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

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by maconmagnolia

My opinion, which is probably an unpopular one: Past doesn't equal present. She admitted her mistake and apologized for it. I really don't see any issue anymore.. Honestly, at the time she used the word, she probably didn't know any better. She was born during a different time period.. That's how people spoke back then, as bad as that is. If she said it thirty years ago and hasn't said it since (which is what I've gathered, someone can tell me if I'm wrong), then props to her for apologizing. Unfortunately for her, she would have been better off never admitting it. If she's still saying it today.. well, that's a different issue.

I agree and I think a lesser person (especially one in the public view) probably would have denied using that word even in a court disposition.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by agzg

This whole thing was brought to light for a deposition where the plaintiff (who is a former employee) alleges that this was ongoing.

http://gawker.com/5890872/lawsuit-cl...ey-temple-days


See also:
http://gawker.com/paula-deen-says-of...word-514272160


For me, it's about much more than the use of the word. She's either racist or stupid. Or both.

Wow if true but that is the first I've heard of that incident. What the initial major uproar seems to be about her admission and subsequent apology of using the racial slur 30 years ago. That's what I responded to in my post.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Wow if true but that is the first I've heard of that incident. What the initial major uproar seems to be about her admission and subsequent apology of using the racial slur 30 years ago. That's what I responded to in my post.

The lawsuit is what led to the deposition which is what led to the news coverage. She's trying to play it off like it was oh so long ago, and oh man, she's just a product of her times. I'm not buying it for one second.

You can't admit in a deposition that yes, the conversation in which she wanted to have little black tapdancing boys (just like Shirley Temple!) in her brother's plantation wedding, and servers made to represent SLAVES sure did happen, and then say "Oh no, it was so long ago that I used that word. I didn't use that word in that conversation that pretty much proves that I'm a horrible racist."

[33girl]

I've never gotten a good vibe from this woman, and I think the racism is just the tip of the iceberg. In other words, I have the feeling she's equally awful to all people...if that makes the situation better or worse, who knows.

[Xidelt]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I've never gotten a good vibe from this woman, and I think the racism is just the tip of the iceberg. In other words, I have the feeling she's equally awful to all people...if that makes the situation better or worse, who knows.

She's only kind to butter and ham.

[Munchkin03]

A woman who has made her living on old-style Southern culture dropped the N-bomb?

Shut the front door.

[indygphib]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

I'm stealing that.

Seconded! "Conductor of the Hot Mess Express" = AWESOMESAUCE

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

As for Ms. Deen, when asked if she used the N-word, she replied "of course".

When that "of course" is read in context in the deposition, I don't really see impunity. I do see either an amazing naïveté or willful ignorance.

Originally Posted by ThetaPrincess24

She may be from a different generation, but this is not the 50's or 60's. It is 2013. Unless she has lived her life in a bubble, I'm not sure how she can not know that word would not be offensive, regardless in my opinion, of where you are from in the U.S.

That bubble would be called Savannah. There's an odd kind of time warp going on there.

And to be clear, I'm not suggesting that every white person in Savannah is racist by any means. But it does seem to be one of those pockets of the South where there are more pronounced and odd mixes of old and new attitudes.

And while I can agree to a point about people being products of earlier times, I feel the need to make it clear for the record that some of us were reared in the South in the 1960s by depression- and WWII-era parents who made it very clear that use of the N-word (or, for that matter, "colored") was not acceptable under any circumstances and would not be tolerated. At all.

[Sadfly]

Yet people think that it is okay to ridicule her way of talking and it's not racist?

Those that didn't like Paula before feel that they are justified (whether true or not) and those that supported her in the past will continue to do so.

Either way, tomorrow is another day.

[knight_shadow]

How is ridiculing her speech racism?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Sadfly

Yet people think that it is okay to ridicule her way of talking and it's not racist?

I wasn't aware that Southern is a race.

Those that didn't like Paula before feel that they are justified (whether true or not) and those that supported her in the past will continue to do so.

Speaking as one who has always been a Paula Deen fan, I don't think it's that simple.

And I'm not sure this is the thread I'd be quoting Scarlet O'Hara in either, but maybe that's just me.

[lovespink88]

Originally Posted by agzg

To quote one of the collegians I met last weekend, "She's the conductor of the Hot Mess Express."

This is one of those rare moments that I literally LOL'd.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

And I'm not sure this is the thread I'd be quoting Scarlet O'Hara in either, but maybe that's just me.

Why do you know that?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Why do you know that?

Why do I know what? That I probably wouldn't quote "Gone With the Wind" in a thread about possible racism or racial insensitivity of someone who appears to have considered an antebellum wedding reception? Or that "tomorrow is another day" was Scarlet O'Hara's signature line, and the last line of the book and movie?

[AOII Angel]

Paula Deen-isms of a more current vintage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3480720.html