itself was wrong (still used it as the most loaded insult I could sling at a sibling) but lacking any kind of context about behaviors exhibited by the adults in my life being ignorant and hateful, I didn’t even begin to understand what conscious and unconscious beliefs were being baked right into me, or that they were wrong. I had literally no interaction with racial minorities until I went to college. It is a wonder that my ignorant white ass survived. Looking back, I said and did things – with my unconscious beliefs acting as my guide – that were all kinds of awful. Told black men who showed interest “no thanks, I’m not attracted to black men” and thought that my honesty was admirable. I won’t detail the path that led me to some form of enlightenment, but will say that the difference between younger me and who I am today isn’t that I’m no longer a casual, unthinking bigot: It is that I am AWARE of the ugliness and the utter wrongness of any polarizing belief or stereotype, of the potential harm I can do, and of the continuing existing harm of institutional racism. And I am ASHAMED of ignorance, my own and others. I make earnest efforts to educate myself, am not defensive about what I’ve come to know are my existing white privilege advantages, and make no apologies for who I was (a hostage, at any rate, to a system of belief pounded into me by the adults and the microcosmic society that I lived in).
I could almost feel sorry for Paula Deen, one ignorant white woman to another, had she simply apologized for her ignorance, acknowledged the harm she’s done, and stuck with “… that is not who I am today.” Instead, she is actively playing the victim, and her current remarks speak of a continuing level of ignorance that she is probably not even fully aware of. She’s an obscenely wealthy business woman. Over the years, she would have had many opportunities to challenge the commonplace racism implicit in growing up in the deep south. By now, she should be more than aware that plantation wedding re-enactments, complete with deferential black men dressed as servants, has a contextually loaded history that is and should be offensive to EVERYONE on her guest list, not just the paid labor. Or that her use of the “N” word is not a result of her confusion over young black people reclaiming the word and using it with each other in a way that robs it of its power. No, Paula, you ignorant twat (another word that I own as a female :D) it is NOT black people’s fault that you seem incapable of understanding just why that word has such a powerfully ugly connotation, both historically and in the here and now.
I’ve no doubt that Paula is being demonized to some extent and I’m not going to believe all of the speculation just because talking heads are postulating. What does concern me is the tendency of our society to hoist one up as an example of all that is wrong with this country today, set that thing aflame, and neatly wrap it all up as a happy ending. What a tidy way to never have to examine one’s own culpability, if we’ve collectively identified and shunned an individual rather than the institution that we are all a part of.
Listen, I’ve been over southern self justification when it comes to slavery and racial issues. I have said REPEATEDLY I can completely believe that Paula TODAY holds prejudice views. HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean her brother’s restaurant is a hostile work environment.
I’m sorry, I have heard TONS of jokes dealing with racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes and all other sorts of potentially offensive material. FROM ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE. How many comedians on comedy central had shows pretty much build on offensive racial material? That shit is funny. If a little old white woman wants to tell those jokes amongst family and friends, then have at it. I think most people can hear these jokes and can take them for what they are, jokes. Society is littered with examples of people saying things that they didn’t they would offend the people around them. Please understand that Lisa Jackson testified that she never heard anything discriminatory come from Paula Deen.
Yeah lots of white folks have trouble with the fact the if they whisper the word, they are the worst people ever in the world, but black folks say it to each other in casual conversation. Is it really shocking that when she begins loosing millions in contracts and endorsements for using the word, decades ago, she deflects and cites a black person’s use. Again, justification. Did that attitude or the actions of the kitchen staff using that language in the restaurant make Lisa Jackson feel like she was working in a hostile work environment and what if anything did Bubba or Paula do to remedy it?
Are you a non-native English speaker or just a redneck*? You keep on using the term “prejudice views”. It should be “she holds prejudiced views”, or “she shows prejudice”, or “she is prejudiced”.
No, YOU LISTEN, dude. I couldn’t give a rip if Deen had fuckall to do with anything going on in those restaurants. You are claiming that people are ripping on Deen without ANY justification. I’ve just shown you that you are flat out wrong about that. There is PLENTY of justification.
