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You are here: Home / Stick a Fork in Her; She’s Done.

Stick a Fork in Her; She’s Done.

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Butter slinger Paula Deen, who admitted (under oath) to past use of the N-word and wishing to compel servers to emulate slaves to achieve a genuine “Southern plantation-style wedding,” has been shit-canned by the Food Network, despite issuing dueling apology videos today.

There’s nothing surprising about a Southerner of Deen’s era having used the N-word in the past (she claims she no longer uses it), and it should surprise exactly no one that some white people still glorify plantation culture. The only surprising thing is that Deen owned up to it.

This seems like a good place to share a link from commenter Muddy.

Reader Interactions

252Comments

  1. 1.

    pokeyblow

    Screw this fat-saturated racist shithead.

    I don’t care when she was born. It is fucking 2013.

  2. 2.

    raven

    We ate there last year as part of a conference and sat with a number of African-American colleagues. It was just OK but the magic act with the big ass python had a lot of folks on edge!

  3. 3.

    MattF

    I remember, when I was a freshman in college in the late ’60’s, a freshman from Texas came back to the dorm after a history class with a dazed look– ‘We always called it ‘The War Between The States”, he said ‘but it was a civil war.’ But, um, that was nearly fifty years ago.

  5. 5.

    Hal

    I’ve been cracking up at twitter comments on this who debacle. My fave was that Deen was the original author of the Ron Paul newsletter in the 90’s and that Paul Deen just wants everyone to forget about this so she can go back to giving people diabetes and then treating them for it.

    But as others have, or will say, it’s 2013. I don’t think it’s just the past childhood racism, but the current *alleged* racism that’s the real kicker.

    My racist-dar is pinged whenever people start talking about good or professional blacks vs the “bad” ones, so I doubt Deen is as open minded as people may want to believe.

  6. 6.

    AA+ Bonds

    Her objective error IMO was promoting risky food choices as moral while covering up her diabetes diagnosis. I am not usually one for bourgeois moralizing about diet but it’s probable she actually killed or at least helped kill some people

  9. 9.

    JPL

    John Oliver skewered her last night also. If you haven’t seen it, key in Daily show and watch. The discussion had to do with whether it was type 1 or type 2 racism.
    Doesn’t every family sit around telling Jewish, black, homosexual and other jokes in the evening?

  10. 10.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    Another nice touch was when she wanted to make a “Sambo Burger” on her TV show.

  11. 11.

    Michael G

    If I’m ever in a deposition, I’m going to have to admit that I accidentally use the N word all the time. My excuse is that Wu-Tang songs are just too catchy to not sing along.

    I am hoping this will give me the chance to rap in court.

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    I’m amazed she couldn’t even muster up the “but I have many black friends” dodge.

    Wait. No I’m not.

    Poster hag for old white southern privileged jackasses.

  17. 17.

    aimai

    Live by the image, die by the image. No doubt the defenestration of Deen will become a five minute cause celebre but the fact of the matter is she was just a lousy cook peddling a certain image of Southern Good Life–if her attractions have staled for the kind of viewers the food channel wants then she had to go. The penultimate, proximate, reason is that she revealed herself (and her family) to be horrible employers, awful people, and also racist to boot. But that might have endeared her to a different audience, at a different time. Its just a perfect storm of a time for everything to come together to force her off tv (at least for a little while). Perhaps she can have a new and vital career serving up white ressentiment, deep fried with lard. I imagine she is already complaining, privately, to her friends “I gave them an apology, what more do these —-want?” And after she went to all that trouble, in her autobiography, to excuse her former self for having attacked a little black girl and shunned the five girls who integrated her school? What more, indeed, do we want?

    The sorrows of an entertainer’s life. Oh, the humanity.

  19. 19.

    ruemara

    I feel sorry for her. Let’s be frank, I’m not surprised. Who the hell could be surprised? But she doesn’t make policy, she’s not out burning crosses. She’s just not worth all this excoriation.

    That being said, i always thought she looked like she was very high. Particularly on her magazine covers. I predict a return in about 6 months.

  20. 20.

    Citizen Alan

    When I was in college at Ole Miss in 1990, someone whom I had considered a good friend and also believed to be highly intelligent and sensible had an attitude like this. We were both put on a committee to plan a formal banquet for a student organization and he left me completely speechless by suddenly waxing eloquent about how cool it would be to have campus dining cater it because it would be “a bunch of black guys wearing white jackets and black bow ties serving us sweet tea and dinner rolls.” I started avoiding him after that. He later got a law degree but chucked it to become a Methodist minister and is a staunch Republican.

    The South is a weird place. So weird it’s impossible to get how weird it is unless you live here.

  21. 21.

    Eric S

    @danah gaz: I’m with you on that. I mean if a week ago someone had quizzed me on the name and I had been inclined to really do a hard scan of my memory banks I may have come up with an answer of, “cook? maybe?” but that’s it.

    There are times my ignorance of pop culture seems detrimental (Monday night bar trivia, lunch conversations with coworkers) and others like now it just makes me happy.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    I haven’t followed this at all. Is she saying she used the N-word back in the day? Or is she being accused of recent racism? And the plantation-themed wedding? WTF?

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    That said, I just can’t be bothered to get worked up anymore about the barely repressed (if that) racism of a 60-something Southern gal. Paula Deen is perfectly emblematic of the cultural and social milieu from which she sprang. I’ve said for years that nothing will ever really improve in the South until every single person who ever attended a segregated school is dead and buried.

  27. 27.

    raven

    @Citizen Alan: There used to be a place in Atlanta called Aunt Fanny’s Cabin. The waiters were African-American men that wore the menu on a chalkboard over their neck and they sang the menu. I went to a rehearsal dinner there having no idea what it was. The funny thing is that, after the dinner, the waitstaff hung out and partied and it all seemed ok. I’m not making any kind of judgement but it was interesting.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ruemara: I won’t go as far as feeling sorry for her, but she’s does seem more stupid– loopy is a kinder word and the two are not mutually exclusive– than hateful. Far more hateful people, in numbers and intensity, in Congress.

  29. 29.

    Comrade Dread

    Yeah, I can’t say I’m surprised.

    No company is going to want to be associated with wistful thoughts about plantation dinners served by slaves in black formal wear.

    Seriously… what the hell…

  30. 30.

    maya

    As I understand it a true southerner only drinks coffee made with Mississippi River water so they can plant their spoon in it.

  31. 31.

    Linda Featheringill

    No sympathy.

    The lady is, I think, a little younger than I am. I was raised to be a racist pig [among other good things] and worked my way out of a lot of it. I’m not perfect but at least I don’t labor under the delusion that middle-aged black men have no goals other than to serve as decoration for somebody’s fucking wedding dinner.

    Paula hasn’t been a child in a long time. She’s responsible for what she is.

  32. 32.

    Linda Featheringill

    @maya:

    :-). Dunno about that but I must say that the very best cup of coffee I had in my whole life was in Mississippi, within walking distance of the River.

