By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I never much liked Paula Deen’s cooking. Filled with butter and gravies and things like Krispy Creme Donuts for hamburger buns, Paula seemed too culinarily eccentric … to foodie excessive … too health oblivious even for a southern cook in 1813 much less 2013. Her story though, like her southern twang, had a certain charm to it: single mother of two left penniless makes ends meet by selling food-to-go out of her home kitchen and works her butt off until she reached the top of the sundae’s cherry with three shows on the Food Network and some spin off shows for her two sons.
That all ended Friday as a deposition of Ms. Deen was released. In that dep (in a case Lisa T. Jackson v. Paula Deen et al. involving a claim of racial and sexual discrimination by an employee of her restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s), Ms. Deen admitted to using the no-no of racial epithets in the past — the distant past, like 50 years ago. Here’s an excerpt from the transcript of Paula’s deposition to see just what I mean:
Q
Okay. Have you ever used the N word yourself?
A
Yes, of course.
Q
Okay. In what context?
A
Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.
Q
Okay. And what did you say?
A
Well, I don’t remember, but the gun was dancing all around my temple.
Q
Okay.
A
I didn’t — I didn’t feel real favorable towards him.
Q
Okay. Well, did you use the N word to him as he pointed a gun in your head at your face?
A
Absolutely not.
Q
Well, then, when did you use it?
A
Probably in telling my husband.
Q
Okay. Have you used it since then?
A
I’m sure I have, but it’s been a very long time.
Q
Can you remember the context in which you have used the N word?
A
No.
Q
Has it occurred with sufficient frequency that you cannot recall all of the various context in which you’ve used it?
A
No, no.
Q
Well, then tell me the other context in which you’ve used the N word?
A
I don’t know, maybe in repeating something that was said to me.
Q
Like a joke?
A
No, probably a conversation between blacks. I don’t — I don’t know.
Q
Okay.
A
But that’s just not a word that we use as time has gone on. Things have changed since the ’60s in the south. And my children and my brother object to that word being used in any cruel or mean behavior.
Q
Okay
Realizing perhaps too late, the Deen Food Empire (books, utensils, cutlery, you name it) sprung into action. First a very public apology for sins past, then a new revised one on YouTube, the town square of our age, where Paula looking quite shaken literally begs for forgiveness. PC gods served? You tell me:
On cable TV shows up and down the msnbc roster, Deen was decried as racist, uncaring, and calls for her banishment from polite society became overwhelming. So much so that the Food Network pulled the shows and consigned Deen to places we reserve for the likes of George Wallace and Sheriff Bull Connor. But is that fair?
Deen grew up in place far away –temporally and culturally — from most of her critics and, as one who grew up in the same locales, I can tell you that her sin was a popular one in the South in the 60’s . Everybody who wasn’t white and rich had a name: wops, pollaks, heebs, rednecks, pope lovers, crackers, and yes those christened with the “N” word. And each group used the words liberally to each other and even among each other. I never saw a fight over the name calling but there were some close calls.
Surely it wasn’t a very hospitable place for African-Americans who bore the brunt of discrimination, but neither was it a hospitable place if you were poor, or Catholic, or ethnic, or anything other than wealthy, white and Protestant. That didn’t mean people weren’t civil to one another. By and large they were, but there was a palpable feeling of place and hierarchy that was enforced with a rigid caste system administered by state and local governments. That sat pretty well with the white elite who ran things back then.
But you should know those in power considered folks like Paula Deen no better that the “n*iggers” they brought in to do their cooking and cleaning and to raise their kids. Those “people” were there and free only by fiat of the government in Wershington and, by god, if that was the case they were going to be useful, or so it was thought.
The South changed and evolved in the ’60s and ’70s with the Civil Rights Movement as Dr. King’s words touched hearts both white and black and brightened them all. For those who wouldn’t listen, scenes of pregnant women blasted with water cannons and vicious police dogs attacking kids was surely enough. White people who drove pickups and worked in plants and farms started to realize that the folks who lived across the railroad tracks and who drove older pickup trucks and worked in plants and farms weren’t really much different from themselves and they had the same lack of control over their lives. The wedges of words that the ruling élite had no interest in curtailing melted away and it is clearly true that the advent of political correctness shown a glaring light on those southern dinosaurs who couldn’t or wouldn’t change.
