Paula Deen Using N-Word and Making Racial Jokes During Deposition — Page 6

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#126

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 9:19pm

Stage direction:
"Clutch pearls….retreat!"

Obligatory standing O!

Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!

#127

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 9:41pm

Um, I agree with Robbie. I use the term "N-word" because it isn't worth a fight, but it's ridiculous that adults can't use a word when discussing the word (which is entirely different from using the word as an epithet or an adjective).

Words are not magic spells, Playbilly. And we all "think" the real word when we hear "N-word" anyway. So whom are we protecting by talking like 3-year-olds?

And jumping to an accusation that Robbie uses the actual word in a negative manner is absurd!

For the record, I feel exactly the same about the "F-word" that rhymes with a fly larva.

#128

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 9:52pm

Playbilly, calm down. Seriously. He didn't say he's called anybody "the word that shall not be named," but rather he's used it before (or had sung it before).

Is there honestly anybody on this board who can say they have never spoken (or in his case sung) "this word that shall not be named?"

If so, you're a liar.

To use it in a derogatory way is different, but to discuss it? Come on.

And my support of Robbie's post had more to do with his next part about Paula being a brand in a free market and the difference in that scenario.

And shame on you for giving so much power to "that word" that it dare not be uttered under any circumstances.

"Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!"

"Voldemort!"

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#129

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 9:56pm

I use the word al the time, since its my dogs name. But it's ok since he's black.

#130

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:01pm

I always forget what niggardly means, because I would never ever use it. I like big words and all, but that one just seems destined to fraught with all sorts of unnecessary drama.

I looked it up. I'll stick with the myriad other words I know for "stingy."

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 10:01 PM

#131

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:02pm

Phyllis, I've never even heard that word before!!

#132

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:09pm

That's because you rarely, if ever, hear it. Occasionally it might pop up in an older book. To the best of my knowledge, its etymology doesn't have anything to do with the racial slur it evokes, but really, why even use it?

There was a fracas about a mayor's staff member (or whatever) a few years back who used the word. I just feel like... even if you just chose that word to use, what kind of privilege blinders are you wearing to not think that maybe it's not the best word to run with? Even in the very best of circumstances, you're going to have to explain it, and when you have to explain something that sounds inappropriate, you're fighting a losing battle.

Here's a wiki about the niggardly incident

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 10:09 PM

#133

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:12pm

If I click on that link, Obama's internet spies will think I'm a racist.

#134

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:19pm

Seriously, the other night I watched Rosemary's Baby and The Omen and then looked up anagrams for Satan for something I'm writing and THE NEXT DAY a lady came to my door with a Jesus pamphlet. That's a true story. Thanks, Obama!

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 10:19 PM

#135

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:31pm

I knew that word, Phyllis, but that's because I am old and read a lot of Dickens, when the word wasn't in questionable taste.

This is a great blog, written by Michael W. Twitty, a Southern, Black, Gay, Jewish man who also happens to cook. I highly recommend it in general, but he's written an interesting open letter to Deen, coming from a pretty unique perspective. (Warning to those prone to pearl-clutching - he uses the word "n*").

For the record, I did not laugh when I saw Diva's photo portraying Kanye's infant as a monkey. Given that black men and women have so often been pejoratively referred to as "monkeys" and other primates, Diva had to expect (in fact said he or she expected) that someone would "play the racist card". I'm not playing that card, but Diva could just as easily used an ugly dog, or just left the child out of it and avoided the racist issue entirely.

An Open Letter to Paula Deen

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 10:31 PM

#136

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 10:50pm

Thanks for that link. It was a really edifying read. Two things popped out to me.

This
To be part of the national surprise towards you saying the word “n*” in the past (I am a cultural and culinary historian and so therefore I am using the word within context…) is at best naïve and at worst, an attempt to hide the pervasiveness of racism, specifically anti-Black racism in certain currents of American culture—not just Southern. Take for example the completely un-Christian and inhuman rage at Cheerios for their simple and very American ad showing a beautiful biracial girl talking to her white mother and pouring cereal on the chest of her Black father. That Cheerio’s had to shut down the comments section says that the idea of inter-human relationships outside of one’s color bracket is for many hiding behind a computer screen—a sign of the apocalypse. So just like those old spaghetti sauce ads, yes, America, racism—“it’s in there” even when we were prefer it not be.

really boiled it all down well, I thought.

And this

Some have said you are not a racist. Sorry, I don’t believe that…I am more of the Avenue Q type—everybody’s—you guessed it—a little bit racist. This is nothing to be proud of no more than we are proud of our other sins and foibles. It’s something we should work against. It takes a lifetime to unlearn taught prejudice or socially mandated racism or even get over strings of negative experiences we’ve had with groups outside of our own.

She be the response to any thread in which race is being discussed, to someone who goes "but everyone's a little bit racistlol".

#137

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 11:03pm

Thanks, I'm glad you appreciated it, Phyllis. Mr Twitty is a really interesting, thoughtful man, and his blog is well worth reading on many levels.

Great recipes, too.

Today I watched again Ms Jane Elliot's controversial brown eye/blue eye 3rd grade experiment from long ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s

It led me to her modern day adult version in England. It's 45 minutes long, but I was riveted. I've set it up so it will only show the last 4 minutes, but the entire thing is well worth watching if you can find the time.

Such a complicated issue. Best to err on the side of caution in these matters.

Adult British version of the experiment

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 11:03 PM

#138

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 11:14pm

I always forget what niggardly means, because I would never ever use it. I like big words and all, but that one just seems destined to fraught with all sorts of unnecessary drama.

As I understand it, "niggardly" comes from the old French, negare, meaning "to deny". It is related to words like "negate" and "negative".

