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Paula Deen


Eric83

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I am not surprised. I don't see the Food Network getting rid of her either. I expect that she will apology "if" her words offended anyone and get on with her wealthy life.

Lots and lots of white people in this country, when they are in each other's company or in private.

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I'm mostly surprised she said as much as she did. I guess she's one of those people who thinks racist comments are OK if they're done as a joke. The problem is this is only funny to the person telling the racist 'joke'. And saying, essentially, "Hey I'm going to repeat those funny comments black people make to each other, slurs are OK in that context," is...really something special.

What disturbs me is that even though she denied it, it's difficult for me to believe that this environment was not all over this restaurant, and it must have been very oppressive.

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I'm sure that's true, but I'm white and it's been a good 20 years, since I've heard anyone talk like that even in private. I find it pretty shocking.

I did have an acquaintance once who went on about minorities milking the welfare system. Meanwhile it was well known that he had 5 kids and was on SNAP, while making a decent income under the table. blink.png It was pretty surreal.

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I have some relatives who have this view, relatives I rarely see or deal with, but I would hope that someone who has money, power, and privilege would educate themselves to move beyond this type of view. And you will usually hear, "Well it's the South," or, "Well, it's Georgia," but this woman is a huge industry across the country. She's supposed to represent the best of the South. Not the idea that being white and Southern means you automatically have a nostalgic view of slavery or that you can't understand why racial slurs or racist jokes are bad. That's not true.

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I've never thought that about her. She's always given me a bad vibe. I haven't trusted her since the diabetes issue. Not because I blame anyone for getting sick. It just seemed shady to me that she didn't tell people sooner given her job and the sort of food she was promoting.

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I never have either, but I think that's her role on the Food Network, it was part of her role when she'd show up in places like Oprah, the Oprah magazines, her own magazines, etc. She was a face for Southern cooking and some image of a Southern lady. And that bothers me because she has done nothing to live up to that. She is, at best, if you believe her denials, a party to all kinds of casual racism and prejudice that she writes off as no big deal. I think it's shameful. It would be shameful even if she was just living in a shack by the Interstate, but being in the position she's in, she should have known better.

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I do think that this is a combination of region, background, and age. It is not that some white people up north do not talk this way, but rather they are far more discrete as they are aware of the possible negative consquences. Deen is from the south and is at age where these comments were made commonly. Plus, she is wealthy enough that she feels insulated from any consequences about her attitudes.

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What disturbed me most was her acting as if the era of slavery was some big, grand Shirley Temple movie when in reality it involved the humiliation, degradation, and rape of fellow human beings.

Also her former employee claims Paula made the black employees use a bathroom in back while the white employees could use the customer bathrooms. :o And this was in 2005?!

Is Paula Deen the highest rated show on Food Network?

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