The Paula Deen backlash

[Medusa]

So Paula Deen,
(for those living under a cave: She's a Southern Belle lady who loves to cook home cooked meals full of butter. Was later found to be Diabetic. Continued cooking high fatty meals while hiding her Diabetes. Then came out just in time to push her new spokeswomanship for a new Diabetic drug)whew...
Well, she was called to a disposition on a case involving her restaurant. She explained how she had used the N word several times in the late 80s. She said she was sorry.

I've been following her story. And if THIS was the only thing she's done, I'd probably just call her dumb and move on. But wait! Shamwow says there is more to this story!
The Deposition Transcript
Paula wants waitstaff to be slaves like a Plantation era scene/
She's been fired by Food Network. And fired as a spokesperson for Smithfield Ham. Her products are probably going to be pulled from the department stores. And QVC shopping network doesn't have any plans to bring her and her products back on the air.

So where do you stand?


*YAR BE WARNED. RACE TALK BE IN HERE. DON'T BE AN IDIOT. IF YOU AINT GOT THE CONSTITUTION TO TALK LIKE AN ADULT, ZIP IT OR ELSE A PEG LEGGED MOD MAY COME AND CLOSE MAH THREAD AND PISS MEOFF.

[Denarius]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

She's a sixty-six year old southerner. The problem here is that she grew up learning to be a certain way, and circumstances changed. The racism and the diabetes thing are both reflections of that.

Survival of the fittest in action, you adapt or you die.

[Luce]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

She expends the energy to hate people on account of their skin. Her priorities are entirely wrong, IMO.

[DanieMarie]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

I usually skip over her recipes when something comes up in a google search. Too much fat! And I make pies with lard....

I still have trouble accepting the whole "she's from a different era" thing. That may be, but civil rights started long before the 1980s. I don't think age gets you a "get out" card for being hateful. You either accept the (positive) changes in society, or you face criticism.

[Denarius]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

Eh, it's not just that she's old... it's that she's old and southern. That makes a difference, and as I said she is refusing or is unable to adapt to the change in her environment.

[Ophidia]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

I don't care one way or the other about Paula Deen. I know of her, and all her recipes require vast quantities of butter, which I'm down with. This recipe is my absolute all-time favorite of hers: Paula Deen's Infamous English Peas.

Beyond that... It took me a long time just to find one legitimate article that actually mentioned what the lawsuit was - a woman is suing Paula Deen & her restaurant for discrimination and harassment. It wasn't even mentioned on the deposition itself (which is horribly formatted & needs some serious clean-up work to even look like a legitimate legal document. I spent 2 years cleaning up legal documents, and looking at that deposition made me want to cry. Just sayin'.)

Since she's being sued for discrimination and racially based harassment, it's kind of a big deal. Through the headache of reading her depo, it seemed like Deen was embarrassed to be called out on her behavior and uncomfortable at being asked such direct questions. She couldn't express herself articulately. I don't think her subsequent firing by the Food Network or loss of her endorsements/product lines is a big shock, considering what happened to Mel Gibson and Michael Richards. Her fan base already took a blow over the diabetes, and she's probably just going to fade into obscurity.

I do know the initial exposure of the deposition had me feeling some serious white-person-guilt, which in hindsight is ridiculous. Me automatically assuming that other people assume I'm a Paula Deen fangirl because I'm fat & like butter is one thing, but the assumption that those people who might hold the fangirl assumption automatically assuming that I'm a racist and me feeling guilty for their potential assumption is probably a symptom of my personality disorder and not something I should actually worry about. Even though I do because I can't help it, dammit.

[Lilium of the Valley]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

I always thought she was funny...and i kinda liked watching her on TV...im gonna miss seeing her around lol
To her defense about the butter stuffs...in her later cooking shows she started making foods healthier, also one of her sons (who is also a cook) came into her show to make her
recipes healthier...plus when she was diagnosed with diabetes she turned her life around and lost a sh*t ton of weight.....that alone aint easy to do.
and im almost certain that its the media pounding things up again, it was the same with ian somerhalder (hot dude who plays damon in vampire diaries)....he made one
comment about gay people, (long story short, he played a gay guy in a movie, in an interview he was asked if he was gay...he said no...they asked him if he would play a gay role again...he only said "no its not my thing"....)...he almost lost his job because the media pumped it up so bad and called him a "gaybasher".......i mean come one.....thats just personal preference...he tried the shoe on and it didnt fit, so what.
i just hate that as soon as celebrities (i dont care who it is) get to a certain level of being famous.....the media needs something to bash them with.....all of sudden they are gods (that are not human may i add they are GODS) and do not EVER, i mean NEVER EVER, make human mistakes. people just need to realize that they are just as much human as we all are and make the same idiotic mistakes.....i know tons of people who are racists, gay bashers... down right a**holes but noone cares cuz they arent famous....
plus who ever has never said anything bad about someone....because of their race, haritage, relligion etc.....i mean EVER....even just said the N word...has the right to cast the first stone on Paula Deen, the lady is just human, we all make mistakes!

