Paula Deen

[We Are Legion]

I've been raging about this discussion on Facebook for the past week or so and I wanted to hear what you all think of this story.

For those living under a rock, Paula Deen is a world-renowned chef, famously known for her recipes in southern-USA cooking. Her originality is debatable, but she's sold several million cookbooks, had a show on the Food Network, there were several restaurants in the USA that bared her name, and her products (or rather products branded in her name) were sold in several retail outlets across the world. She's been a serious player in the food industry for the past several years.

That was all up until a couple weeks ago when a former employee of her restaurant chain filed a lawsuit against her for an incident stemming back several years that Deen herself used racial insults and jokes at the workplace. Every single store that carried her products, including Walmart, Target, and JCPenny dropped her products, her book publisher canceled sales of her cookbooks including one that was scheduled for an October release, the restaurant chains dropped her name and are currently undergoing a re-branding, and the Food Network immediately terminated her contract and cancelled her show. She is fucking RUINED.

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Now, the talk surrounding this issue deals mostly with Deen's supporters submitting that the punishment didn't fit the crime. Deen alleges that she only used "the N word" once her whole damn life, and it was 28 years ago while she was held at gun point during a bank robbery while working as a teller or something rather (she was a bank employee, let's leave it at that)

However, the woman filing the lawsuit insists this was a regular thing from her, so Deen released a deposition pertaining to the matter. In this deposition, Deen not only admitted to having used the word in the past (albeit not in her restaurants), but also went so far as to describe an idea she had for a "plantation-style wedding" for her brother back in the early 2000's in which black waiters would be dressed in black shorts and white long-sleeved shirts. For those who don't understand the significance of this, basically it's the dress code for a house slave of the 1800's. And Deen sincerely believed this was a cute idea and deposing this information only gave her accuser credibility imo.

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Now I'll be the first to chime in on this since I've been chiming in all fucking week everywhere else.

Firstly, the bank robbery story... Ok, I get that you're mad. Some black guy pointed a gun in your face, threatened your security, you felt violated, you were a little riled up and probably said some things you didn't mean. Fair enough. But don't tell me that was the only time you used that word if it was the first word that came to mind when you weren't thinking clearly. I'm just saying, it sounds to me like she had at least some experience with the context of that word before hand. Her mind was clearly trained to single out the man's ethnicity first, I'm just saying. There's a million words I would use to describe someone who threatened my well-being, and I honestly doubt the man's ethnicity would matter the slightest to me assuming I could have been DEAD.

Secondly, Deen has also asserted that "30 years ago it was a different time". Um... no it wasn't. Maybe if we were talking about 50 years ago, like back in the 1960's, I would probably give her that. But we're talking about something that apparently happened in 1983 or 1984. Segregation and civil rights movements were beyond fucking dead by that point and African American heritage was beginning to go mainstream. I certainly wasn't raised to discriminate against anyone and I was raised in the country where you would probably expect that sort of thing. My very first friend was a black girl for fucks sake, so I'm totally not seeing this "different time" assertion whatsoever.

And lastly, a fucking slave wedding? Are you serious??? You know, I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that no white person without any inclination towards white supremacy would ever fathom an idea like that. Personally, the idea would never fucking occur to me. And if you just want to have an old school southern-type wedding, just find a cotton field or a barn somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, maybe some cows and horses running around everywhere, and leave it at that. Why do you need slaves to make it seem that much more authentic? Who the hell thinks of something like this? Better yet, who the hell admits to something like that and acts like it's the most beautiful thing ever? Ideal for a WEDDING no less.

Frankly I think it was a good move for all those companies to drop her ass.

Thoughts?

 

[Rated R Superstar]

What kind of moron would think a slave wedding is cute? I haven't been following this a lot, but I know the premise of it. I find it absolutely hilarious that she is trying to defend herself right now. Does she actually think it's okay to say that and not have to suffer any consequences? Funny thing is, I've never heard of her until this incident.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Anyone who claims they have not used a derogatory term atleast once in their lives, is a fucking liar. Regardless of if its Nope, chink, smurf, or even blueberry. Post 9/11 new derogatory terms emerged, like calling anyone of middle eastern decent "suspected terrorists".

I actually remember TMZ bringing up that one of the Lakers calls his opponents smurfs while on the court, yet nobody seems to give a shit because Paula Dead said Nope 30 fucking years ago. Chances are this guy will even get a sponsorship from Chic-filla just for saying smurf, wont lose any of his current sponsors, because gays are not recognized by every state. This is happening now, where are civil rights against this?

People need to get off their high fucking horses and see the world for what it is. Discriminating against an individual is just as bad as discriminating against a group. By attacking Paula Dean, you are no better than she.