  36. 36.

    Dolly Llama

    @Citizen Alan:

    The South is a weird place. So weird it’s impossible to get how weird it is unless you live here.

    The God damn truth, this is, though I’d modify it slightly to say it’s impossible to get how weird it is unless you were born there, raised there, and slipped its surly bonds in adulthood. [ETA: I was born in 1970 and have lived/worked in Georgia and both Carolinas, but nowhere else, so I’ve never escaped the orbit of the place, at least physically.]

    I have wanted to respond to almost every post on this thread to try to explain it (not excuse it, explain it), but I’ll be damned if I know where to start.

  37. 37.

    Keith

    I just cannot believe that this is the top story of the day. TPM’s been on this story like white on rice, and it’s presumably a political blog. AFAIK, her transgressions were saying the dreaded ‘n-word’ back in the day (how long ago, I dunno) and wanting ‘middle-aged black men dressed in white tuxes as servers’. I know it’s more newsworthy than Kim K and Kanye West’s daily drama, but Jeesus H WTF?

  39. 39.

    quannlace

    Butter slinger Paula Deen, …..has been shit-canned by the Food Network,
    ******

    The down side to this is that it frees up more air-time for ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”

  40. 40.

    gogol's wife

    @danah gaz:

    I know who she is and dismissed her long ago, even before her diabetes grifting, and I have no idea what she said this time, but I’m glad she’s gone.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I guess someone who doesn’t watch MSNBC might be equally bewildered if I mentioned the names Alex Wagner or Chris Hayes, but how many freaking “reporters” and “corresondents” does Uncle Rupert have:

    As Paula Deen continued to face an avalanche of criticism for past racist comments, a Fox News correspondent used social media on Thursday to defend the embattled celebrity chef against what he described as a “liberal, anti-South media.”
    Todd Starnes, host of the radio program “Fox News & Commentary,” took to Twitter to assert that the members of the media have it out for Deen “because most of them don’t eat meat.”

    should we start a pool on the time it takes to get teh Fox Food channel up and running, or will Paula just have a once a week “Real American Food” segment on Gretchen and the Dooce’s Morning Zoo?

  44. 44.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’ll admit I haven’t been following this and don’t know all the twists and turns, but I’m pretty sure I spoke that way back in grade school 50 years ago. Most people did, and it was pretty unremarkable, even in the northeast. If I’m missing the boat and there’s something else, I’ll listen.

  48. 48.

    gogol's wife

    Isn’t she the person who had a recipe for hamburgers where the bun was replaced by halved glazed doughnuts?

  52. 52.

    danah gaz

    @JPL: Just the thought of that makes my want to wash my hands.

    All of that sticky, sugary crap on my fingers *shudders* I’ve got a weird sort of phobia about that. Same goes for the powder from flavored chips.

    Ewwww.

  53. 53.

    gogol's wife

    I made the mistake of reading a few comments at the Daily Beast. “Oh please, let her alone. We all use that word and even worse.” “What about taking the Lord’s name in vain?” etc.

  54. 54.

    quannlace

    With this lawsuit that brought all this out to begin with…I believe the allegation is not that she used the n-word decades ago. But when the plaintiff was working for her and her brother. They’ve got to have something on tape, otherwise Deen could just have said ‘Me? That’s crazy talk!”

  55. 55.

    gogol's wife

    @danah gaz:

    Yes, and just think of the delicious meaty juices soaking into that glazed doughnut . . . maybe a layer of melted cheddar too . . . MMM . . .

  56. 56.

    danah gaz

    @gogol’s wife: wow.

    Some people’s children.

    /smh

    I wish I could say I’ve not heard worse… sadly, I’ve visited WND before.

    “Yes, and just think of the delicious meaty juices soaking into ”

    You are unspeakably cruel.

  57. 57.

    elisabeth

    so the National Enquirer claims another career. Probably no talk of a Pulitzer this time, though.

  59. 59.

    pokeyblow

    She’s really sorry about having this attitude.

    It’s not the case that she’s only sorry she got caught.

  60. 60.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Most people did, and it was pretty unremarkable, even in the northeast.

    I remember the day in 1963 when we were informed by the Sister who ran the candy cupboard in my parochial grade school (Massachusetts) that the candy formerly referred to as n*gger-babies were henceforth to be called something else, which presently escapes memory. In some complicated way we were led to believe this change was heartily approved by President Kennedy, if not actually requested by him — and in 1963 Irish Catholic Boston, that pretty much was that.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    @gogol’s wife: Well if she had taken the lord’s name in vain, the evangelicals would be upset.

    Business Insider has a list of some of Deen’s yuckiest concoctions. link
    The Krispy Kreme bread pudding is on the list. .

  62. 62.

    Debbie(aussie)

    That was a great video Betty, thanks. What he says is true. Divide& conquer! The 90% have so much more in common, regardless of our race or religion(or lack of), but until we get that, the PTB have us well under the thumb. So, so sad.

  64. 64.

    geg6

    Love it! Good on Food Network. And another old white racist grifter goes down. Hard.

    The more the better.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    I didn’t really get the appeal. I get what the appeal was supposed to be- old timey southern, harken back to whatever- but she looked terrified to me. I didn’t get any sense of ease or naturalness from her at all.

  71. 71.

    danah gaz

    @gogol’s wife: Thanks. I’ve lurked some. I’d like to say my absence was for some greater good, but really, the old site’s comment section just got so slow and evil that I couldn’t take it anymore. I guess I’m only a fair weather Tunch aficionado =/

  72. 72.

    Violet

    @Keith: Is that really it? Doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. If she grew up around people who said the n-word, in the south, during the time of segregation, she probably picked it up from them. What matters more is did she change? Was it yesterday when she got caught? Or was it decades ago?

    I don’t like the woman, since she makes her living by selling terrible-for-you recipes and then got diabetes and then decided to pimp the diabetes medication. If she had any sense of honor she’d revise her recipes and admit the error of her ways. Instead she’s all “take drugs and eat the crap I’m selling.” That part makes me really angry.

  73. 73.

    Davis X. Machina

    @JPL: Not defending the lady, just amplifying gin-and-tonic’s recollection of the word’s widespread, unreflective use in the North, even in very liberal circles — the order who taught me, e.g. had its women’s colleges integrated from the get-go.

  74. 74.

    gogol's wife

    @Davis X. Machina:

    For a story related to that candy, I highly recommend Bill Bryson’s hilarious Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, which every baby boomer should read.

  75. 75.

    gogol's wife

    @Violet:

    According to the Daily Beast, she’s admitted to having used it in 1986 and also since then. So we’re not talking To Kill a Mockingbird times here.

  76. 76.

    danah gaz

    @Kay: ” she looked terrified to me”

    Based on some of the comments here, my guess is that she was worried that someone might actually try one of her recipes.

  77. 77.

    ? Martin

    The only surprising thing is that Deen owned up to it.

