In Defense of Paula Deen: Who decides which words, said in private decades ago, are firing offense?

If the bleak reckoning of Reputation.com’s Howard Bragman is to be believed, Paula Deen “will survive” her recent ordeal, “but she will never be whole again.”

This is because, in the choice words of Bill Maher, “she f****d up.” Court documents revealed last week show Deen being asked under oath whether she had used the N-word before. “Yes, of course,” she replied, although “it’s been a very long time.” For this admission, the Food Network fired her.

Immediately prior to her dismissal, Deen made what was tantamount to a hostage video, in which, per the Huffington Post, she was shown close to tears and “begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.” Thus it was confirmed that, at some point in her life, Paula Deen has said some bad words out loud.

One might ask, “So what?” Many people have said bad things before. Is the admission of having once said an offensive word really sufficient justification for punishment in the here and now? Being humans and not computers, we will not last long as a society if we throw aside judgment, context, and mercy, merely to scan sentences for bad data and then gang up to punish the accused. If we are to purge everybody who steps slightly out of line, who among us will survive? There are certainly Good words and Bad words, but linguistic intent matters, as Matthias’s executioner learns in Life of Brian.

Matthias: Look, I don’t think it should be a sin, just for saying “Jehovah.” (Everyone gasps.)

Jewish official: I’m warning you! If you say “Jehovah” one more time (gets hit with rock) RIGHT! Who did that? Come on, who did it?

Timing matters, too. As Fox reported, Deen’s termination will likely have at least one severe consequence:

“Her staff is probably out, most production employment contracts are written to say that if production ceases, their jobs come to an end unless you get a guaranteed ‘pay or play’ deal,” television executive Lonnie Burstein, Executive Vice-President Programming at Debmar Mercury said. “But it’s no different to any other show getting canceled. It’s the nature of the business.”  

That’s not really true, is it? For a start, Deen was — is still, maybe — extremely popular. This was not a commercial failure, Deen’s fan base did not disappear, and she did not die. More important: Deen didn’t say anything offensive on air — or, for that matter, even recently. As it stands, the accusations that landed her in court are unproven. If Deen’s employer judged that something she said on her show was damaging to the company, that would be one thing, although I’m still in favor of considerable latitude here — making jokes or rap records is not the same thing as hurling insults, and the public and private domains are separate. But dragging up things that she may or may not have said at some point in her pre-television past and canceling her show based on blunt pressure from certain quarters? Yes, that is pretty much “different to any other show getting canceled.”

One imagines that there’s another reason that the likes of Bill Maher took exception to the firing. According to the New York Times, in the course of denying that she had “told racial jokes,” Deen,

stated that “most jokes” are about Jews, gay people, black people and “rednecks.” “I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,” she said.

Indeed, she cannot. Nor can I, and nor can you. Therein lies the problem with elevating “offense” above all considerations. Because “offense” is in the eye of the beholder, it is, like unprovable accusations of witchcraft, ripe to be weaponized. “People shouldn’t have to lose their shows and go away when they do something bad,” Maher complained on Friday. “It’s just a word. It’s a wrong word. She was wrong to use it. But do we always have to make people go away?” One sincerely hopes not. Coming from a family that is a mix of white, black, and Asian, I would be unable honestly to promise a court of law that I had not said offensive words in the past — albeit I used them exclusively in jest or in parody — and nor would anyone else in my family. Should National Review fire me for this confession?

Maher was heavily criticized in 2011 when he referred to Sarah Palin as a “c**t.” He has also referred to special-needs children as “retards,” and he routinely mocks Christianity and other beliefs that are dear to large swathes of the population. As recently as this week, he dismissed half the country as “rednecks.” Again: So what? That’s his prerogative. If you don’t like it, then don’t watch his show. If his audience doesn’t like it, they’ll stop watching, too — and the show will go away of its own accord. On Friday, Maher’s guest, Bob Herbert, who is black, said, “[N****r] is the line . . . Nobody should be using that word.” Sure, nobody should use be using that word. But why is that word the line? Why not “retard” or “queer”? Who decides?

Freedom of speech is not a license to say anything anywhere without consequence but a check against government. As Paula Deen has no right to work at the Food Network, her rights have not been violated. But to be healthy, a country needs more than merely a prohibition against government overreach; it also needs a strong culture of free expression. Our tendency to disqualify people categorically on the basis of a single indiscretion is ugly and destructive. Perhaps Columbia University’s John McWhorter is correct to argue that because “Deen was already a twenty-something when the old racist order broke down,” she will prove unable to “utterly expunge” the South’s old assumptions and should thus be forgiven and given her job back. Perhaps he is wrong and Deen has honestly changed and moved beyond whatever mistakes she made in the past. Either way, this is irrelevant to the matter at hand. Are we really to extirpate everybody possessed of a checkered past — however small — and then push them into the naughty corner for perpetuity? What is the statute of limitations on the use of anachronistic language?

And what explains our inconsistent application of this principle? I have little time for those who can’t see the difference between Kanye West’s using the N-word and a racist’s hurling it at an African American in anger. But how about those who have made genuinely disparaging comments and survived? Jesse Jackson remains at large despite his use of the word “hymie” to describe Jews and his description of New York as “Hymietown”; Robert Byrd managed to say “n****r” on national television in 2004 while serving as a United States senator; Al Sharpton referred to “Socrates and them Greek homos” to dismiss the ancients; Joe Biden believes that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent”; and Marion Barry recently contended that “we got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops.” What about them?