 

[Chris]

I don't think it was all that fair to her because it was so long ago that it happened, but I can't stand this woman, so I don't care what the reasons are that she isn't doing anything anymore. Fuck her.

 

[Tapout]

Its bullshit. She said a word that is thrown around then ANY OTHER word in every high school across the entire United states. Trust me, go to any event that involves more then 10 teens and you'll hear Nope about 30 times. The word has been so over used it doesn't even hold meaning anymore. I hate it that when a white person says Nope it's the end of the fucking world, but when a Black person says cracker or any other racial slur, its acceptable.

I'm all for equality for everyone. I hate the whole "It's our word, you can't say it." Fuck off. No one owns a word. Yes, slavery was bad and it was YEARS ago and we've gotten past that. People of all colors just need to grow up and accept it that that word is going to be said thousands of times every day like every other word. Its not a big deal anymore.

 

[We Are Legion]

Apparently even people here aren't aware this doesn't have a whole lot to do with simply saying the N word. Go figure.

I really wish people would actually read into this subject before telling others to "get off their high horses". It's fucking embarrassing.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

Also a terrible comparison. Here is a woman who is a public figure, endorsed by some pretty big names and all this shit comes out. It's a lot easier for us average Joe's to say it because nobody is going to make a fuss about it.

And I'm pretty sure that wedding thing is recent. If that's not reason enough to hate this bitch, I don't know what is.

 

[We Are Legion]

Yeah that wedding thing was 2003-2004, and that was the worst of it.

 

[CaptainxBumout]

Anyone who thinks its cute to have a plantation wedding has probably said Nope more than once in their lifetime. Also did Tapout really just compare Nope to cracker? I saw a newscast debating the same thing and comedians and bloggers were having a field day with the amount of stupidity. I've been called a wetback quite a few of times but it doesn't affect me. Why? I don't know maybe its because it doesn't have decades of strong historical significance behind it.

Little kids in high school say smurf because their ignorant. They listen to rap music and try and be cool like them. I like rap but let's be honest, it's started some of the worst trends.

I'm against people taking ownership of a word. I don't think it's bad to call stuff gay. Our vernacular changes all the time. Gay isn't a hateful word. Nope has and always will mean one thing.

As far as Paula Deen is concerned, I haven't really read up on it but the girl was just accusing her of saying the Nope right? If that's the case, taking everything away from her was a bit harsh. The plantation wedding idea though pretty much confirms the speculation. So I guess it's justified.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

This all escalated due to one person accusing her of saying Nope, the plantation wedding was just more dirt dug up by the media because its more fun to watch someone fail.

[video=youtube;OopLZ-_dFw8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OopLZ-_dFw8[/video]

Why is it that the only information I can find about this annual tradition is on an online newsite. This is far, far worse than the whole Paula Dean situation.

 

[Deezy]

So by this whole Paula Deen logic, someone is going to lose everything for quoting Dr. Dre verses. Platnation wedding is kind of fucked up, more fucked up that black people actually did the job tbh.

Not sure why a simple worfd has so much power over people, it is just derived from a spanish word, that is derived from a latin word meaning black, Americans being the purveyors of language as they are, jumbled up the word. Doesn't mean it should have power over people, it only has so much power because it works, the word motherfucker was a slave word for their masters, because they were well motherfuckers, but the whites being smart as they are, simply took the word and used it for other purposes. Atleast black people made that word cool, and atleast they have a racial term that is kind of factually correct, I'm native, but I have a term from a whole different continent.

 

[Troy]

That wedding idea is one of the most ridiculous ideas I have ever heard, if someone suggested that and didn't understand why it was wrong then they need their head checked. What I don't like is how this women suing her is doing it many years after it happened and it only occured because she was fired. If she was so offended she would have quit as soon as it was said and sued her immediately.

In the end Paula Deen is already a rich woman and she will still have her loyal followers. This may cause her to lose out on a bit of money in the short term but at the end of the day it won't affect her that much unfortunately.

 

[Slim]

Honestly... who cares. Its like Troy said. She still has her money. yeah she lost some endorsements but... she still has all that money she made.

It is ridiculous that it took this girl years before she decided to sue for the word usage. But it is what it is. Stupid things happen.

 

[Chris]

To be fair about the girl waiting to sue, she probably did it because she can actually win now with Paula's heat whereas before she wouldn't have.

 

[We Are Legion]

The origin of the word and it's literal meaning is beyond fucking irrelevant. It's a word used by non-blacks who hate black people. Period. There is seriously no reason to further analyze it. And if you seriously believe quoting it's historical origins should somehow make it seem less offensive or that black people should just tolerate it because there are more vulgar words in the English language, you should probably line up right behind Deen to get your own head examined. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And if you seriously don't even know why it's offensive, you're just a flat out idiot.