Paula Dean Fired By Food Network Over Racial Slur

@BillRM,

In this case, as more information leaks out, she exposed her sociopthic tendencies by not empathizing with the subjects of her racist epithets.
Since these uses of "nigger' were more than a decade ago, I wonder how I would have handled the same thing.
My dad was a racist from a segregated US ARMY in WWII. He taught me the colloquialisms and I was the little sponge . In front of my dads hunting buddies the guys would every so often toss in an "N" word and make some racist jokes. I was about 11 and was pretty much a little parrot of his language. Dad was a screaming bigot like Archie Bunker. Long about 1962 , I was 11 and was reading the local papers about the Klan killings and the kids marches in the South nd by the time I was 13, the civil rights issue was out of Congress and a president was involved and eading the fray.
Something very important was going on. At this time I reevaluated my Dad's speech and racism and found out I didn't like me or it.

Paula Deen did not , in her depositions, apparently see anything wrong in her language and was more combative because she was "singled out nd was a target"
Duhh. Like Nixon, she could have gotten by the issue by owning up in a meaningfully penitent manner and if she gave a talk similar to my own life's road in this matter, Ill bet she could have come out of it as even a folk hero.
But no, she fucked herself with her sociopathic style of combative deposition.
Then, her eplanations and "apologies" of yesterday were just panic driven attempts at continuing a dust off.

Seems like all public figures don get it at all. Nixon, Sanford, Clinton, etc. The attempted "cover ups" are more deadly than a simple admission of guilt and a heartfelt plea for forgivness.
Theyre all sociopaths to a degree.

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See my friend Firefly the food channel firing may had gone over well with the PC police section of our population but it seems to be doing just what I assume it would do cause the channel viewers to hit the roof.

Quote:

http://www.examiner.com/article/as-food-network-fires-paula-deen-viewers-threaten-to-boycott-network-video

As Food Network fires Paula Deen, viewers threaten to boycott network (Video)
CELEBRITY NEWSJUNE 21, 2013BY: JENNIFER WAITESubscribe

Wendy Williams Reacts to Paula Deen's Use of Racial Slur Wendy Williams Reacts to Paula Deen's Use of Racial Slur
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Food Network may have fired cooking show host Paula Deen due to backlash concerns over her past use of the N-word and other racial slurs, but now it seems a good chunk of the network's viewers are lashing out at them for giving the host the boot!

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Fans of Paula Deen and butter-drenched TV shows like "Paula's Party", "Paula's Best Dishes" and "Paula's Home Cooking" took to Facebook Friday, threatening to boycott the network in its entirety for its dismissal of the popular foodie. Some viewers threatened to stop watching, even to remove the channel from their TV's channel lineup to avoid inadvertently landing on the network ever again.

Food Network Drops Paula Deen Over Racial Slurs, Viewers Threaten Boycott

Food Network fired Paula Deen on June 21, releasing a statement Friday saying they would not renew her contract, but quickly received a negative reaction on social media. Some viewers are threatening to boycott the network for their swift, stern decision.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Paula Deen's own Facebook page hosted much of the heated debate over the scandal. Obvious Team Paula supporter Shirley M. declared, "I will never watch food network again; in fact, I will block it on my TV to make sure it never appears on my screen. Who among us has not sinned and said things we regret later?"

Others agree with Food Network in its decision to cancel Deen's programs, expressing outrage at her admitted use of racial slurs. Facebook user James H. asked, "What, she says the word for nostalgic reasons? What about her desire to have a slavery-themed reception for her brother Bubba's wedding? Racist yet?"

Another Facebook user identified as Cindi Blizzard Hoffman had yet a third, much more divisive opinion on the whole subject. (We will preface this quote by telling you we find it thoroughly repugnant and disgusting. We actually omitted the last sentence of this person's post as it was so offensive.) "Until this country finally realizes that because we have mixed against GOD'S wishes, we are doomed because if GOD had wanted us to mix in the ways they have, he would have made us all the same color to start with. It is just not natural and the culture is so different." (Wow. Just...wow.)

