Paula Deen has been seen as an icon of Southern culture – and that makes her a prime target for those who hate the culture of The Old South. While I am disappointed to see yet another public figure groveling for forgiveness that will never come, that’s another topic for another day. What was the horrible crime she committed that would lead to being kicked off of The Food Network?
Last month, Food Network chef Paula Deen gave a videotaped deposition as part of a discrimination suit she’s facing in which she discussed her desire to have a “very southern style wedding” for her brother modeled after a restaurant where the “whole entire wait staff was middle-aged black men” clad in white jackets and black bow ties, according to a transcript of the deposition filed in federal court in Georgia. Deen also admitted to having used the N word and discussed the ways the word could be “not said in a mean way.” (source)
Her “incriminating” statement? “Yes, of course,” said Deen, when asked by a lawyer if she had ever used the “N word.”(source). So, we have someone with the honesty to affirm that she had said something that she regrets saying. Are we to believe that all those media figures who are expressing shock and outrage have never done anything like that in their entire life? Remember, the question was if she had ever used that word.
While she is being destroyed for using the word “nigger” (referring to “the N-word” is beyond childish – as though it would cast some evil spell), this is hypocritical exploitation in its purest form. The media has seized upon the use of a “forbidden word”, used in a private meeting, to attack a Southern icon. Her real crime? Having the audacity to discuss a “very Southern style wedding” based on imagery from one of the most widely-known romance novels of all time – Gone With The Wind. She wanted to recreate another time for her brother’s wedding and, horror of horrors, she wanted to use the race of those who would be hired to make it more historically accurate. Those who would be serving the food would essentially be actors in a play, yet because such ideas apparently provoke a feeling of being horribly offended by the oh-so-sensitive class, she is being publicly scorned. Try doing a Google search for “plantation wedding” – it’s a very popular venue.
Am I saying that using racial slurs to offend someone is acceptable? No, of course not. This blog is about the Southern gentleman, and a Southern gentleman shows respect to all – at least until such time that they demonstrate that they are completely unworthy of such respect. Even at that point though, the Southern gentleman has a vocabulary large enough to find and use a better choice of words.
The sheer hypocrisy of this attack on her is what floors me. Racism is alive and well in this country but not the way the mainstream media is portraying it. The only reason she is under attack for using that word is because she is white. How many black athletes and entertainers use that word, even in their songs, and lose endorsements from anyone? None. This is truly a sad state of affairs.
Dear Mr. McGehee,
You have “hit the nail on the head” regarding the Paula Deen issue. Thank you for stating it so clearly. I am a native Californian now living here in Starkville, Mississippi for ten months. I love the town, people, music, food and culture of the South. Mississippi and parts of Alabama that I have seen are beautiful. The new South has nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of.
Yours truly,
Kathy
Thank you, ma’am.
My wife is originally from California also. A good place to be from. Welcome to the land that I love!
It amazes me also, yet in a way it also gives me hope. When the hypocrisy becomes so naked and apparent, more and more people are waking up to what is happening. At some point, people will simply stop letting themselves be bullied this way. When the word “racist” loses its magical spell over people, then the race hustlers will suddenly find themselves powerless. Maybe, just maybe, this country could then return to the way it was before government and the media began dictating how individuals live and interact with each other. The resentment of being forced together is, I believe, at the very root of America’s race problems. I was in school before the forced integration. I just don’t remember any kind of overt animosity between the races. We didn’t sit down together as though we were all one big happy family, but then no one really does. That’s just part of the collectivist dream and has no place in reality.
We CAN get along – we just can’t all have equal results, we just can’t all like to be with each other, and we just can’t all live next to each other. We CAN tolerate each other and get along with each other, and that’s about the best that we mortal beings are capable of – everything else is just the wishful dreaming of collectivists.
First, Ms. Deen, one of the whites who has embraced “diversity” for years – and by that I mean that she buys into the “black agenda” – may now have been sufficiently enlightened to realize that no matter what she does, she can NEVER atone for being white.
In the mid-20th Century the war against whites in this nation started with a change in our immigration policy which shut off immigration from Europe and encouraged immigration from the Third World and Asia. (We see how well THAT’S working out!) The mid-20th Century also saw the myth of judging people by their characters rather than characteristics such as religion, ethnicity and race. Of course, EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE is now the norm. Indeed, we have gotten to the point at which there is only ONE group of people in this country who are legally and ethically subject to discrimination and persecution: white traditional Christians.
Ms. Deen ought to have, hopefully, gained enough insight to know that she cannot win this fight and so she should just abandon her liberal “friends” and embrace the only “side” that will have her if she will reject her gratuitous and (frankly stupid) guilt; that is, her own Southern people, white AND black. If she does that, she will have a home. If she tries to remain with the race mongers, she will be just another Southern white statistic.
Excellent analysis as always, ma’am. Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
Wonderful article, sir. This issue does go well beyond Paula Deen. This is something many if not most of our people have to face. Your comment was very insightful, as well.