Tu quoque arguments are as fallacious in these instances as they ever were. That these people said these things does not excuse Paula Deen. But there is a definite double standard here, and one that is particularly peculiar given that Deen was an entertainer with a show on the Food Network while the speakers listed above work in government or in politics.

If the accusations that pushed Paula Deen into court in the first place are true, she deserves to be fired and excluded from polite society. Among other things, Deen is accused of paying blacks less than whites; her brother is accused of telling one worker “you don’t have any civil rights here”; and another family member, it is claimed, repeatedly called an employee “my little monkey.” But these are allegations and nothing more — accusations from a woman who not only cannot seem to keep her testimony straight but who started out by sending an “inflammatory letter seeking over a million dollars” and promising “Deen ‘a chance to salvage a brand that can continue to have value.’” Deen strenuously denies the claims. It should go without saying that until such time as she is convicted, she is innocent. In the meantime, is it wise for us to pull her and her brand down because of something she may or may not have said privately in the 1980s?

If these idiots are not stopped, we’re ALL headed there.

Recent events here have caused me to become more than a little interested in the history of Nazi Germany.

That interest has drawn me to some of the films made of that sad period. “Schindler’s List”, “Surviving Hitler”, “Sophie Scholl”, “Downfall”, “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State” and others.

But the film that jelled my alleged mind and brought me to this attempt to relate those events with what is happening here was “Der Letzte Zug” (“The Last Train”) depicting in excruciating detail the nearly week-long trip to Auschwitz of the last Jews forced from Berlin. Confined in sealed cattle cars with no food and water, they plotted largely futile escape attempts as, one-by-one, the weakest among them died.

As I watched, I sought to understand the common thread(s) that set them on a course to their premature graves at the hands of Hitler and his minions.

There were many.

One was the economic destruction of post WWI Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Its punitive reparations made conditions ripe for the rise of the Nazis and their promises. In fact, some historians believe that Versailles was intentionally designed by those who profit from such activities to sow the seeds for Hitler and WWII. That is, however, a topic for another day.

Another element necessary for the Holocaust was Hitler’s disarmament of the civilian population. Though the compliant Germans allowed that disarmament to begin in 1919 and intensify in 1928, it became draconian when the Nazis took total control.

And, of course, the Antisemitism present then and now in Europe played a large role as most of their non-Jewish neighbors ignored the growing persecution that began in early 1933.

The historical Prussian mindset – of Jews and non-Jews alike – was to trust and obey those in charge of the state apparatus. It goes without saying that that is a more or less universal characteristic of populations living under “elected” governments. After the chaos of the Wiemar Republic, many of them saw Hitler as a savior, exacerbating the problem.

This brings me to THE element that I believe caused so many Jews to meekly submit to the homicidal madness: Their notion that, despite the rumors, whispers and, ultimately, the outright verbalization of that madness by their elected leaders, “THAT could never happen here”.

“THAT could never happen here” is perhaps the most dangerous phrase in ANY language – especially for us here in America at this time.

If you have been paying attention, you must see numerous parallels between Hitler’s Germany and Obama’s Amerika. (Misspelling intentional.)

Admit it or not, Obama, his minions and handlers are doing all they can to drive the unemployment rate higher, causing increasingly desperate men and woman to further swell government payrolls. Hitler put many desperate Germans into his Brown Shirts, SS, regular military, etc.

Though some of Obama’s supporters – the small numbers with functioning brains – are losing faith in him, a frightening number of them still “worship” him and would unquestioningly support just about anything he proposed if the “free” goodies keep coming their way and he assured them that only his – and their – enemies were to be “reeducated” or eliminated.

What these pseudo-intellectuals fail or refuse to grasp is that history teaches that even if THEY are one of those who gets a seat near the throne of their new “leader”, they, too, are in peril. Once firmly in power, said “leader” has a distressing tendency to not only purge the population of his opponents but eventually gets around to any among those who helped him to that power he perceives to be less than sufficiently worshipful and/or possesses sufficient intellectual firepower to challenge him. Think Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and, of course, Hitler.

Fortunately for freedom here, Obama’s efforts to DISARM us have stalled – FOR NOW! All that is keeping him in check is his understanding that to make his final play before doing so would be to put his life and the lives of his inner circle and handlers at serious risk.

If you are STILL not convinced that this fellow has sinister plans for those who dare to oppose him, please view the short video at the link below. (For those with short memories, Bill Ayers is – despite Ayers’ comments about drones – STILL one of Obama’s closest associates and is believed to have authored Obama’s book). Ayers founded the Weather Underground mentioned in the video.

As you watch it, remember that when that meeting occurred, our population was approximately 250 million. 25 million would have represented 10%. Come forward to our current population of approximately 315 million and that 10% would equal 31.5 million of us.
That COULD explain the billions of hollow point bullets now being delivered to Big Sis and her cohorts at Faterlandt Security.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlN2t0oERHk

There people are as SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK!

But THAT could never happen here, right?

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and the Republic
for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened
once in 6,000 years, may not happen again.
Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
Daniel Webster

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