    She owned up to it because she doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

    Seriously, it is not unacceptable in the south, when among whites, to drop n-bombs and make sambo burgers. The white conservatives – particularly in the south – do truly believe that whites are superior. They do not believe that makes them racist – rather it makes them realists. Full stop. Individuals can overcome that by proclaiming support for the structure (see E. W. Jackson). When liberals or blacks or other groups refuse to accept that view, that’s what constitutes racism to them.

    They know that they can’t say it out loud, because that’s ‘un-PC’ and the liberal media will punish them for it, but there is nothing pushing back against the viewpoint from strictly within the white community. I still see it when the right combination of white men get together even out here in SoCal, far from the Confederacy, and they’re always shocked to see me push back, like I’m some kind of traitor.

  79. 79.

    Violet

    @Davis X. Machina: When I was a kid, I remember some adults calling Brazil nuts “n*gger toes”. There was also some color called “n*gger brown”. I’ve heard an older person who worked in an industry where knowing colors was important to the job use that description.

  80. 80.

    danah gaz

    @? Martin: I lost one of my last IRL white friends when he called my teenaged boy a wetback. And he’s a liberal Berkeley grad. These days I’m not surprised by it from any corner of the white world .

  81. 81.

    Anya

    Someone forgot to teach her the new code words.

    I watched her apology. Why is she so incoherent? “I will continue to work and continue to do good things for good people.”
    What does that even mean?

  82. 82.

    Sly

    This seems like a good place to share a link from commenter Muddy.

    Time Wise’s full lecture can be seen here. You can find other stuff of his across YouTube (accompanied by comments from dumb assholes calling him an anti-white racist and railing against “white genocide;” they’re the MRAs of anti-racism). People who got into TWiB from BJ can also hear a pretty good interview he did with them from last year about the Brogressive love affair with Ron Paul.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @danah gaz:

    She still looks terrified in the picture on TPM, actually, and I assume that’s her official marketing photo.

    I don’t really cook but I sometimes watch cooking shows. I watched her once with her son and it just seemed very complicated to me, whatever was going on there between those two. It was tense. If you’re not really interested in cooking you tend to focus on the characters in the drama:)

  85. 85.

    Southern Beale

    Thanks for introducing me to Tim Wise. Turns out he’s from Nashville. Student body vice president at Hillsboro High School which is, oh, about three blocks from my house. See, we’re not all crazies.

  86. 86.

    Violet

    @gogol’s wife: Thanks for the update. I haven’t followed this story at all, except for seeing a few headlines. Doesn’t surprise me that she’s used the word more recently. ? Martin has it exactly right. Within her community it’s acceptable and understood.

  88. 88.

    ruemara

    @Violet: I was once told by a production manager to “n166er” up a logo into the corner of a layout. I had no idea what she meant and went to ask a film stripper if that was a printing term that I wasn’t familiar with. She had to explain it to me as a slur on throw it up there lackadaisically. As if I would ever do such a thing. Yeah, good times. It did explain her hatred of me whenever I did anything difficult and how she gloried in publicly humiliating me if I made even the slightest mistake.

  89. 89.

    Paula

    Hmmm. I am really really surprised that we haven’t had an Anthony Bourdain “I told you so” bitchfest.

  90. 90.

    Violet

    @ruemara: Wow. I can’t even imagine someone saying that. I wouldn’t have a clue what that meant either. How awful.

  91. 91.

    Hal

    Snowden has been charged with espionage, thereby ruining twitter for this weekend for me. I was really enjoying the Paula Deen tweets. Thanks Obummer!

  92. 92.

    lamh35

    @elisabeth: actually, this was Paula’s own doing. It’s what she said in the actual court deposition so it’s in the court records. the fact that the records got out doesn’t mean much, as Betty C, she actually copt to the stuff under oath.

    As for the whole mess, I get that the easy thing to focus on is the n-word part of it, but if anyone would bother to read the actual court documents, you will see it was more than just the n-word, it was about the hostile work environment that Deen et al created that was so toxic, that the WHITE female employee took them to court over it.

    I know the race of the employee shouldn’t matter, but in this case and in the South I think it does. The usual racist bigots that populate the South will have to go a LONGER way to accuse this woman of using the race card. Cause ya know, if this was brought up by a Black or other minority employee, the usual suspects would be saying the minority employees are actually the real racist, and also, “rappers use the word all the time” so why should a Black employee be upset.

    Also too, I’m not surprised a white Southerner of a certain age uses racial words or tells racist jokes. What’s cooked Paula’s goose is that she used the language at her workplace and in front of this White woman, because I suspect she felt she was in “common” company, so since she was in the company of a White employee, then she and her peeps could “speak freely”…well, the “white code of silence” was broken in this case, and could for that employee.

  93. 93.

    schrodinger's cat

    I never got Deen’s appeal. Her food and affectations were both horrible. Even back in the day when Food Network had some decent food related programming her show was awful. Last time I watched Food Network was about 3 years ago and it was unwatchable.

    I must have led a sheltered life I have no idea what a sambo burger is.

  94. 94.

    Davis X. Machina

    I was once told by a production manager to “n166er” up a logo into the corner of a layout.

    30 years ago, when I was new to Maine, I heard someone ask someone else, guilty of a minor construction balls-up, ‘What the hell are you, French?’ Had to have that explained to me.

    Everyone dumps on someone. Somewhere they must say ‘Tu-es luxembourgeois, hien?’

  95. 95.

    ruemara

    @schrodinger’s cat: She claims it’s a “Sam + Beau” burger that she was naming after 2 friends. A burger with a fried egg on it, because grease is fucking tasty.

    @Davis X. Machina: Explain that, pls. How is the French a slur here? People are so odd.

  96. 96.

    danah gaz

    @Kay: God I love to cook!

    Lunch today (my kid calls these “white people soft tacos”) That’s ground beef, black beans, sour cream, sharp cheddar, casera salsa, homemade guacamole and homemade pico de gallo. Taco Bell can get stuffed. OM NOM NOM

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1044422_163172457196136_800230169_n.jpg
    https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1011950_163172493862799_300038100_n.jpg

    Grilled cheese (olive oil, no butter) on sourdough, w/ spinach & artichoke hearts, sour cream, mozzarella and shredded parmesan. Yummy!
    https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/264346_146863005493748_1241462768_n.jpg

    My kid’s actual mother, though I have custody due to stupid immigration issues (which is why I call him my kid, not my son) – bravely facing down a bowl of my blistering Andouille Jumbalaya. It’s so hot, the DoD has been trying to work out a way to weaponize it.
    https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/942574_10200794787186356_199070909_n.jpg
    My adorable kid.
    https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1010761_10200830262273211_301701320_n.jpg

    Guatemalan Dobladas which I made for his extra credit on his Guatemala report (he got an A+ w00t!)
    https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/603122_158630407650341_249891592_n.jpg
    https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/954857_158271237686258_548869865_n.jpg

    My blackened chicken alfredo here https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/970763_157018247811557_1678685435_n.jpg
    The secret is the chicken, which is the result of me abusing strips of chicken breast before putting them on pasta w/ alfredo sauce. I cover the skillet, and parboil them for about 6-7mins in a reduction of olive oil, a little water (of course), crushed red pepper flakes, finely chopped garlic, cayenne pepper, basil, ground black pepper, oregano, rosemary and fancy sea salt bits. I flip them for the last 2 or 3 minutes, and then uncover the pan, turn the heat on high, and brown the bottoms in the reduction that by now is nearly evaporated, and is basically just oil and flavor.
    https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/944588_157017151145000_1210636366_n.jpg

  97. 97.