It has nothing to do with race or blackness.

Now I can understand choosing to avoid it out of consideration for others, but nobody should be castigated for using the word.

(ETA sorry, Phyllis. You explained this above and better than I did. I do remember the uproar over the official using the word in his speech.)

Updated On: 6/25/13 at 11:14 PM

#139

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

Posted: 6/25/13 at 11:20pm

To the best of my knowledge, its etymology doesn't have anything to do with the racial slur it evokes, but really, why even use it? I just feel like... even if you just chose that word to use, what kind of privilege blinders are you wearing to not think that maybe it's not the best word to run with? Even in the very best of circumstances, you're going to have to explain it, and when you have to explain something that sounds inappropriate, you're fighting a losing battle.

#140

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 12:16am

I was gonna edit, because I thought my repeating myself comment may have read a titch harsher than intended, so when I saw Gaveston's addendum, I just figured I'd bump it.

I want to make it clear I'm not advocating that words should be banned. But I think that people could do to just kind of think about what they say.

But with a word like niggardly, which has fallen into almost total disuse, it just seems silly to use it when it's clear that intelligent people have never heard it before. I would venture to guess that a main reason why it went out into disuse was becaus of the very fact that it sounds like n*. (I hope my beloved robbiej is happy!)

If you're discussing it the way we are, in terms of it being a word, or if you're reading literature or whatever, have at it. Otherwise, it just seems to be inviting unnecessary sturm und drang to use that word in 2013 (or any time in probably 40 years or so) when there are endless other words in the English language that can suffice quite nicely. If someone's vocabulary is big enough to include a working use of "niggardly" I want to believe that someone should also be equipped to understand then why, in most cases, niggardly shouldn't be his go-to adjective. Should a dude have lost his job? Probably not in the real world, but people lose their jobs for less in politics all the time.

Updated On: 6/26/13 at 12:16 AM

#141

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 1:29am

It's late, I just saw that awful Man of Steel and I'm on an ambien. But I did want to address Playbilly's post.

I chose those examples because they are true, but they are all about one thing: the use of a word in creating a work of art. So if I'm singing The Ballad of Booth, I, Rob, need to become ok with saying it. And there were discussions around it...difficult, uncomfortable discussions that needed to be had in order to honor the moment and make it come alive. I was asked by a writer's group I'm in to take on the topic of race in a specific way. It was a group of mostly of-color writers and performers, and I wasn't sure how far I could go in exploring the topic. The moderator took me aside and encouraged me not to censor myself....and I didn't. The piece was well received. DJANGO UNCHAINED won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. How do you discuss the movie without discussing the word?

My only intent in posting about my dealings with the word were for me. When I posted, I knew I needed to speak honestly about it because, otherwise, I would be a hypocrite. Even if, in my case, it was about artistic expression (How do you do HAIR without the word?), there's still a lot of moral negotiating going on within yourself to find a way to be ok with playing that truth. Perhaps I should have focused more on that than on Miss Deen. And for that...for my not being clear, I do apologize. But I do not apologize about the point I'm trying to make regarding people being free to explore the word...indeed, ANY word in works of art.

#142

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 4:27am

The use of the word in "The Ballad of Booth" is absolutely brilliant (and necessary)! Sondheim gives Booth that lovely, patriotic ballad and just when we begin to empathize with Booth, he hits us with the most shocking word in American English.

THAT's what Brecht meant by the "V-effect" (estrangement): not just the jolt to the spectator but the way we suddenly see Booth in an entirely new light (and are forced to re-examine our own patriotic sentimentality).

And that speaks to SonofRobbieJ's point: yes, keep the word in ASSASSINS, but change the word at the beginning of "Ol' Man River", where it isn't serving a function that justifies the offense.

#143

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 7:48am

She was just crying her eyes out on the Today show. I wasn't really paying all that much attention.

KFTC!!!!!

#144

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 7:49am

...she needs to go away for a while. I don't know if she can slowly rebuild her brand, but these continued appearances are not going to help her.

"Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. . ."

#145

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 7:58am

I agree, Addy.

I think she can rebuild it. But she's going to have to do it with actions, not words or tearful, repetitive apologies.

She could actually end up a role model for people who were "raised that way," "of a certain age," who altered their behavior, recognized the problem, and mended their ways.

But that takes time and effort. No instant apologies. (Someone needs to tell her to quit apologizing.)

Actions speak louder than words.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#146

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 8:03am

Yeah, as I was watching it, I'm thinking: "Why don't you DO something?" If she does, the world will be the better for it, even if her sole purpose is brand rebuilding.

But I have a feeling an Opah interview will come first.

#147

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 8:10am

I'll bet your'e right. It's just too many words, though.

Even an Oprah interview is the same thing. It's all rhetoric. Actions, please.

EDIT:

Man, she sounds so insincere here ...

Here's the Today Show interview

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 6/26/13 at 08:10 AM

#148

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 9:18am

I see no reason why you wouldn't keep the word in a show like Assassins (or pretty much ANY use of it in a script where it's a reflection on a character or the times they live in).

#149

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 11:13am

I don't think she seemed insincere...she certainly seemed overwhelmed.

#150

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

Posted: 6/26/13 at 11:56am

Not sure if this has been posted already, but according to multiple sources, she's hired PR maven Judy Smith (the inspiration for Kerry Washington's character on SCANDAL) to do some damage control.

Better late than never, I suppose. Whoever the hell let her make those ridiculous webcam-filmed YouTube apologies is a royal idiot. And that Today show interview was just...bizarre. I do think she's sincerely sorry, but this is all coming off as very weird more than anything else.

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