Paula Deen Using N-Word and Making Racial Jokes During Deposition — Page 4

I think Paula Deen represents the worst kind of bigot. She doesn't wear a white hood or have the Confederate flag on her car bumper. She doesn't ever come out swinging. She's not intentionally malicious or aggressive about her perspective.

She's the "casual bigot." The one who is "sweet" and "does a lot of good," and is a "warm and genuinely loving person."

She was "just raised that way." It was all around her growing up. Everyone she knew used that word. They meant no harm. This is "the way things are" Down South. She didn't cause it. She doesn't want to kill anybody or beat anybody up.

Yet, by her words and her behavior, she perpetuates the stereotypes, the hatred, the hate crimes, the murders, the crosses on the lawns. She is not an innocent bystander. With every comment, chuckle, or even friendly dismissal, she "lights the match" to far worse crimes. She helps make it "okay" to take it one step further in the name of "tradition" and "the old family values."

As the song says, you've got to be carefully taught. As adults, we can be taught "different." We can learn that what we learned as kids, what our neighbors said (and still say in many cases) isn't right. It isn't acceptable. And it must stop.

One "friendly Southerner" at a time.

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So, if this is what it takes to make her realize she needs to change her views and "be carefully taught" to think differently, is she still a bad person? I someone does change for whatever reason, are they always branded by their previous actions?

I agree it's everywhere.

But nowhere is it more nurtured and even celebrated than in the South.

My mom's side of the family was a real boiler plate. My great grandfather was the last to be born on the family plantation, called Rowan Oak. It was built by my great (5x) grandfather, Col. Robert Sheegog. And yes, they owned slaves. By the time my great-grandfather was three years old, the Civiil War was over. A whole way of life was "gone with the wind." They were distant cousins of Robert E. Lee, too. The plantation is famous now because William Faulkner bought it and wrote many of his works there:



My great grandfather married a Northern woman who was distantly related to Ulysses S. Grant. They lived in Missouri (Confederate) and eventually moved to Kansas (a free state). That was long after the war ended, but sentiments lingered. They still do to this day.

My grandmother (and her many sisters and brothers) were raised by "Lees and Grants" in the same household. They had to work through many traditions, legacies, beliefs, going back far into the "family values" of many generations. It wasn't easy.

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Sorry -- I'm 50, and 66 isn't all that old -- certainly not in this kind of debate. Even if "in her mind" is was just a way to SAY it, how does she not know NOT to say it....

Exactly. I too grew up in the South and Paula Dean is only 7 years older than I.

Her age is no excuse. If anything our generation was the one in schools when they were newly integrated. We ought to be more sensitive, not less.

And for what it's worth, even when I was a kid, the "N word" was understood to be a rude slur. Other now passé words, such as "Negro" and "colored", may have been used in polite conversation, but the "N word" was the sole property of racists and white trash.

Updated On: 6/22/13 at 08:38 PM

Due to customer outcry, QVC is getting ready to dump Miss Paula as well:

QVC
4 hours ago
We share your concerns about the unfortunate Paula Deen situation. We are closely monitoring these events and are in the process of reviewing our relationship with Ms. Deen > http://qvc.co/1aDuL2U

As Mama Rose said, "Good
riddance to bad garbage."

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Updated On: 6/22/13 at 11:13 PM

I think Clyde actually posts words sometimes. This one seems to have joined (returned?) solely to post gifs. And now that he knows how annoying he is, it probably makes his peepee hard.

Couldn't hurt.

Of course!

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I remember that from John Carptenter's "The Thing."

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If someone does change for whatever reason, are they always branded by their previous actions?

At BWW they are.

I recommend reading the deposition and decide for yourself. I have just finished reading it and having done so, I do not believe that Paula Deen is a bigot.

Even the title of this thread is salacious and presents facts of the case out of context. If someone reads that title they would think she was giving a deposition and using the N-Word and telling racial jokes while doing so.




Transcript of Testimony of Paula Deen, May 17, 2013

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 03:47 PM