    Davis X. Machina

    @ruemara: Mill-town French Canadians. Not considered capable of mentally challenging work, shiftless, prone to procreate, clannish…Catholic.

  100. 100.

    jacy

    The lawsuit isn’t just about whether Paula Deen used racial slurs — it’s about sexual harassment of female employees by her brother, along with intimidation in the workplace. So it’s more than just giving her a pass because she’s a Southern woman of a certain age (a pass which I wouldn’t give.) Of course, I always disliked her anyway — that ditzy southern-fried shtick sets my teeth on edge. And that’s not even addressing the horror show of her recipes…

    She’s got the same thoughtless, privileged attitude as my in-laws — who think “nigger” is a terribly useful word, because it helps them differentiate between the bad, shiftless, welfare blacks and the “good” blacks who hold down jobs as doormen and waitstaff. I say call ’em out every time you hear them, and no passes for anybody.

    But in your hilarious juxtaposition for the day, today on the NBC News website, the story directly below the Paula Deen story was thusly titled (and I’m not making this up): Beyond Watermelon Oreos: 5 sweet, fruity treats

  101. 101.

    danah gaz

    ack.. too many links in my last comment I guess. =( They’re just pictures I swear (no naughty bits in them either!)

    ETA: I don’t have a cooking show, but I’ll take the pepsi challenge against anyone that cooks with donuts. Yech.

  102. 102.

    Southern Beale

    @ruemara:

    Oh, my husband works with old people who still use the word “n***er rigged…” They’d probably say “Jew up” if it were the right context, too.

    So over this shit.

  105. 105.

    schrodinger's cat

    @ruemara: French Canadians were actively discriminated against, especially for speaking a different language earlier in Maine’s history. They wuz the Messicans of Maine. There are many Mainers of French descent but most have lost their language.

  106. 106.

    Shalimar

    Stick a Fork in Her; She’s Done.

    Force her to live on her own cooking, she’ll be dead within a week.

  107. 107.

    ruemara

    @lamh35: Those people need a slap. Those are just pony tails for curly girls and anyone having a problem with it needs to get schooled.

  108. 108.

    danah gaz

    @lamh35: Who’s bright idea was that, and why would I not be surprised to discover that they still have a job?

  109. 109.

    JPL

    @Davis X. Machina: A lot of that mentality is to keep wages low. When immigrants replaced blacks on the farms and on chicken farms in the south, it was because of work ethic. The same is true when blacks replaced whites during the great migration. By subtle clues by management, some are made to feel better about themselves by putting someone beneath them. I grew up in MA and the French Canadians joked about the Polish and everyone joked about the Italians.

  110. 110.

    Shortstop

    @Linda Featheringill: But the middle-aged GOP operative mocking Kerry’s Purple Heart at the 2004 Republican convention wasn’t responsible for what she is, right? She was “just having fun,” as you put it.

  111. 111.

    Violet

    @Yatsuno: Yeah, I’ve heard something about her son “lightening up” her recipes, or something. I can’t imagine the tension between her sons and her now, since their careers are dependent on hers to a large extent.

  113. 113.

    JPL

    @Violet: According to the NYTimes, the sons will still have their show on Food Network.
    I’m on antenna and the food channel I pickup is on at 3 in the morning and produced in someone’s basement. (at least that is the way it seems)

  114. 114.

    Hal

    I just remembered the Buffalo Beasts’s 50 most loathsome on Paula:

    Charges: The A.Q. Khan of the culinary world, her secret recipes are demonstrably more dangerous to America than a nuclear armed North Korea. When not delighting delusional hicks on “Huckabee,” she’s cooking up coronary-clogging treats like the “Luther”—a bacon-topped cheeseburger served between two glazed donuts—whose purported inventor Luther Vandross suffered from diabetes and died of a massive heart explosion. Make no mistake, this insane, evangelical pumpkin-face is trying to send you into the arms of Jesus.

    Aggravating factor: “I’m gonna start with my normal ingredient, y’all: one stick of butter.”

    Sentence: Steamed and served over a healthy bed of greens.

  115. 115.

    Davis X. Machina

    @JPL: Well, we couldn’t very well pick on the Jews — we never saw any.

    My old home town, lovingly called “Southie, but with trees”, at 55,000 inhabitants, was the largest town in the Commonwealth without a shul.

  116. 116.

    Yatsuno

    @Violet: The name of his show is “Not My Momma’s Meals”. Might be slightly awkward at Thanksgiving, but they’re a family that has been through rough patches in the past.

  118. 118.

    JPL

    @Davis X. Machina: I was raised in Gardner, MA among many ethnic groups and the town had a rabbi and a synagogue. The nuns helped Hadassah Freilich Lieberman’s family settle in the town. Her father was the rabbi. My son was over today and I recounted the number of ethnic jokes I heard and although I’m a few (very few) years younger than Paula Deen, I realized at a younger age that the jokes weren’t funny. In TX, many of the same jokes were about aggies. If I heard someone mock a Jewish person, I don’t remember.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    @ruemara: Yes, I expect her back on tv again like Don Imus and the Bounty Hunter. They were forgiven in no time after racially charged missteps.

    Wonder why she didn’t get Oprah to vouch that she’s not a racist since she’s been on the OWN channel. /snark

  120. 120.

    Violet

    @JPL: I’m sure they’ll keep their show. My point is more that the reason they have a show in the first place is their mother. So if she’s branded a racist (or, I guess, outed as one), there could likely be a lot of “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” thinking from viewers, who may tune out.

    @Yatsuno: And since “Momma” has been fired from the network, what will they call the show? Will the re-title it? “Healthy Southern Cooking” or something? They’re tied to Momma whether they like it or not. Don’t know about their history, though. You say they’ve been through rough patches?

  122. 122.

    JPL

    @Violet: Paula Deen is a self made woman. She started by making sandwiches and delivering them door to door. Yatsuno might know more but she had to provide for her family anyway possible and she did.

  123. 123.

    danah gaz

    I bet my fried chicken is better than hers. Just sayin. And I don’t even serve it in blackface.

  124. 124.

    lamh35

    @Patricia Kayden: actually a friend and I were both saying the same thing about Oprah. She had to settle for Matt Lauer right? Shit, I’m just betting Oprah was like “oh hell know”, I ain’t toughing that.