An Alabaman friend of mine said that black students did not want to travel across town to attend the newly integrated schools. Like Kathy Lee Jimenez, I, too, am from California. The Catholic high school I attended for my first two high school years used to be an all-white all-male school. It later became co-educational but still all-white. After integration forced its hand, the blacks came in and the whites moved out. My eldest half-sister (who is half black because her father is black) graduated from the school in 2004 and recently received a letter from them about the current status of the school which included a demographics pie chart. To put it comically, it looked like a black “Pacman” eating all of the other races that are now minorities in the school and the area. During my time there, I noticed there was a lot of racial tension even though the forced integration happened decades ago. However, whether it was at the Catholic high school or the charter school I eventually graduated from, I noticed that teenagers prefer to stick with their own kind. Because I was the only white kid at the charter school, I mostly just floated around mingling with whomever showed me kindness. Because that school is very new (six years old going on seven), there really is no racial tension. It is about 60% black and 40% Latino, and although they stick to their kind, they have no problems interacting with other races. I admit, I felt very uncomfortable there mostly because I had never been in such an environment. To my relief, I was rarely confronted about my displays of the Confederate flag and was never really attacked verbally or physically. However, I was threatened by the principal’s daughter who was a senior my first year there. They were tolerant of my views, and they were very nice about it.
You are right that we can get along. You are pretty much correct with all of your final statements. I prefer to be around my own kind, and I plan to move to an Alabama town that is at least 80% white. I get along well with people of other races, I just do not enjoy constantly being around them.
One thing that caught my attention when I first saw this article was that you stated that Paula Deen is a Southern icon, yet you have never mentioned her on this website until now. In “The Demise of the Southern Woman,” Lydia McGaughey Sherman did not speak very highly of Mrs. Deen. Mrs. Deen was used as an example of a Southern woman who has fallen into the norm of other celebrities that so many people look up to with an example of divorce and a statement about the consumption of alcohol.
Mr. Davillae, it’s good to hear from you again, sir!
Lydia McGaughey Sherman was right on target, as always. That is correct – Paula Deen falls far short of what we would consider a good role model for the Southern lady. However, the point remains that to the general public, Paula Deen is viewed as a Southern icon. For that perception, she was (and remains) a target for those who would destroy Southern culture.
She should not have apologized. I believe that was her mistake. It is time we said, “yes I said it” or “yes I did it” and I am not ashamed of it. Groveling begets more groveling. She would have had few repercussions had she taken that route.
I do not mean to say one should not apologize when one is wrong, of course one should, but it’s way past time to quit being used as a whipping boy.
Excellent point. We have allowed ourselves to be conditioned to automatically apologize whenever someone claims that they have been offended or harmed – no matter how absurd that claim may be. It’s the “perfect storm” in our society: Blacks have been conditioned to be perpetual victims and offended at the least perceived slight, while Whites have been conditioned to believe they are directly responsible for all of the misfortune and misery among all the other races, and so apologies and groveling and begging for a false forgiveness is the only correct thing to do.
The fact is that this situation is bad for everyone involved. Whites forget about the great achievements and highly advanced culture that we built while focusing on very thin arguments claiming that we bear full responsibility for the failure of other races to achieve equal results. Blacks are given a perpetual excuse for their failures and no incentive to fix those failures. When their problems are believed to be caused by an outside source (Whites, slavery that ended a century and a half ago, etc.) then it is all too easy to claim there is nothing they can do about it – so they don’t. They place themselves into the very slavery that they use as an excuse – they become enslaved and addicted to the government handouts every bit as much as a junkie is to his heroin.
I have learned that this attitude is not just common to American Blacks – it is deeply ingrained into African culture as well (I am vice-president of a non-profit corp. that provides direct support for missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and have regular close contact with missionaries stationed there. We’re having dinner tonight with one missionary who will be returning to Africa in two weeks).
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Nowhere does this famous document state that one group or race is responsible for or OWES any of these rights to another. We are all created equal. It’s up to each of us to take it from there. A lot of depends on who you think your Creator is though.
And thank you for the comment about a different form of slavery. Truer words were never spoken. Sometimes people can’t seem to see the forest for the trees.
It is a shame what they did to that woman. I too think that the real reason for the attack was because she is white, Southern and affluent. Never could understand why people continue to make a big stink over South. Being a born-bred NY’er i love going down there and visiting my parents and brothers. To me the South is the only place left where people are a lot more friendlier and even to a point more free than up here in the North.
I saw the big stink the media was making on that poor lady. Acting like they have never said that word before amongst friends. I hate the MSM they totally destroyed that woman’s credibility as well as her finances. All because some disgruntled employee heard half of a conversation not knowing the reason of the conversation.
I do hope she is doing well though!
Great Post!
Good to hear from you, sir! Thank you for stopping by and commenting. (From one who also craves mangos and grew up playing in a tree house built in a huge mango tree)