Paula Deen Fired: Food Network Now Facing Criticism, Boycott Threats

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@farmerman,

Robert Byrd comes to mind. He fessed up and renounced his former actions and continued his job.

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@BillRM,

In this case, as more information leaks out, she exposed her sociopthic tendencies by not empathizing with the subjects of her racist epithets.
Since these uses of "nigger' were more than a decade ago, I wonder how I would have handled the same thing.
My dad was a racist from a segregated US ARMY in WWII. He taught me the colloquialisms and I was the little sponge . In front of my dads hunting buddies the guys would every so often toss in an "N" word and make some racist jokes. I was about 11 and was pretty much a little parrot of his language. Dad was a screaming bigot like Archie Bunker. Long about 1962 , I was 11 and was reading the local papers about the Klan killings and the kids marches in the South nd by the time I was 13, the civil rights issue was out of Congress and a president was involved and leading the fray.

Something very important was then going on and there was no way that racist jokes were funny. I tried to put myself into the shoes of the recipients of racist jokes. (I was 14/ Polish nd did NOT bear the "POLAK jokes" of the 60's. I beat the crap (and had the snot beat out of me) with several Associates who tried some Polak jokes to see what the results would be. Predictably, the jokes hurt and resulted in several physical altercations.
Atthat time I reevaluated my Dad's manners around blacks and hi racist ways that he as teaching me (he was like that old gardening fool in "HEAT OF THE NIGHT" ) I slowly found out I didn't like me or it.

Paula Deen did not , in her depositions, apparently see anything wrong in her language and was more combative because she was "singled out and was a target"
Duhh. Like Nixon, she could have gotten by the issue by owning up in a meaningfully penitent manner and if she gave a talk similar to my own life's road in this matter, Ill bet she could have come out of it as even a folk hero.
But no, she fucked herself with her sociopathic style of combative deposition.
Then, her eplanations and "apologies" of yesterday were just panic driven attempts at continuing a dust off.

Seems like all public figures don get it at all. Nixon, Sanford, Clinton, etc. The attempted "cover ups" are more deadly than a simple admission of guilt and a heartfelt plea for forgivness.
Theyre all sociopaths to a degree.

To sort f justify her actions and by calling the media (and folks like us who do find her speech offensive), "PC" is another corner that many folks have painted themselves .

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@farmerman,

Quote:

In this case, as more information leaks out, she exposed her sociopthic tendencies by not empathizing with the subjects of her racist epithets.

As one of those subjects happen to had held a gun to her head during a bank robbery somehow I can understand her lack of empathizing with that one person at least.

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@BillRM,

You're as clueless as Deen is. She can't recognize how or why her language, and thinking, is offensive to others, and apparently neither can you.

Quote:

Sorry no can do as long as you the poster woman on this website for all PC positions it is possible to take in this society.

I don't see myself as the poster woman for anything on this Web site, but I take your view of me as a compliment.

In my mind, I view being PC as being mindful not to use terms that disparage, or offend, or stereotype entire groups in a negative way, or even to engage in such patterns of thinking, because that's what breeds, and spreads, hatred, and hostility, and mistrust, and divisiveness, and bigotry, and such things are hurtful, and harmful, and inconsistent with my own humanistic values.

So, I thank you for noticing that my expressed views at A2K genuinely reflect my humanistic values, and are consistent with them.

Quote:

So what her health issues is not anyone business but her own...

Paula Deen's health issues, when directly related to her public image, her brand, her product line, her credibility, and her trustworthiness, definitely become of interest to others--particularly the consumers affected by her endorsements, and promotions, and products, and the other business entities that partner with her to sell her product or who use her image and endorsement to sell their product. And when health issues are intentionally concealed, from both consumers and business entities, because honesty might compromise Paula's personal profits, her trustworthiness, and credibility become definitely suspect, and her brand becomes tainted.