    Besides, I don’t think Oprah even appears on the shows of any of her former minions (Rachel Ray, Nate Berkus, Dr Oz, Dr. Phil…). So I’m better Oprah just wasn’t interesting in Deen’s rehab tour

  125. 125.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: Thanks for the laugh. I’m crying. Those recipes are a hoot. Of course, she has diabetes!

  126. 126.

    Violet

    @lamh35: Took forever for the site to load for me, so I just got to see it. That does seem really discriminatory.

    In the photo of the little girl, her hair is really high above her head. I remember something about rules banning tall hair in the 60’s when beehive hair styles could be really tall and block other students’ views of the front of the class.

    Not excusing what they did, just wondering after seeing the photo if that could have been part of their thinking. Although the “small twisted braids” don’t seem like they’d block anyone’s view. Seems like a dumb decision by them.

  127. 127.

    cckids

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Everyone dumps on someone

    Very true. I grew up in small-town Nebraska, where Polack jokes were all the thing. Of course, it is dam near ground zero for Polish people who all immigrated in the 1880’s – 1900’s, so that is probably why all the yuks at their expense.

    I’ve heard several of the “Polack” jokes from my 1960’s elementary school days recycled as blonde jokes, so there is that.

  128. 128.

    Davis X. Machina

    @schrodinger’s cat: My children (Irish/Hungarian-Jewish) both studied French, and my son studied for a year in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He’s fluent. Both have the relevant language credentials to emigrate or work in Quebec.

    French ought to be taken more seriously in this state, it ought to be a unique advantage. We are in many ways the southernmost Maritime province — Angus King wanted to move Maine to the Atlantic time zone — and closer to Quebec and Montreal than New York. And a not-inconsiderable slice of the third world is Francophone.

    But it’s a tough sell. In the schools here, Spanish sweeps all before it.

  131. 131.

    Gex

    I have no doubt she has a long lucrative career on the wingnut welfare circuit as yet another example of reverse racism, political correctness run amok, and the oppression of white people. Not to mention this will deliberately and erroneously be called a violation of her free speech rights. The right will indirectly assert that everyone else MUST to continue to watch her show so that Food Network doesn’t cancel her otherwise it infringement on her free speech. Because if you don’t get paid to say your racist stuff on cable TV, you aren’t truly free.

  132. 132.

    scav

    Her cooking style strikes me as much a middle finger to changing mores as her language and attitudes: “Y’all ain’t the boss of me” appeal. Although the speed with which she was dropped makes me suspect she was past her general sell-by date, rather than racial enlightenment. Easy out, possibly better for reasons of contracts. (speed of apology might indicate she was aware of it. utter speculation, absolutely minimal interest beyond cheap giggle at cuisine and what passes for cheerleader of same — tammy faye bakker flasbacks for some reason.)

  134. 134.

    muddy

    I’m waiting with keen interest to hear a certain friend’s take on this. I love her dearly, but she always insists that National Inquirer has the straight dope, on the other hand she loves Paula on account of the super food. I think she’s more racist than she probably thinks she is, so I’m going with PD for the win.

  135. 135.

    muddy

    @Sly: Thanks for this further info. I was very struck by the clip, and was not previously aware of Tim WIse.

  137. 137.

    karen

    @Southern Beale:

    They’d probably say “Jew up” if it were the right context, too.

    I’m Jewish and I grew up in downstate NY, mostly on Long Island. It wasn’t until I went to college in upstate NY then moved to MD that I learned all these different terms with the word “Jew” in it. Probably because where I grew up, you were either Jewish or Catholic (Irish or Italian) so the phrases weren’t used. But when I left I heard these terms:

    1. “Jew someone down” = haggle the price lower because apparently, Jews are cheapskates.
    2. “Looking like a little Jew boy” = wearing a cap with a visor that’s not a sports cap, usually greyish.
    3. “”Jew up the price” = because Jews are soooo greedy.
    4. “Jews wear hats to cover their horns.” I guess I’m Satan spawn, nice to meet you.
    And of course, the jokes like “How can you tell someone is Jewish? Toss a penny and see who bends down to get it.”

    What I found really interesting was that when people said all that stuff, it wasn’t bigoted. They’re just expressions. Somehow that made it worse. I’ve never used the N word because it’s disgusting to me.

    My parents and my family don’t use the N word either, though my mom has used the word “schvartze” (which is Yiddish for black). I don’t.

  140. 140.

    Keith G

    It might be wise not spending too much time fussing about Paula Dean. As stupid as she is, she and her fucked up ilk are not the big problem. All she does is provide a little bit of race-bate porn for both sides, and thereby serves to help obscure the real issues.

    Classism and the growing divide between those who can accumulate capital and those who can’t is the issue causing greater fault lines in thIs society. The existence of a minimum living standard and a chance to access a pathway to improvement is the battlefield. Though she deserves it, slapping Dean around only serves to eat up attention that could be used organizing and fighting for increased education spending and a higher minimum wage.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    I found out relatively recently that the term I’d always heard as “jerry rig” was originally “n166er rig.” IIRC, the “improved” version contains a WW I-era anti-German slur, but geez!

  147. 147.

    burnspbesq

    @pokeyblow:

    Jeff Flake’s son must think Paula Deen is a real MILF.

    You owe me a new MacBook Pro. I just vomited all over my current one.

  149. 149.

    Citizen Alan

    @quannlace:

    I think I would actually rather watch Paula Deen recite the N-word over and over for 12-hours a day than watch ten minutes of Guy Fucking Fieri.

  150. 150.

    lamh35

    @Wolfrum
    Breaking: Paula Deen flees to Hong Kong; threatens to sell racist secrets to Chinese.

  152. 152.

    C.S.

    @Citizen Alan:

    I think I would actually rather watch Paula Deen recite the N-word over and over for 12-hours a day than watch ten minutes of Guy Fucking Fieri.

    Preach, Citizen!

  153. 153.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh35:

    I think G’s whole family would go down to my niece’s school to protest that decision, and we’re all white on this side! Sometimes the pouf is the only way my SIL can get her daughter to school on time.

    @Violet:

    I’m pretty sure the girl in the picture is supposed to be a funny illustration of the concept, not an actual child banned from that school. :-)

  154. 154.

    Violet

    Oh, for fuck’s sake.

    Yahoo! News issued a correction Friday evening after a reporter mistakenly referred to Kenya as President Barack Obama’s birthplace.

    A piece on Obama’s upcoming trip to Africa by Rachel Rose Hartman included a lede that echoed sentiments heard among the “birther” movement.

    “President Barack Obama makes the first extended trip to Africa of his presidency next week—but he won’t be stopping in the country of his birth,” Hartman originally wrote.

    There’s a screengrab.

  160. 160.

    JPL

    @Citizen Alan: The NYTimes didn’t like his restaurant either.
    Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are? If you hadn’t come up with the recipe yourself, would you ever guess that the shiny tissue of breading that exudes grease onto the plate contains either pretzels or smoked almonds? Did you discern any buttermilk or brine in the white meat, or did you think it tasted like chewy air?

