Posted on 06/25/2013 5:07:30 PM PDT by drewh
People of her generation can neither change the past, nor completely escape their roots in it
Paula Deen grew up in Georgia. In the 1950's. Her world was the one depicted in The Help, in which black people’s status as lesser beings was casually assumed. So, who is really surprised that she has used the N word in her life? It would be downright strange if she hadn’t, and we can assume the same of pretty much any white Southerner of a certain age (not to mention more than a few Americans of other regions).
And yet the Food Network has fired her after revelations that Deen has been a normal person of her time and place, even though she has leveled no fewer than three public apologies.
So yes, she just might pop out with the N word in private in a heated moment. And yes, a certain part of her will see something vaguely nostalgic in the sight of black men as waiters. In this, she represents a transitional stage between the then and the now. Deen was already a 20-something when the old racist order broke down; her worldview had pretty much jelled by then. How could she have a perfectly egalitarian take on race growing up when and where she did?
People of Deen’s generation can neither change the past nor completely escape their roots in it, any more than the rest of us. They can apologize and mean it, as Deen seems to. They also deserve credit for owning up to past sins, as Deen did candidly when she could easily have, shall we say, whitewashed the matter.
Deen is old and she’s sorry. She should get her job back.
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.time.com ...
who doesn’t think every black person has used that would a hundred times more than any white person has, toward other blacks, in any number of different ways?
And when will whites no longer be referred to as “crackers?”
This weekend on payday I’m buying some Paula Dean kitchen knives. May not agree with the Obama supporter politically, but her firing was completely uncalled for.
Honestly- if saying the n word is bad because you are a white
but a non white can say it or if you are an elite white like Gwenetyh Palltrow or Paris Hilton you can say it.
People are so stupid a word is a word no matter who says it and to defend one person using it because they are black while condemning a white person is just ridiculous.
Remember, only a white person can be a racist. That’s the rule and you better get used to it.
Time-Lies-Warner-Turner. The parent company that keeps Bill Maher in paid employment on HBO and CNN.
The original report indicated she made jokes also about Jews and other groups.
I guess the perpetually bothered have a better activism committee. Everyone else’s complaint had to go to the back or under the bus.
I have a particular selection, but prudence prevents me from being specific.
Actually I can provide a list of 100 to choose from; Not a white artist in the bunch.
They’re only saying that now because suddenly everybody realizes she contributed to Democrats.
I wonder if the Columbia professor and Time magazine would be so forgiving if Deen wasn’t an Obama supporter.
“This weekend on payday I’m buying some Paula Dean kitchen knives.”
I’m not.
She supports Obama and the glutton Mooch.
Useful idiots abound around these parts.
Like we're a bunch of kindergarteners.
Unless Food Network puts her back to work, they’re history for me. Will never watch them again.
It’s appalling (1) that there can be such a thing as a word that can cost a person their career and (2) there is no statute of limitations on word crimes.
It depends on who you are.
We all understand that a Republican can't use that word.
We now know that a Paula Deen can't use that word.
And we also know that a Robert Byrd, a Democrat Senator and one-time Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, can use that word -- on national TV, no less, without consequences.
Had Paula Deen been a Democrat Congresswoman, rather than a liberal TV chef, she'd have passed muster.
Following the forced extract of teeth for people who say it.
Oh, now they realize she’s a liberal.
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