Paula Deen

[London]

NO YOU DIDN'T E! LMAO!

[Pine Charles]

For real.

It was cringe-worthy.

Anyway -

I wonder if Paula has ever gotten plastered, wobbled down to her fridge for some snacks and verbally attacked her bottle of Aunt Jemima.... "Get yer butt outta that fridge and make me some flapjacks!"

[London]

LMAO, that sounds so sad.

[alphanguy74]

I think alot of it is a person who is raised in that time and place, those patterns of speech and attitudes are so ingrained, that it's almost impossible to get rid of. You know old people are always said to be "Set in their ways".....People can say "this is 2013, she needs to change", but I would dare you to go up to your grandparents and tell them that their antiquated sayings and attitudes are inappropriate in today's world, and tell me how that goes over. In reality, everyone who is rejoicing in her downfall is rejoicing in the downfall of every person who works for her, cause she's and old woman, and has more money than she'll ever spend in the next 20 or so years. And blacks saying it makes a difference. It keeps the word alive and up front in the english vernacular. Asians, hispanics and Jews don't address each other with slurs, so why should blacks?

[Eric83]

She doesn't have an excuse. She knows what the words mean and her interview she slick tried to blame it on blacks using the words by saying she was "distressed" hearing blacks use the word to each other. Please! And her saying the N-word is not the only thing she has done so people trying to defend her by blaming blacks also need to realize she wanted blacks dressed up as slaves at her brother's wedding and allegedly made her black employees use separate bathrooms. Is that black people's fault too?

And ALL blacks do not use the word so the generalizing needs to cease in that regard. She knows damn well what the word means and why she can't use it. Period. Black people using it does not give her an excuse when she knows the deal.

[DRW50]

Unless the grandparent is a huge media mogul, they're not in the same situation as Paula. She is a public face, a face and a persona which is used to sell her restaurants and so many other things. Part of that includes a responsibility. Now, since she apparently chose to ignore that responsibility, we have a laundry list of reasons from the press, her fans, her friends and family, etc. about why racist comments aren't so bad/are not really her fault/a black person said them too/are all lies (depending on her story at that moment), etc. This has turned racism into being all about the burden on Paula Deen.

The fate of the people who work for her is one of the reasons this all came out in the first place.

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

The problem I think for many is that all this has just come out of left field. One minute we're talking about whatever else is going on in the world and then all of sudden Paula Deen has apparently been spouting the n word for decades both on and off the job seems to have some prejudice towards African Americans (and who knows what other minorities).

Then to make matters worse she ditches her first interview with Matt Lauer....releases two sh*tty and unconvincing YouTube videos as some type of "apology". Those YouTube videos were awkward at best and at worse were just pathetic.

Then today she goes on the Today show and plays as if SHE'S the victim in all this? She mentioned how she's had to "hold people" in her arms as they're sobbing because of what people are saying about her. How she's upset about that.. UMMM okay WTF are you talking about Mrs Deen?

It's just a total lack of awareness and utter disrespect on her part for not even addressing the concerns that people have and the genuine outrage that many people feel. For my part I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt but her interview was just a big clusterf*ck of epic proportions ending with the plea for all of us to throw a stone at her so hard that it would kill her. Talk about being overdramatic.

Those were fake tears and that whole interview just sounded insincere and above all else it seemed like someone on the attack. Even Joe Scarborough from Morning Joe on MSNBC...a conservative who I usually disagree with said she had the wrong attitude.

She really needs to hire some new advisers cuz her current ones are doing a TERRIBLE job.

[Lust4Life76]

There isn't a person alive who hasn't said something racist whether it to be ignorance, sheer malice or otherwise. I just combed through the threads on this post, and out of retaliation, or to illustrate a "statement" we got Paula Deen bating Kunta Kinte? Hypocrisy; that's racist in a way. Racist jokes were the cornerstone of "All in the Family" and "Soap" Maybe to cope with prejudice from the past in order to move on. "Desperate Housewives" was peppered with racism. In the movie "Heartburn", Meryl Streep makes comment that the woman who is having an affair with her husband got an STD from a toilet seat or the spring roles served at an Asian restaurant. Nora Ephron didn't have to write that - nor did Meryl Streep have to say it - but yet it was scripted and acted out and nobody who left the theater thought either respected artist was a racist. But back to Paula Dean...she says she tells the truth. She says she said something 30 years ago. She knows it's bad. I've never seen her look so brow beat as she did in the TODAY interview. She may have gone on and on, delirium? But if you fessed up to something you said or did, and it impacted your career, you'd fight to preserve your life.