[ul]
[li]She didn’t just admit to the one-time use of a racial epithet 30 years ago; she admitted under oath that she’s sure she’s used it since then. SURE of it.[/li][li]She didn’t just admit to using a racial epithet when she was held up at gunpoint; she brushed off inappropriate “jokes” about several “groups” with a shrug because she can’t figure out that if you aren’t a paid standup comedian doing a schtick that’s likely self-deprecating, you have no business “joking” about racial and ethnic groups. People with brains bigger than a gnat’s know those “jokes” are always laced with hate, so give me a fucking break.[/li][li]She didn’t just admit to using inappropriate racial stereotypes in her past; she ignorantly humiliated a loyal friend in front of a large crowd by saying he was so dark he couldn’t be seen in front of a black board.[/li][li]She didn’t just acknowledge that she was an ignorant, racist idiot in her unknowing youth; she proved it when she called the SLAVES her grandfather owned, WORKERS, as if they were merely hired help who up and quit on him. As if we were supposed to feel sorry for all his “losses.”[/li][/ul]
She proved she doesn’t fucking get it. Still. So your defense of her over people being mean on the Internets is ridiculous.
aag3981
I empathize with you. Tough to be all alone, especially in the Pit. I’d try to help you, but I have enough problems in Great Debates, where the tone is much nicer. And I can be a little chicken shit.
But …carry on. Doing a pretty good job amongst great hostility.
One of the bravest things a person can do is admit when they are wrong.
If you’ve managed to make it to your 70s without being able to do this, you most certainly are chicken shit.
Not touching this forum with a 10 foot pole. At least not yet. Got to get a little braver.
Just thought that aag should know that there may be many lurkers on this thread who agree with him/her. What he/she is doing is not without value.
The real problem with Paula Deen is that she is distracting too many people away from the racism that really matters. People still have a lot of pent-up outrage about the (ongoing) racism in this country, and it is being uselessly vented on some nobody who doesn’t matter.
She is deflecting attention away from the racist policies of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his GOP legislature, and the assholes who fund their campaigns.
She is deflecting attention away from the racist policies of North Carolina Gov. Pat McRory and his GOP legislature, and the assholes who fund their campaigns.
She is deflecting attention away from the racist policies of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his GOP legislature, and the assholes who fund their campaigns.
She is deflecting attention away from the racist policies of Minnesota Gov. Scott Walker and his GOP legislature, and the assholes who fund their campaigns.
She is deflecting attention away from the racist application of search and frisk laws which result in harsh, unnecessary drug convictions over fucking weed in New York and other places.
I could go on, but you get the point. In light of actual formal racist problems in America today, I’m not sure the undoubtedly trashy Paula Deen even merits a sarcastic, “Whoa! Move over Julia Child!” :rolleyes:
Burn the witch! Burn the witch!
And in her case, we won’t need kindling!
LOL! Good one!
I don’t much like Paula Deen, but she’s getting a lot more attention than she deserves (Of course, she’s always gotten a lot more money and attention than she deserves, but that’s a subject for a whole 'nother rant.)
Even so, like George Zimmerman, she’s just one of the latest sacrificial victims offered up on the altar of political correctness. So she’s said “nigger” a few times and laughed at or ignored some tasteless jokes. She doesn’t deserve to made a pariah for that, nor does anybody else.
Sure she does. Both of them do, because we’ve evolved beyond accepting that sort of intolerance. You want evidence? It’s happening. You, personally, may think there is nothing wrong with making fun of a black person’s “darkness” or throwing the word nigger about at the workplace you rule, but many of us do find it troubling, disheartening, tasteless, and an attitude worthy of scorn. You are more than welcome to keep to yourself and your kind, though, and continue niggering up your own workplace and waxing romantic about the times when black folk knew their place as servants and underlings, be sure and let us know how long your popularity and success survives behaving as a coothless, backward, asocial, unconscionable, and unapologetic apologist. Ya hear?
Not that my esteemed neighbors to the east need defending, but Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin.
Minnesota has enough problems with Michele Bachmann and Jesse Ventura.