Which brings us back to Paula Deen. Paula likely grew up in one of those same southern small towns like I did. She also likely made a distinction between “black people” (as they were called then ), who worked hard and raised their families as best they could under grinding poverty, and “n*ggers” who were seen as lazy, irresponsible, thuggish and no account. She likely came to learn that names reflect stereotypes and they can be and are often wrong; that people don’t fit nicely into boxes; and that, as Edmund Burke so wisely reminds us, you can’t draw up an indictment against a whole people.
Paula evolved and the South evolved. But the question remains for Paula and those like her: When is the sentence for violating political correctness over? When can you freely admit a mistake made decades ago without fear of reprisal? Not the criminal kind administered by the state, but the reprisal from the overlords of decorum who sit in ivory towers or corporate boardrooms and wax philosophic on all manner of society’s ills and largely for their own benefit ? When will a society committed to free expression allow itself to deal honestly with its past and say publicly a two-syllable word that most find offensive?
In my view, you don’t need a word that no one can utter. You don’t need to continually explain and apologize for sins made years ago in a culture far, far away if you’ve done it once and sincerely. And perhaps most importantly, you don’t need to feel society’s wrath for simply telling the truth about that society.
Paula Deen is no hero, but she is certainly no villain for growing up as she did and living as she did. When we master that fact perhaps we can overcome the racism that divides us even as we accept that our differences spring largely from things over which we have little control, and that we can come together in spite of ourselves if we forgive as freely and as often as we decry.
Source: Huffington Post
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
“I think Blouise is older than you and I think she grew up in the Mid West.” (Mike S)
Northeast Ohio and I’ll be 68 in November. Bob’s version of “Eeeny, meeny, Miney, Moe…..” was never one we knew or used … “Out goes Y.O.U.”
Blouise,
Are you a Scorpio too? I’ll be 69 in November.
Gene H:
Smelled like fire and brimstone to me. All orthodoxies stink the same though.
That’s what that smell is . . .
Gene H:
When do the god-fearing townspeople boil the tar and start gathering the chicken feathers?
‘Paula Deen’s New Testament,’ Upcoming Cookbook, Dropped By Publisher Ballantine Books
Bob,Esq:
““I think she has been punished, perhaps overly severely, for her honesty in admitting it and for the use of the word in the distant past. She’s apologized profusely.”
************************
The prejudiced never forgive no matter how sincere, profuse, or interminable the apology. Like our own arbiter of human frailty, Tony C, says some sins by the “evil” ones are “unforgivable.” (Now was that before or after he dispassionately considered all the evidence?)
Bron: could your love for your family members influence your judgment? I know it would for me.
Sure, but I could claim the opposite. I was fortunate to be raised in an environment where I would be naturally inoculated from that particular mental disease, where I could not catch it because even when I was young and rationally immature, I could not be tricked into thinking there was any significant difference.
I say “the opposite” because it is the racist’s environment of either isolation and racial monotony, or suffused with the toxins of pre-existing racism, that influences them to be mentally malformed, while my richer racially diverse environment allowed me to develop without absorbing that defect.
I do not say that with arrogance but humility; I count it among the gifts I have that I never worked for, or even knew I was receiving.
Tony C:
“A black using the N-word to refer to a white man cannot be implying the white man is inferior to himself; it is simply like “brother,” in Gene’s case a way of softening an expression of irritation with an endearment.”
*******************
Not content to merely be angry for African-Americans even when they aren’t angry, you now presume to speak for their inner-most mental intentions while they speak idioms.
I’ve got a gig for you. How about a stint as Carnac?:
I don’t know what the appeal would be to reside in NYC if it costs that 1.5 million for a small apt. Do they Tulip Auctions there as well?
Darren,
Thee Tulip Bubble makes a good analogy. After we sold our house we moved to Florida because we could no longer afford to live in our home town, which we continue to love.
Gene,
Bob was the one who called me a deep-fried solipsist. I rarely eat deep-fried food. My favorite restaurant serves a fried oyster po’ boy that
is mighty tasty. i have indulged myself a couple of times.
