On Paula Deen (and her N word fiasco)

Paula Deen has found herself in a (deep-fried) pickle again.  Unlike the diabetes, Novo Nordisk controversy, her missteps this time have found her facing far more observable public disapproval and financial (read: business partnerships) consequences.  Long story short: a former manager (Lisa Jackson) accuses Deen of creating a hostile environment, including racial slurs and viewing of pornography by her brother during work hours while employed at Deen and brother's restaurant some 20 or 30 years ago. During questioning, when asked if she had ever used the N word, she responded, "of course."  She details a story of being robbed at gunpoint by a black person and referring to him as the "n****r" when recounting the story to a family member. When asked whether race jokes are appropriate, she dodged the shot transparently-- "I can't, myself, determine, what offends another person."

Let's get the real world reasons for the hoopla out of the way first. It's money, it's all about money.  It is important to remember that Paula Deen isn't being shunned by business partners because she may or may not be racist.  First of all, the lawsuit has been brought about with accusations of a hostile work environment  that happen to include elements of racism and sexism (if it matters, the plantiff is white). Second of all, large companies like Walmart, Target, Smithfield Farms, etc. couldn't give a rat's ass whether or not Deen is actually racist--even if there was such a thing as a Racist-O-Meter and the arrow confidently swung to NOT RACIST, it would be far too late.  The accusation is in the air.  Her brand persona has now been tainted and is no longer monetarily viable.  Just the allegations are enough to bring a personality brand down.

Commenters of the fall from grace fall into these categories

Pro Paula: The media is bored: overblowing a minor PAST error in ways to fill minutes of air time and pages of blogs. She said it once! It was a different time! They're trying to paint this darling of an old woman as an ignorant hick and burn her at stake.  They're blowing it up because she's a woman (which I do wonder about myself).  A few black people have declared their race (because it's hard to see on the internet) and proclaimed, I've seen racist, and she's no racist, she didn't mean no harm.  She's like your grandmother who is out of touch with current social propriety, but she makes pies to die for so let's all turn the other way.


Anti-Paula: She said an awful awful thing, she is an awful awful person.  She's racist, sniveling, calculative, greedy. Never liked her, here's just the final reason why.  I TOLD YOU.


Paula may be a good person, but she's got three strikes and needs to be out:  Paula Deen isn't evil, but she's a little dishonest.  She's sorry because she's like a 5 year old fibbing about stealing a cookie from the cookie jar and tearful because she got caught in her lie.  She was able to hop around the diabetes landmine, dusting her hands off on her apron just as it exploded behind her.  But her clumsiness finally caught up to her.  She may be a business woman but she's just not very smart in some ways.  She's racist. And she might never know that she is, and the people that support her might never know she is, regardless of race.  From what I've seen, to your face, it doesn't matter if you're white black yellow red purple, she'll be polite.  She'll probably be gracious.  She might lend you a cup of sugar.  But that says nothing about what she thinks about you when you turn your back. She might think you were adorable, but people think dogs are adorable. She might help you, but in the way you help a child, (they're so helpless a few minutes of my time will mean the world to them, and cost me almost nothing).  And as the robber story shows, she'll turn on you and blame it on your race (not because you're a bad person) the minute you aren't grateful for "all that has been given to you."

I hope people can see.  IT'S NOT ABOUT THE N WORD.  It's about her nonchalance about it.  She didn't blame her character for her transgressions, she blamed it on the time period.  She simply said she hasn't said it in a long time, as if she  hasn't said it because she knows it's not proper now, rather than because she knows it's a horrible thing to say.  Paula Deen just doesn't get it.

During the racism interrogation, Deen explains the accusation that she suggested a plantation wedding for her brother:

... I remember telling them about a restaurant that my husband and I had recently visited. And I'm wanting to think it was in Tennessee or North Carolina or somewhere, and it was impressive. The whole entire wait staff was middle-aged black men, and they had on beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie. I mean it was, it was really impressive.And I remember saying I would love to have servers like that, I said, but I would be afraid that somebody would misinterpret.Q. If you would have had servers like that, why would that have made it a really Southern plantation wedding?A. Well, it — to me, of course, I'm old but I ain't that old, I didn't live back in those days but I've seen pictures, and the pictures that I've seen, that restaurant represented a certain era in America ... after the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War.Q. Back in an era where there were middle-aged black men waiting on white people.A. Well, it was not only black men it was black women. ... I would say that they are slaves. But I did not mean anything derogatory by saying I loved their look and their professionalism.

Paula Deen is completely clueless.  Openly chatting with the attorney about how "impressive" it was to have an entire waitstaff of "middle-aged black men" that wore "beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie." She doesn't even blink, she doesn't even know she is romanticizing and fetishizing an era that was so painful, so dehumanizing for a good portion of her fellow humans. She wanted a plantation wedding like that, but was afraid it would be "misinterpreted."  Misinterpreted as what? for what it actually is--an unsavory reminder of errors past?  When the attorney dryly notes that Deen's definition of a "true plantation wedding" harked back to a past where black men waited on white people, Deen completely misses his pointedness as she clarifies, "well it was not only black men it was black women...I would say that they are slaves." Ay, there's the rub. She knows exactly what these black men waiting are reminiscent of, and she sees nothing wrong with this tidbit.  As she reassures, "she did not mean anything derogatory," she simply loved "their look and their professionalism," as if praising a well-behaved dog.

I hope Paula knows she isn't being persecuted for saying the N word. She's being sacrificed because she's the public figural representation of a whole bevy of white Southerners that just. don't. get. that it's wrong. In the game of survival of the fittest people like her have got to  evolve or face extinction.  Hit me with your protestations that The South is unfairly portrayed as backwards, that they've moved on since then.  Well, I've met too many people that haven't. too many that are my age.  Too many that still whisper "black people" in conversations. Too many people that unabashedly proclaim, my parents are racist, but don't worry, they like Asians because they're hardworking.

I hope Paula Deen changes.  I hope she doesn't feel like a martyr.  I hope she doesn't kill herself.  Here's your chance to stop trying to talk the talk and actually walk the walk.