  161. 161.

    danah gaz

    @Violet: /facepalm

    10 to 1 a couple dozen birfers will be screaming about this “cover up” for the next 3 months.

  164. 164.

    shortstop

    @Mnemosyne: It’s actually “jury rig,” a salty sailor tem, or at least it started that way. However, I think there must be some regionalisms. “Jerry rig” is common across the Midwest. Whether that gained currency during one of the world wars I cannot say.

    ETA: Ah, this is interesting (from your link): “Probably blend of jerry-built and jury-rigged. First known use: 1959.”

  166. 166.

    Hal

    When I was a kid, my best friend and I stopped by his supermarket job to pick up his check on the way to the mall arcade. His friend was outside and we stopped to talk to him. He looks at my friend and without missing a beat says “Can you believe they have me out here pushing carts like some n**ger!”

    Um, I’m bi-racial. My father is black, mother is white. The best part was he then looked at me and says “No offense.” Before I could even reply my friend says “Don’t worry, he’s not a real black person.”

    And from then on I realized why so many of my white friends parents had no issue with me, but could make racist statements like not voting for Jessie Jackson because he was going to give “all the rights” to black people, or referring to the lazy n-words they had to work with etc.

    Not a single one of those people would have ever thought of themselves as racist either.

  168. 168.

    burnspbesq

    NYT and others are reporting the unsealing of a bushel basket of charges against Snowden. A provisional arrest warrant has been forwarded to the HK cops.

  169. 169.

    danah gaz

    @Hal: I just threw up in my mouth a little. On behalf of every over privileged white arsehole everywhere, I apologize. Sometimes, we’re not even like that. =)

  170. 170.

    Mnemosyne

    @shortstop:

    Wikipedia says they’re two different terms with different origins. Mirriam-Webster has “jerry-rigged” separate from “jury-rigged.” There are probably regional differences in usage, but jerry-rigged is a perfectly cromulent word.

  171. 171.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Mnemosyne: ‘Jerry-rig’ dates to 1869, and may not refer to Germans at all.. Its relation to the much older (1788, and ‘jury mast’ from 1648) ‘jury rig’ is unclear.

    (ex OED 2nd ed.. Why the Oxford English Dictionary is not a Wonder in Civilization III, IV, or V eludes me.)

  177. 177.

    TaMara (BHF)

    I made one of her recipes once. The first thing I had to do was cut down the butter. It was an orange brownie….her recipe was more like orange butter with a little flour thrown in for good measure. Ugh.

  180. 180.

    SatanicPanic

    @Hal: oh that sucks. I’m half white, half Mexican. I got that sort of thing every now and then. “Damn wetbacks” “HEY my MOM is Mexican” *balls fist “oh, but you’re not one of those”.

    STILL makes me mad. I feel like punching someone right now in fact.

  182. 182.

    danah gaz

    @TaMara (BHF): I’ve been away for awhile, are you still doing cooking threads? I’ve got one or two summer recipes that may deserve a mention.

    Since I finally got my kid, I’ve been cooking a lot more lately…

  183. 183.

    steve

    tpm

    There’s more to this though. In 2006 she wrote about several times when she acted racist or oblivious to racism as a young girl, and is deeply ashamed and embarrassed about how she acted.

    Speaking as a rural southerner, for a 60 year old southerner to 1) admit she was plenty racist and clueless, 2) express shame and embarrassment it, is actually unusual. Around here (south ga) the average 60 yro is more likely to say 1) It’s the coloreds who’re always tryin’ to get whites in trouble by makin’ up racism. 2) segregation/slavery wasn’t all that bad anyway, they’re just whinin’ so they can get more welfare.

    I’m not saying Deen is a wonderful person, I’m saying her writings from 7 years ago suggests she’s much better than the average 60 yro shithead around here.

  185. 185.

    steve

    At the hardware store I work in, for example, the customers who used to say “n*gger-rig” now say “presidential-engineer” and chuckle.

  192. 192.

    shortstop

    @steve: At this point, it’s the complainant’s word against Deen’s that this stuff is in in the long-ago past. Her brother’s wedding, for which the complainant alleges Deen wanted “a bunch of little niggers” to dress up like Shirley Temple-era tap dancers, was in 2007. Deen denies that she used the actual word at that time, but concedes that she was going for that effect without apparently understanding how offensive that imagery is.

    The complainant worked for Deen between 2005-10 and alleges that racial discrimination of the staff was rampant.

    You may accept Deen’s version of events in her deposition over her accuser’s version, but taking the stories in a self-serving, self-promoting book as gospel may not be the best plan.

  193. 193.

    MP

    Circumspection isn’t as common as it should be. Without it, it’s easy to assume the way you treat people is fair and the way you perceive people is accurate.

  197. 197.

    shortstop

    @shortstop: I’m only finding “jerry-built” going back to 1869, “jury-rigged” much earlier. I’m going with “jerry-rigged” as a mixture of the two that appeared in the 20th century. Sorry…once I start this stuff…

  199. 199.

    Citizen Alan

    @ruemara:

    We really do have a human trait of tribalism, don’t we?

    At the end of the day, we are all just barely-evolved chimps, constantly on the lookout for a chimp from some other tribe or who is just the low chimp in the pecking order so we can fling poo at him instead of getting it flung at ourselves.

  200. 200.

    Citizen Alan

    @Southern Beale:

    Oh, my husband works with old people who still use the word “n***er rigged…” They’d probably say “Jew up” if it were the right context, too.

    To this day, I occasionally have to catch myself from using “n***er-rigged” because I learned it as a small child before I even knew what the word “n***er” meant, and so it’s my “go to” word for something done haphazardly. Similarly, I’m still trying to wean myself from using the word “gipped” to mean cheated because until the age of 37 I honestly didn’t know it referred to Gypsies.

  201. 201.

    Hal

    @shortstop:

    Deen denies that she used the actual word at that time

    She actually says she doesn’t recall saying that, which just bugs the hell out of me. Someone says you wanted a bunch of n-words to dance at a wedding and your response is I don’t recall? kind of suspicious.

  203. 203.

    Elie

    @aimai:

    Believe me, I do not defend her — but I do think that people should have an opportunity for true regret and for true contrition. I hope that not all whites, blacks, others who have said or done racist things in their past, will be thrown to the dogs without an opportunity for people to see that folks CAN change, can learn, etc.

    That is my only reservation about this….

  204. 204.

    Violet

    @Citizen Alan: Yeah, I didn’t know until fifteen years ago or so that “Gypsy” is considered an offensive word. The people themselves are Roma or Romani or Romany. Not Gypsies.

    It can be challenging to keep up with what is and isn’t acceptable. If you don’t know any Romany people or hear or read that it’s considered offensive, how would you know?