How can we as soap fans who like the shades of gray people portray yet be so hard on Paula Deen? And no I don't think the "N" word is cool, even if there are facets of the African-American community toss them around at each other. I was exposed to the "N" word when I was nine, maybe ten. A girl who truly didn't know better called me it. Never heard it before. I had no idea what it meant until I called my sister it and a shocked party informed me. And then my mother. I've said an "S" word in retaliation to a Latino's prejudice towards me for being homosexual in my teens, and again in my twenties. None of it was ever okay, and it was abuse of power. But if somebody asked me "have you ever been racist?" I would have to say yes. I hate having to admit it. But I've said things. Can I move on please? I can. Because anybody who stands in another persons way from healing over their own ignorance has to be the most infallible person alive - and honestly there isn't a one. And Paula Deen shouldn't let others stand in her way not even herself. I think the country needs to discuss this but not to ruin a person and send them to oblivion. That does nothing.

[Pine Charles]

Paula Deen's 'Today' apology didn't impress experts

[marceline]

Don't. Just don't.

I can be "hard" on Paula Deen because as a business owner, she was presented many times with evidence that her employees (and her part-owner brother) were:

• using racist language directed at employees (including an email to staff using the slur)
• physically assaulting them,
• making sexual advances on employees,
• wouldn’t promote women
• had unequal pay for women vs. men
• only allowed light skinned staff to be up front
• made black workers enter from the back of the building (even to pick up checks)
• had separate bathrooms for white and black employees
• distributed porn at manager meetings

Paula participated in many of these actions and was told about them by her general manager, her accountant, her lawyers, an outside consulting firm, etc. She was told verbally and in writing. By not putting a stop to these practices in her own business, she enabled them. By not stopping these actions after being told repeatedly, she was approving, condoning and encouraging these illegal activities.

This isn't a case of poor Paula said something impolitic and now she's being attacked, this is a case of the owner and manager of a business allowing and engaging in illegal activity.

This "country" isn't ruining her. Individuals and private businesses have made the informed choice to no longer associate with this woman based on her words and behavior. If you want to support this woman, have at it but don't tell the rest of us what were supposed to think and PLEASE don't use the faulty equivalence of "You like soaps doncha? Then you're not allowed to be bothered by the plantation wedding." One is fake the other is real.

[Ann_SS]

marceline, I admire your restraint. When it comes to the Paula Deen and her brother's defenders, birds of a feather...

[Cheap21]

bc a soap character is fictional and this is real life! I've loved characters who were rapists and murderers but no way would I support that from a real person. Your statement is flawed and really shouldn't have even been brought up

[Eric83]

Thank you marceline! Some people are forgetting or purposely ignoring that this is not just about the N word!

[Lust4Life76]

"Don't. Just don't"? But I will. That's what this board is for. To express viewpoints. I don't care if you agree with me, and I am sure that is mutual. Nothing I say is telling you to back off how you feel and I am not ashamed of my view or asking how from a pop culture angle people tolerate racism/character faults. Let me ask you something, you're presenting facts that she's being called out on, regarding the Antebellum themed wedding..." Enquirer claims that Deen wanted to use a "slave motif" at her brother's 2007 wedding"...Are you referencing the tabloid?

As for the unfair business practices, that I seriously didn't know much about. I know she denies it. If the case is as you say, and she is lying, if she is found out to be lying then I will reverse my stance on that particular issue. I've been subject to slurs about my sexuality on a job that got to the point I had to walk out. But to blaspheme the lady for something she said 30 years ago...I'm not going to get upset. I am in no position because of what I said in my youth. And mind you I have no vested interest in Ms. Deen. I'm not a Food Network Fan. I am just intrigued at the double standard people are held to. That I am interested in conversing about - but please don't tell me because something doesn't gel with your viewpoint I shouldn't bring it up. I am not advocate for prejudice/racism.

[Lust4Life76]

Flawed? And satirizing titles of movies and television shows in lieu of the situation doesn't perpetuate racism? Do you think segregation and hangings are funny? Despite what Paula Deen said, how it goes against your values, you aren't doing your stance any favors.

You've loved characters that were rapists and murderers, okay break that down...