[DanieMarie]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

Also, I'd like to point out that butter and other heavy ingredients aren't the enemy in cooking. You should see how the French cook. Butter, heavy cream, oil....actually most of Europe traditionally cooks that way. The French (and traditionally Europeans) are skinny people. It all comes down to balance and portion size.

[Lilium of the Valley]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

Also, I'd like to point out that butter and other heavy ingredients aren't the enemy in cooking. You should see how the French cook. Butter, heavy cream, oil....actually most of Europe traditionally cooks that way. The French (and traditionally Europeans) are skinny people. It all comes down to balance and portion size.

very true....im "german"...lived here all my life...all the traditional cooking has all those ingredients! and i totally agree...its not that we cant have these things at all, we just need to eat in moderation...i eat all of that stuffs and i've never had weight issues!!

[Agel]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

Also, I'd like to point out that butter and other heavy ingredients aren't the enemy in cooking. You should see how the French cook. Butter, heavy cream, oil....actually most of Europe traditionally cooks that way. The French (and traditionally Europeans) are skinny people. It all comes down to balance and portion size.

So true. The portion sizes here in the states are ridiculous. According to a friend who visited from Europe, he could easily feed 2-3 people with what a restaurant gives one person.

[thalassa]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

... it's that she's old and southern. That makes a difference,

Yup, that's bound to be contributory...

I still have trouble accepting the whole "she's from a different era" thing. That may be, but civil rights started long before the 1980s. I don't think age gets you a "get out" card for being hateful. You either accept the (positive) changes in society, or you face criticism.

Have you ever been south of the Mason-Dixon Line?

[DanieMarie]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

very true....im "german"...lived here all my life...all the traditional cooking has all those ingredients! and i totally agree...its not that we cant have these things at all, we just need to eat in moderation...i eat all of that stuffs and i've never had weight issues!!

Yep...not to mention all the lard Germans use.

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Have you ever been south of the Mason-Dixon Line?

No, but that doesn't change my feelings about it. I don't care where you're from. It's 2013. You don't get a pass. I've been a lot of places where people were traditionally very racist. Like, to the point of making the southern US look like a hippie party. Still not acceptable there in 2013.

[thalassa]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

No, but that doesn't change my feelings about it. I don't care where you're from. It's 2013. You don't get a pass. I've been a lot of places where people were traditionally very racist. Like, to the point of making the southern US look like a hippie party. Still not acceptable there in 2013.

Whether or something is "acceptable" to you in 2013, doesn't change the cultural reality that it is still practiced. And, if you've traveled through the non-urban areas of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc I'm not sure you can speak to the "point of making the southern US look like a hippie party". There are multiple areas in the former Confederate states where The War is still not over...and even in more urban, tolerant, and diverse areas, you will still find people that think that "slavery wasn't all that bad"---I had the misfortune of meeting one the other day.

I'm not saying its right (its not) or that its fair (its not) or that I don't find it morally repugnant (I do)...I'm saying that it still happens, and is still part of the culture...which really means there are still people that find it "acceptable"

[Raphaeline]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

She's a sixty-six year old southerner. The problem here is that she grew up learning to be a certain way, and circumstances changed. The racism and the diabetes thing are both reflections of that.

Survival of the fittest in action, you adapt or you die.

Eh, it's not just that she's old... it's that she's old and southern. That makes a difference, and as I said she is refusing or is unable to adapt to the change in her environment.

Yup, that's bound to be contributory...



Have you ever been south of the Mason-Dixon Line?

Yep...not to mention all the lard Germans use.

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No, but that doesn't change my feelings about it. I don't care where you're from. It's 2013. You don't get a pass. I've been a lot of places where people were traditionally very racist. Like, to the point of making the southern US look like a hippie party. Still not acceptable there in 2013.

