The Food Network Star, Paula Deen, has been deep fried & fired for admitting under oath that growing up in the Deep South decades ago she used “the n-word” in personal conversation. ….. and yours truly willfully violates The #1 Rule of The Internet………..
You may not have liked Paula Deen’s exaggerated on-screen persona. We often resent the success of others under the “why her and not me” syndrome. But, Paula Deen’s current dilemma should ignite your “could I be next” spider sense……
I watched Paula Deen when she first appeared 10-11 years ago. Hers was an impossible to ignore personality. Having minimal interest in “cooking” I drifted away from watching her shows. Fortunately for Paula, and for TFN, she developed a very large fan following.
ASIDE: At a Charlottesville VA B&B 5 years ago we met an obnoxious couple from Paula’s city – Savannah GA. Over breakfast they spouted a litany of liberal tripe and how much they despised Paula Deen. As soon as I got home I DVRed Paula’s show and ordered her cookbook from Amazon. If liberals hated her that much she was “my kinda gal”.
If you never take my advice on anything else – NEVER talk politics at a B&B breakfast table.
To Paula Deen’s unpardonable sin….. using the n-word in the Deep South 30+ years ago in private conversation. If that gets one fired from The Food Network then no one I knew or was a contemporary in the 50-60s in “the South” should apply there. This is not about The Food Network. TFN was bullied into this gross over-reaction by other forces in play in America.
If Deen said something incredibly stoopid in 2013 in any public fashion, I would say she shoulda known better especially as a high profile celebrity, but 30+ years ago in a private conversation ??? This was a witch hunt. Who knows why “that rich white woman” was targeted. ….. a very scary precedent in our rapidly evolving “thought police state”.
“They” destroyed Paula Deen in the span of three days. Her frantic attempt to publicly apologize was painful. Her career is toast. She should be comfortable financially but psychologically she is a wreck from. ……. “a private conversation over 30 years ago”!
Lets compare what Paula Deen said in private conversations 30+ years ago to, say. Jeremiah Wright from an amplified pulpit every Sunday ??? Wright is celebrated because of his waaaay over-the-top scatological histrionics. Paula Deen was fired “for a word in a private conversation”. Racial Injustice has a new poster Paula.
The 40+ years since the Civil Rights Act has been mismanaged to a fairtheewell by a series of self-serving race-baiting profiteers assisted by more than a few quite stoopid knuckleheads on the other side. The resultant Gordian Knot will not be untied in my lifetime….. or by Paula Deen on The Food Network apparently.
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“The Internet means never…….”
I am not above creating a firestorm with a column. I’ve done so often. A recent subject was a fragile one, but I did not anticipate the furor that developed. It was that one re: WRAL’s Laura Leslie and gay clergy’s involvement in the Barber protests.
Laura Leslie is employed by Capitol Broadcasting to report on NC state government from a passionately left-wing perspective. That job carries a degree of public notoriety. BUT….. nothing else about Laura Leslie should concern me, or readers of this website. The column drifted into irrelevant matters.
I am apologizing to Laura Leslie for crossing the line with my comments. The term, I’m told, is “gay-baiting”. I offered to do so in person but this will have to do.
Other than a few dozen curiosity views from Laura Leslie’s twitter followers, the column served no useful purpose.
I will continue to highlight the misuse of mainstream media resources by anyone whose bylines accompany their reporting.
We live in a very prickly society. “Political correctness” lurks, ready to pounce, behind every rock and every curve in the road. Just ask Paula Deen. Some of it is legitimate.
To paraphrase Erich Segal’s line: “The Internet means never having to say….. I was wrong.” I’m violating that rule. I was wrong.
Does this resolve the firestorm? I’d like to think so, but it’s the Internet and…….