  205. 205.

    gbbalto

    Great discussion. I lived 1956-1963 out in a Connecticut township, in a little neighborhood which ran working class to professorial. Never even heard the n- word there. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the original “Eeny-meeny-miny-mo” was racist – I learned it as “…catch a TIGER by the toe”. Still, as a white person, I managed to pick up racist attitudes that I work against as hard as I can.

  208. 208.

    TG Chicago

    @ruemara:

    I predict a return in about 6 months.

    I think it’ll take a little longer, but I bet her people are already scouting black female co-hosts for her.

  210. 210.

    the Conster

    Hopefully next Sandra Lee will confess to being a raging homophobe who admits to wanting to stage a wedding with prancing transvestites serving cheez whiz on pop n’ fresh biscuits. Her Semi Home Made show is a fucking travesty of both food and cooking shows.

  211. 211.

    dww44

    @Citizen Alan: Well, gee whiz, Alan, it’s always fun to read a comment about one’s generation and milieu and life experiences that pretty much labels us all as unreconstructed racists and wishes for our speedy departure from this earth. Even though some of us have been liberal Southern democrats our entire voting lives,and participated in the desegregation of the segregated society we grew up in, oh, beginning about 1971 with the swapping of young teachers of one race into schools with students of the other race.

    Some of us do have stories to tell and our attendance in segregated schools doesn’t make us all racist or complicit with racist practices. Perhaps having the same cultural life experiences as someone like Paula Deen enables one to have empathy for her and to regret what has happened without exonerating her past actions and remarks.

  212. 212.

    Jebediah

    @SatanicPanic:

    I’m half white, half Mexican. I got that sort of thing every now and then. “Damn wetbacks” “HEY my MOM is Mexican” *balls fist “oh, but you’re not one of those”.

    Like that makes it inoffensive! FFS.

  213. 213.

    Hungry Joe

    @Southern Beale: It’s odd — I’ve come across “Jew up” referenced in blog comments several times in the last few weeks, and I swear I’ve never seen or heard it before … And I’m Jewish, so it’s not as if it’s been slipping by me. Now, “Jew down” — that’s an old one. Also odd: I lived in southern Indiana till I was ten, and never heard the n-word from any schoolmates. Then in the early ’60s we moved to a southern California beach community with not a single African-American, and I heard it … well, not all the time, but I heard it.

  215. 215.

    steve

    At this point, it’s the complainant’s word against Deen’s that this stuff is in in the long-ago past. Her brother’s wedding, for which the complainant alleges Deen wanted “a bunch of little niggers” to dress up like Shirley Temple-era tap dancers, was in 2007. Deen denies that she used the actual word at that time, but concedes that she was going for that effect without apparently understanding how offensive that imagery is.
    The complainant worked for Deen between 2005-10 and alleges that racial discrimination of the staff was rampant.
    You may accept Deen’s version of events in her deposition over her accuser’s version, but taking the stories in a self-serving, self-promoting book as gospel may not be the best plan.

    Oh, I’m def not taking her side or any side. If I had to randomly guess I’d probably side with her accuser. I’m just saying that years before the accusations she expressed (or signed onto expressions of) shame and embarrassment about having been really racist/blind to racism.

    Here in rural south Ga., if a 60 yro white person isn’t openly racist when only other whites are around, it’s unusual.

    @danah. Yeah. “Presidential-engineer”. It took me a second to figure out what they were saying. Heard it several times now. No Sh1t.

  216. 216.

    shortstop

    @Hal: I don’t find it particularly convincing either.

    @Hungry Joe: Kinky Friedman is tiresome, but I do smile when he refers to someone trying to get a lower price on something as “Christianing them down.” It takes people aback, which is the point.

  217. 217.

    leeleeFL

    @Citizen Alan: I think the entire part of the population called Boomers, myself included, have to shuffle off this mortal coil before this country can move ahead. I believe my liberal fellows are less dangerous, but we can’t get enough done when we are in the majority because of our obstructionist counterparts. I hope to be as graceful as Rutgers Hauser at the end of Blade Runner.

  218. 218.

    rikyrah

    People are missing the point with the Paula Deen thing..

    Actually, I don’t think they’re missing the point, because they wanna cover for this racist.

    Honestly, she’s a Southern White woman who used Nigger – not the most shocking thing in the world.

    The TRUE PROBLEM SHOULD BE

    THE WORKING CONDITIONS OF THE BLACK EMPLOYEES.

    THAT IS THE REAL ISSUE HERE.

    Not whether this bytch used Nigger

    it’s HOW BLACK EMPLOYEES WERE MISTREATED IN LATE 20TH CENTURY AMERICA

  221. 221.

    Eric U.

    my nephews went to middle school and high school in South Carolina, and I really hope they grow out of the casual racism they picked up there. It’s truly disturbing. If they were my kids, I would have sent them off to on of them “scare them straight” boot camp programs to either straighten them out or kill them

  222. 222.

    MD Rackham

    @Hungry Joe: Newport Beach?

    The police lost a lawsuit in the 90’s for still using “NIN” on the radio to get a patrol car to investigate the “N***** in Newport”.

    And in the 60’s I remember the cops meeting the buses arriving from Camp Pendleton, advising any black Marines that they might want to stay on the bus until the got somewhere “they’d feel more at home” (i.e., Watts).

    My parents raised me a little better than that, even though my Dad often referred to himself as a “boat n*****”.

  224. 224.

    Woodrowfan

    growing up in SW Ohio I always heard “Briar” (I.e. Kentuckian) jokes. Basically they were Polish jokes.

  225. 225.

    Mnemosyne

    @steve:

    Here in rural south Ga., if a 60 yro white person isn’t openly racist when only other whites are around, it’s unusual.

    As a white person, that’s the part of the story I’m finding increasingly fascinating. It sounds like Deen thought she was “safe” saying those things since it was a room full of white people, and never realized that using language like that is now offensive to white people, too.

    @rikyrah:

    But it’s also that Deen thought that all of the white people around her were A-OK with her using that kind of language because we’re all in this together, amirite? And it turns out that, no, Paula, a lot of white people these days don’t want to listen to that shit, either, and find it really offensive even if it’s not about them personally.

  226. 226.

    Woodrowfan

    FWIW, there’s an online map that shows you what the most popular search terms are for porn in the world. For the US it’s broken down by state. Guess what the #1 search term is throughout the deep south? Yep, “ebony.”

    http://www.pornmd.com/sex-search

  227. 227.

    mai naem

    I heard this yesterday and was just disappointed in Paula Deen. I had never watched her show until last year when I was at a friends who enjoys watching her. Anyhow, the episode(the only one) I saw was the one where she had Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and she said something to the effect of “Jimmy Carter is truly one of the most decent people in the world.” I’m not saying this to give her a pass but if somebody had asked me about Paula Deens politics before I saw that episode, I would have just said rich Right Wing GOPr from the south. She isn’t and she’s apparently donated money to the Dems. A lot of people on this thread are assuming she’s a FOX racist wingnut blah blah but she’s not.

  228. 228.

