My Northern readers will need to forgive that quaint Southern title, but it was one I could not resist. The news is rife with the rats abandoning the sinking ship known as Paula Deen. Her use of racial slurs was compounded by her apparent unconcern for the inappropriateness of her usage of them. And now I am hearing from people who say, "What's the big deal?"
Here is the big deal: It is not, nor has it ever been, right.
I just left my hometown, where I was visiting The Uncles and The Bubbas and Skinny Sarah and Caregiver Sarah, et. al. Uncle Doc hangs out in the Lock 16 Cafe, where the waitstaff treat him well and cater to his every whim. People come through there all the time who know him, and they chat. I met a lot of people I didn't know and it was fun. But notably, I noticed a propensity for people to want to brush off this incident. They could not imagine why The Food Network and all the various sponsors have been ditching Deen. They think too big a deal is being made of this.
Let's be clear. A lawsuit was brought alleging a hostile workplace due to inappropriate racial talk. It's no different than a lawsuit brought by a woman who finds it inappropriate if her male boss discusses her lady parts jokingly. It just IS NOT DONE. It's tacky, it's poor manners and it is wrong. Ya don't do that kind of thing at work.
But more importantly, Deen brought the sky down on her head when she shrugged it off and said she didn't know anyone who didn't make racial jokes.
Guess what, lady, I live in the South and I honestly do NOT know anyone who does. If they do, it's in the privacy of their own homes where I cannot hear it. Furthermore, if I did hear it, I would respond with a very tart rebuke.
The question now is whether the Food Network erred in dumping her. From my point of view, not having to have her nasty voice blathering away is a gift from the heavens above. I never liked her show, muted it if I was ironing in front of the television, and have never bothered with any of her recipes because when it comes to Southern cooking, I don't need to do it. My Southern husband, The Estimable Big Kitty, doesn't much care for it! I eat more Southern foods than he does! He does like greens, but he likes the way I make them - Italian style - better. No grits, no biscuits, no country ham and red-eye gravy, no biscuits smothered in sausage gravy, no okra... I, on the other hand, love grits. I also appreciate biscuits, even if the only way I eat them is with butter and jam. And summer isn't summer unless I can make a batch of okry 'n maters, just for myself! I can do without the rest of that stuff.
The rest of her empire can rot, as far as I'm concerned. She's made a small fortune on very little talent, lied about her health to her fans, and managed to rebound from that peccadillo. This latest, however, is far more serious.
Combined with the lie about her diabetes and her propensity for making obese people feel fine about eating food that is completely wrong for them, the racial issue pretty much shows that the woman is lacking in character. I don't like saying that about people I don't know personally, but the way she tried to blow off the issue in the deposition shows she cares very little for anything beyond her own self. That kind of self-absorption indicates to me that she believes her own hype. I'm going to lump that in with the Kar-trashian bunch in terms of having no shame and no sense of decency.
So, a word of warning to "y'all," who want to blow this off. You try that with me and I'm going to be all over you like a cheap suit. Your mama raised you to have good manners. Talk like that isn't good manners and, for you super religious types, will NOT earn you a ticket to heaven. What Paula Deen said was wrong. She is a public figure and she doesn't get a pass. Far from it. A public figure is expected to behave with integrity and honor. She ha
Here is the big deal: It is not, nor has it ever been, right.
I just left my hometown, where I was visiting The Uncles and The Bubbas and Skinny Sarah and Caregiver Sarah, et. al. Uncle Doc hangs out in the Lock 16 Cafe, where the waitstaff treat him well and cater to his every whim. People come through there all the time who know him, and they chat. I met a lot of people I didn't know and it was fun. But notably, I noticed a propensity for people to want to brush off this incident. They could not imagine why The Food Network and all the various sponsors have been ditching Deen. They think too big a deal is being made of this.
Let's be clear. A lawsuit was brought alleging a hostile workplace due to inappropriate racial talk. It's no different than a lawsuit brought by a woman who finds it inappropriate if her male boss discusses her lady parts jokingly. It just IS NOT DONE. It's tacky, it's poor manners and it is wrong. Ya don't do that kind of thing at work.
But more importantly, Deen brought the sky down on her head when she shrugged it off and said she didn't know anyone who didn't make racial jokes.
Guess what, lady, I live in the South and I honestly do NOT know anyone who does. If they do, it's in the privacy of their own homes where I cannot hear it. Furthermore, if I did hear it, I would respond with a very tart rebuke.
The question now is whether the Food Network erred in dumping her. From my point of view, not having to have her nasty voice blathering away is a gift from the heavens above. I never liked her show, muted it if I was ironing in front of the television, and have never bothered with any of her recipes because when it comes to Southern cooking, I don't need to do it. My Southern husband, The Estimable Big Kitty, doesn't much care for it! I eat more Southern foods than he does! He does like greens, but he likes the way I make them - Italian style - better. No grits, no biscuits, no country ham and red-eye gravy, no biscuits smothered in sausage gravy, no okra... I, on the other hand, love grits. I also appreciate biscuits, even if the only way I eat them is with butter and jam. And summer isn't summer unless I can make a batch of okry 'n maters, just for myself! I can do without the rest of that stuff.
The rest of her empire can rot, as far as I'm concerned. She's made a small fortune on very little talent, lied about her health to her fans, and managed to rebound from that peccadillo. This latest, however, is far more serious.
Combined with the lie about her diabetes and her propensity for making obese people feel fine about eating food that is completely wrong for them, the racial issue pretty much shows that the woman is lacking in character. I don't like saying that about people I don't know personally, but the way she tried to blow off the issue in the deposition shows she cares very little for anything beyond her own self. That kind of self-absorption indicates to me that she believes her own hype. I'm going to lump that in with the Kar-trashian bunch in terms of having no shame and no sense of decency.
So, a word of warning to "y'all," who want to blow this off. You try that with me and I'm going to be all over you like a cheap suit. Your mama raised you to have good manners. Talk like that isn't good manners and, for you super religious types, will NOT earn you a ticket to heaven. What Paula Deen said was wrong. She is a public figure and she doesn't get a pass. Far from it. A public figure is expected to behave with integrity and honor. She ha
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