Whether or something is "acceptable" to you in 2013, doesn't change the cultural reality that it is still practiced. And, if you've traveled through the non-urban areas of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc I'm not sure you can speak to the "point of making the southern US look like a hippie party". There are multiple areas in the former Confederate states where The War is still not over...and even in more urban, tolerant, and diverse areas, you will still find people that think that "slavery wasn't all that bad"---I had the misfortune of meeting one the other day.

I'm not saying its right (its not) or that its fair (its not) or that I don't find it morally repugnant (I do)...I'm saying that it still happens, and is still part of the culture...which really means there are still people that find it "acceptable"

I wrote a response several paragraphs long earlier and decided against posting it - but this is basically the same point I was trying to make with what I changed my mind about posting.

I live in Kentucky and I know people who still use the N word, and they're all over 55. I know folks who believe the South will rise again.

As for Paula Deen, none of that matters. I don't care where she's from or how she was raised, because she's a public figure. It doesn't take a genius to know she shouldn't be talking about race at all except how terrible racists are because anything else is going to kill her career.

[SPhoenix]

Re: The Paula Deen backlash

I think that she made a mistake. If we started digging into everyone's closet, we'd find all sorts of skeletons. Destroying someone's life over it doesn't make the suit bringer a better person than the one behaving badly. Everyone behaves badly in some area of life.

I yell at my kid sometimes and totally lose my temper. My husband blames me for things that I didn't do (in a major way).

Everyone behaves badly and does bad things. People are way too quick to point fingers and demonize others and smirk with satisfaction when lives are ruined (speaking general public/ generalization here, individuals obviously vary). Public opinion is murder/ suicide, and it doesn't take anything at all to cause it.

The other day, poor Bill Cosby said "juvenile diabetes" and then filled in a bunch of "fun facts" about type 2... and parents of diabetic kids went on rage-filled diatribes over it. The guy isn't being a d*** on purpose, he's just ignorant. 99% of the parents ranting and raving and frothing at the mouth would have said THE SAME THINGS before they were forced to learn the realities of type 1.

Paula said stupid s***, and she's a bigot. Who isn't a bigot about something?? I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't have a "thing" that they prejudge (pagans are all bad people; christians only want to mindlessly convert you; black people can't swim; southern people are hicks; New Englanders are distant--guilty of this one, myself; white people can't jump or rap; fans of X sports team will destroy your car if you go to their town during their home team games; the list goes on and on and on).

A lot of times, we're not even aware of the prejudices we have. We say things and later we see or hear repeated what we said, and our reaction is, "I didn't mean it that way". We may say things lightly and not realize it was taken seriously by others... whatever.

I really hate it when things like this happen. The same thing with Charlie Sheen and how the media frothed at the mouth like rabid cougars when he went on his tirade... but what they NEVER reported was that at the time, he was on Ambien; a drug that has reported caused great numbers of people to show hideously abhorrent and majorly aberrant behaviors. People have driven on it--WHILE ASLEEP, they have bought things on the internet while asleep, eaten mountains of food while asleep, and various other behaviors. Including... dun dun dun... screaming and frothing at the mouth over tiny things that ordinarily would never even be a blip on their radar.

So when the media goes into a frenzy over things, I struggle to take it at all seriously. Humans say and do stupid damned things. And we often say or do things we don't mean.... often times to wonder later, "what the hell was I thinking?"

It's disgusting to expect more of celebrities than we do of each other or ourselves. It's good to remember that this is someone's daughter/ son/ husband/ friend/ child/ parent... etc. Human beings doing the best they can and making mistakes like everyone else.

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Whether or something is "acceptable" to you in 2013, doesn't change the cultural reality that it is still practiced. And, if you've traveled through the non-urban areas of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc I'm not sure you can speak to the "point of making the southern US look like a hippie party". There are multiple areas in the former Confederate states where The War is still not over...and even in more urban, tolerant, and diverse areas, you will still find people that think that "slavery wasn't all that bad"---I had the misfortune of meeting one the other day.

I'm not saying its right (its not) or that its fair (its not) or that I don't find it morally repugnant (I do)...I'm saying that it still happens, and is still part of the culture...which really means there are still people that find it "acceptable"

I had a roommate (not for long) who was racist against all black people because she got mugged once--and that once was by a black man. And that was the end of it. And she didn't think she was racist for saying so... She hated and feared black men because one mugged her, but why on Earth would I say she was racist?

Then she started with the, "Fine, I'm racist. I don't care. It's their own fault."

She managed to change her mind about being racist... but not in the way you'd hope, lol. I'm not racist... okay, fine, I'm racist, but I'm okay with that... *sigh*