Tony C:
“No, I think I will call you a liar, a sore loser, a person that cannot answer with reason so they resort to emotional name-calling and make false claims of intellectual dishonesty, a person that, analogous to a racist, made up their mind they were right and could never be wrong, damn any facts or reason.
Like I said, reason prevailed. Your distress at being on the wrong end of that is understandable.”
****************************
Self-proclaimed victories are the most fleeting kind.
“just as Gene would like to frame it in judicial terms, because that represents your strongest case”
Actually, Mike, I framed it a way to use context to make a point about the nature of prejudice in a parallel argument. Her being or not being a racist in fact is largely immaterial to the larger point I was making.
Your usual?
Intelligence, wit and sarcasm.
Although the deep fried thing could be a real issue, Elaine.
Some of us are watching our cholesterol.
I’d leave a comment–but I’m just a deep-fried solipsist. What could I contribute to the discussion?
Firstly, I never even addressed you on the issue, nick. I simply expressed agreement with Tony that I don’t do “white guilt” either and why. Why would you think I thought you were making an accusation? I’ve never hesitated to directly address such things before.
Secondly, yeah, “white guilt” is a real thing.
Thirdly, my respiration is normal and my resting heart rate is 55. Thanks for your concern.
Lastly, I hope your mood keeps improving whether you’re feeling argumentative or not. And I don’t think they make SCS in diet so I’m not sure Tony would drink one. They are, however, rather tasty.
Bob Esq, With the knockout punch? “Down goes Frazier..down goes Frazier.”
Well Gents, First BREATHE..BREATHE. I did not accuse anyone here specifically of white guilt. And, I honestly didn’t put either of you in that category. I have a personal policy that has been shown over and over again that unless I have conclusive proof, I take people @ their word. So, Tony you didn’t need to go Jerry Springer on me, I believe you when you say you don’t have white guilt. The same for you Gene. However, I mentioned that topic once previously and a commenter went ballistic saying white guilt is a myth. Do you gents believe white guilt is a myth? Now, knowing you guys this may be seen as an opportunity to argue w/ me. I’m not in an arguing mood. So a simple yes or no will suffice. If you say “no” there is no white guilt in our culture, I would appreciate a brief explanation. Let’s not make this the OK Corrall, how about just sitting in the town tavern. Tony, I know you’re not a drinker, but you can have some “Sioux City Sasparilla.” A reference I bet Gene gets.
Jimmy Carter: Paula Deen should be forgiven
Former President Jimmy Carter said embattled celebrity chef Paula Deen should be forgiven, arguing that while there’s no condoning the racial slurs she uttered, the well-known personality has been candid and apologetic.
“She was maybe excessively honest in saying that she had in the past, 30 years ago, used this terrible word,” Carter told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux in an interview Friday. “I think she has been punished, perhaps overly severely, for her honesty in admitting it and for the use of the word in the distant past. She’s apologized profusely.”
…
Carter said he remembers that the n-word was used “quite frequently” when racial segregation was the “law of the land” throughout the country, not just the South, where Deen is from and resides.
Carter mentioned Deen’s programs in Savannah, Georgia, that benefit “almost exclusively oppressed and poverty stricken black people.” He advised her to get people she’s helping to speak up and “show she’s changed in her relationship with African-Americans.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/28/us/georgia-carter-deen/index.html
Oh dear!
Could it be that the man who accused Obama’s detractors of being racist is claiming that Paula Deen is in fact NOT A RACIST??
How could that be?
Or didn’t Gene Mark and I already cover that?
“Jimmy Carter: Paula Deen should be forgiven”
Bob,
I haven’t forgiven Jimmy Carter yet for Ronald Reagan, why should I care about any opinion he has?
Tony,
I’m with you on the whole “white guilt” thing. I don’t get it. I’ve always dealt with people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I’ve never owned a slave. During slavery, which started before my ancestors got here, they were either tenant farmers (considered little better than blacks socially at the time) or skilled tradesmen who didn’t own slaves. And even then most of them faced discrimination on their own for simply being Irish. I don’t owe anyone jacksquat let alone guilt over their being a different color than me.
TONY C:
could your love for your family members influence your judgment? I know it would for me.