Paula Deen

[michael clubb]

  Just curious, what do all of you think about this blow-up over Paula Deen? 

[TeeBubbaDee]

I think her hiding the fact that she was diabetic for several years and still promoting unhealthy cooking, is worse than the current brouhaha. Being diabetic and having a cooking show where you deep fry mac n cheese wrapped in bacon seems pretty dishonest. (and potentially harmful)

I'm certainly not condoning the use of racial slurs, but I heard was that this is something she said 30 years ago. Is there more to the story? Don't know. 

[Aggie]

I have never met Paula Deen.  I judge cows not people.

 

[michael clubb]

Aggie, I'm not asking you to make a judgement but to think about and tell me what you think of such a big thing coming from something that happened so many years ago. She has lost a huge percentage of her income, do you think it's fair?

p.s. Aggie is one of my favorite names.

[Aggie]

I have never seen a Paula Deen show, all I know is what I have seen on media which is also very little.  If this just about was she said after a bank robbery many years ago, I feel she maybe unfairly judged.

 

[michael clubb]

Perri, have you never made a racial slur? What would your do if all this attention was pointed at you years after you said it?

[TeeBubbaDee]

I think that if every adult in this nation truthfully answered the question "Have you ever uttered a racial slur", well over 90% of the people would have to say yes.  

[Lifesighs]

She testified about her actions over a period of time, this isn't something she said as a child, this is something she said 20 years after the civil rights movement and the murder of Martin Luther King. She has discriminated in the past few years by allowing only the light skinned blacks in the front of her restaurant. The wedding plan with the slaves was beyond ugly, Last year. When you know better, you do better. She didn't do better, she failed.

It seems that people from the south want to shoo all this away as if it didn't matter. I think about how she is disrespecting all those who sweated in plantations in high heat and humidity doing hard work for people like her who shunned them as if they weren't worth anything. Black people are a different color, otherwise they are the same and deserve respect. She's still living in another age. Sad and I'm not giving her a pass.

[Merry]

There's a tremendous amount of animosity between racists and people who don't believe in segregation. I think as part of my life, I've done whatever I can on a personal level to aid and abet non whites to thrive whether that's intellectually , spiritually & economically. Maybe that's the whole point of this conundrum. Whether someone is into oppressing others or not for some very stupid reasons. I just want to say one last thing, an oxymoron. Racism is colorblind. As far as I can tell , one group going out of it's way to annihilate another is part of the human experience on Earth much more often than it should be.

[Merry]

I've stood up to racist neighbors and family members. It depends on how racist they are , how hostile things get. When we owned an oil co, I had the distinct pleasure of being able to hire a black attorney that he was black was secondary, he was f-ing brilliant and I told him so and he went on to become the local police commissioner. Now I'm a burned out old fart who picks their battles. But back then,. . . .it was worth it.

[TeeBubbaDee]

Thanks Lifesighs, This is part of the story I hadn't heard.

[Shannon Smith Cumiford]

Thank you. This is the point being missed. 

[officerripley]

Yeah, the wedding thing has bothered me too:  I heard when they were asking her about it, something like "So you essentially had the black servers at this wedding dressed up to look like slaves, right?"  And she responded, "Yes."  And the wedding wasn't that long ago; so okay she didn't pull a "mark furhman" & lie about using the N-word but seemed to be of the attitude that dressing African-American servers up as slaves at a recent wedding is not a big deal?  I can't generate any sympathy for her either.