    Shortstop

    @rikyrah: When Dr. Laura lost her show for repeatedly using the N word on the air in what she considered a sarcastic context, nobody paid attention to the real problem: that she was arrogantly and obnoxiously dismissing the caller’s concerns about her husband’s family’s racism toward the caller — telling her to get over it, quit imagining it, stop being such a baby, etc.

    Something like that is happening here. The language Deen used is bad. That language was only part of her business’s apparently systematic discrimination toward and really crappy treatment of black employees. You’re right that not many people are talking about that.

  229. 229.

    Violet

    @Shortstop: I’m unfamiliar with the actual lawsuit. I thought someone upthread said it was a white woman who brought the lawsuit. Was it on behalf of black employees or something? Not sure what the issue is. The only things that seem to be getting press are the Confederate wedding thing and the n-word.

  230. 230.

    dww44

    @mai naem: Thanks for weighing in. I too saw that episode with the Carters and thought her remarks about their innate decency reflected well on her, even if delivered in her usual over the top manner. On another recent show, she partnered with an African American chef.

  232. 232.

    fuckwit

    @Jebediah: I have a friend who is half German and half Mexican. This means, he says, “I steal beer”. Which doesn’t really fit any stereotype I know of, but for some reason he always gets a laugh.

  233. 233.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    I believe “jerry-rigged” was a corruption or mishearing of the original “jury-rigged,” i.e., built by committee, with all that implies. “N*gger-rigged” was a cheerful racist variant. (Cf. “Afro-engineered.”)

    ETA: And I see Burns has gone into detail.

  234. 234.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Sorry, fail. There’s nothing in that definition that says “jerry-rigged” descends from “n*igger-rigged,” nor anything tying it to a slur against Germans. I believe that was Burns’s disagreement (and the point of my previous comment).

  235. 235.

    Xenos

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Everyone dumps on someone. Somewhere they must say ‘Tu-es luxembourgeois, hien?’

    As a resident of Luxembourg, I have noticed that the French and the Luxembourgers really do not care for one another. As a Catholic principality, Lux was ‘liberated’ by the French revolutionary army and ended up happier with Lutheran Prussian domination than being under the heel of the egotistical, atheist French. This gets mixed up with issues of class, as the middle class is francophone and the working class is more germanophone.

    As an English speaker, if you walk into a room of professional-class people, make a dramatic pause, and declare ‘moien’ (the local franconian language term for ‘hello’) rather than ‘bonjour’ you have them in stitches.

    The only group that is universally ridiculed are the Belgians, as they are the worst drivers in Europe. Absolute hazards on the road.

  236. 236.

    aimai

    @Violet: The lawsuit alleged a hostile work environement for everyone including the white woman who is in an interracial marriage or has close relatives who are non white and who was offended by the casual racism and the sexual abuse she saw around her.

    The language issue and the racists can be nice people too issues are red herrings. Paula Deen and her sons are alleged to be horrible employers who are abusive to the people who work for them because they are acting out some deep seated racial animus and also sexist agenda in which working people are used to gratify non economic needs of their employers.

    I don’t understand why so many BJ commenters get to hung up condemning someone who forced her AA workers to use a separate bathroom from her white workers because they think that this is all about linguistic tics or frozen forms like “gipped.” Its not. Calling someone the N word, discriminating between “good” and “bad” black people, humiliating and treating your aa staff differently than you do your white staff, are all modern day offenses against your neighbors and your co-workers. Not imaginary rhetorical offenses against people who are not part of your current political universe.

    Some other blog commenters like to say “when you know better, you do better.” There’s no excuse for a 60 year old woman–8 years older than me–not to know better and to have done better. She may like to pretend that her racism is all in the past but its obviously not. She pines for the day when black people were slaves and when she is forced to deal with them in a modern way, as equals and as employees, she and her sons balk. They know what they are doing is wrong, they just prefer to keep doing it.

  238. 238.

    Ksmiami

    @gogol’s wife: as a chef in training all I can say is I have a love hate relationship with food network since so many of the shows and personalities promoted are barely gourmet but a lot of bluster. For great southern food check out Edna Lewis and Scott peacock

  239. 239.

    Elie

    @aimai:

    You said that perfectly and I agree. My comment way upstringwas about the necessity to be fair to people with racist backgrounds WHO CHANGE AND LEARN. (I know you weren’t specifically addressing my comment). She obviously has deep problems that are right here and now and she deserves the results, at least if they are further supported through what comes out in trial. My other thought is that people like her are probably NOT just evil to black people… people like this frequently are bad characters to white and all kinds of people — particularly those they judge to be weaker or subservient position. Watch. I bet all kinds of stories about her and her brother will start to emerge – from her white employees. Also.

  240. 240.

    LAC

    I have enjoyed reading this thread.. given how anxious the food network and the cooking channel is to keep their ratings and project that inclusive image, I am not too sure we will be seeing Deen on that network for a good while. As others have said this is not just using racial slurs; it is a toxic atmosphere that involves members of her family as well.
    I never tried her dishes and found her irresponsible in her cooking. That she adds the “hey y’all! Who wants to play gone with the wind game with me?” Makes me doubly glad to see her go.

  241. 241.

    jak

    What is it with butter slingers. Ina Garten made some insensitive comment about make a wish (or something like it) a few years ago.

  242. 242.

    Jebediah

    @aimai:

    someone who forced her AA workers to use a separate bathroom from her white workers

    Holy crap! That’s fucking insane. That’s not a vestigial language tic, that’s a deliberate, planned action.
    Did she not get the memo that “sepooparate but equal” got shitcanned a long(ish) time ago?

  244. 244.

    Not Sure

    @pokeyblow: January 19, 1947. I looked it up. Old enough to have been a senior in high school when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Definitely old enough to have seen a pretty clear before/after picture of said Act. I would say the statute of limitations on the N word for someone on the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation should lie somewhere around 1980.

  246. 246.

    steve

    someone who forced her AA workers to use a separate bathroom from her white workers

    okay if this part is true–i don’t know one way or the other–she deserves to be hit by a Mack Truck. Driven by a black guy.

  247. 247.

    LanceThruster

    I understand the outrage but there is a certain ridiculousness to all this to.

    If you ever used the word the “N-word” represents, then *you’ve* used the N-word. If you’ve ever quoted verbatim someone who’s used the N-word, then you’ve used the N-word. If you’ve read certain Mark Twain passages out loud, you’ve used the N-word. If you’ve ever said the name of the band also known as N.W.A., then you’ve used the n-word.

    I have used the N-word before. Next question?

  248. 248.

    LanceThruster

    Maybe her, Michael Richards, Mark Fuhrman, and Dawg the Bounty Hunter can start the CNWN (The Cable N-Word Network). I smell a demographic goldmine, if only for the GOP campaign ad $$$.

  252. 252.

    LanceThruster

    @Jeff:

    I was thinking of the actual semantics as in “it depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”

    The word “use” or “used” is rather unambiguously defined.

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