Paula Deen's use of the "N"-Word

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

Notification from my CNN app: "The Food Network says it "will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end of this month."

Originally Posted by AZTheta

Re: "Southern accent" or "Southern speech". There are multiple videos/articles/programs etc. available on this topic. I'd start with reading this one. There's a segment of our profession (speech-language pathology) that treats "dialect" or "accent reduction".

So, bias against "Southern speech" = racist? Perhaps not. But discriminatory? Evidence says yes.

GWTW seems an interesting choice in the context of this thread, IMO. Would strongly recommend that Ms. Deen read and study To Kill a Mockingbird for starters. She will now have plenty of free time, apparently.

“I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.” Harper Lee.

I agree that there is discrimination based on accents, not just Southern. Accents can, however, improve your persona, especially in women. I for one find that my Southern accent works to my advantage in Arizona in my line of work. Patients find it warm and comforting. Paula Deen, I have always felt, plays up her accent to stress her Southerness. If it occasionally backfires on her, it has more frequently convinced non-Southerners that she must be really Southern. I occasionally get comments about my accent, which is fairly mild comparatively, but I get away with murder because I say things dripping with honey so I have no incentive to change.