She's not a private person, she works quite hard to be a public, easily recognized, spokesperson for a particular life-style, and product line, that she also works hard to promote. So, when her own health issues reflect the possible negative consequences of that life-style, concealing those issues, to protect her bottom line, becomes a display of not only her crass greed, but her embracing of dishonesty to protect her greed. And that impression was further reinforced by the fact that she went public with her type 2 diabetes on the same day, and at the same time, she announced her lucrative partnership with a drug company to hawk their diabetes drug. Only when it paid for Paula to come clean, did she do so.

You like Deen, fine. You want to watch her cooking shows and buy her products, fine. You want to make excuses for her personal conduct, fine. Other people may look at Paula Deen, consider what her behavior says about her character, and decide they don't like what they see, and that's what can well impact her reputation, her brand, and her business empire. And the Food Network decided they had had enough of her. Others she's associated with may start doing the same.

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@firefly,

I remember a guy named Ewell Gibbons who talked about the healthy life by eating wild foods and that kind of ****. He died in his late 40's or early 50's from a massive brought on by years of clandestine smoking and ingestion of huge clots of fatty foods.

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@BillRM,

This isn't just about her use of the "N-word". Why don't you bother to read what else Paula said in that deposition, or what else that lawsuit accuses her of doing in terms of the workplace environment she created as an employer.

Your view of the matter is simplistic, either because you're so poorly informed, or because you just don't bother to think. This isn't about someone who just used the "N-word" in the past. That lawsuit accuses her of much more than that, and her responses, both in her deposition, and the video apologies she released yesterday, reveal her to be someone who really doesn't connect with how offensive and harmful she can be.

That you cite others, who also attempt to excuse, or justify, her behavior, really doesn't mean a damn thing. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think like Paula Deen in this world--that doesn't make them right either.

1 Reply

@firefly,

Yes I am sure the other side of a lawsuit lawyers was throwing as must **** as possible on the walls to see what they could get to stick to it.

One wonder how any of us would look under such treatment covering all our lives.

Second none of it have anything to do with her abilities to produce a cooking show that many people find interesting.

1 Reply

Quote:

The New York Times
June 21, 2013
Food Network Drops Paula Deen

By JULIA MOSKIN

Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking and a sugary mainstay of the Food Network, was dropped by the network on Friday, after a bewildering day in which she failed to show up for an interview on the “Today” show and then in two online videos begged her family and audience to forgive her for using racist language.

A network spokeswoman said it would not renew Ms. Deen’s contract when it expired at the end of June. Ms. Deen has faced a volley of criticism this week over her remarks in a deposition for a discrimination lawsuit by a former employee. In the document, she admitted she had used racial epithets, tolerated racist jokes and condoned pornography in the workplace.

The Food Network statement did not elaborate on its reasons for dropping her, but a person close to the network said its shows featuring her sons, Jamie and Bobby, would not be affected. Ms. Deen currently has three regular programs on the network, including “Paula’s Best Dishes.”

Those shows were part of a small culinary business empire run by Ms. Deen, 66, who has produced numerous cookbooks, lent her name to household products from butter to mattresses, and served as a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Smithfield Foods. She and her sons own and operate The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga. Her magazine “Cooking with Paula Deen,” has a circulation of nearly one million, her Web site says.

In her first video on Friday, posted on YouTube and later removed, Ms. Deen, near tears, said: “I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I’ve done. I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable.”

In a longer video posted later in the afternoon, she appeared more composed. “Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter,” she said.

She added: “I was wrong, yes, I’ve worked hard, and I have made mistakes, but that is no excuse and I offer my sincere apology to those that I have hurt, and I hope that you forgive me because this comes from the deepest part of my heart.”

In yet a third video on YouTube, posted Friday afternoon, Ms. Deen apologized to Matt Lauer, the host of “Today,” for not appearing for a scheduled exclusive interview earlier in the day. She had agreed to the interview, extensively promoted by NBC News, to address the uproar generated by her deposition.

Clearly irritated by the absence of Ms. Deen, a regular guest on the show, Mr. Lauer told viewers that she had spoken with him on Thursday, agreed to an “open and candid” discussion and had flown to New York City. But in the morning, he said, she had her representatives cancel, citing exhaustion.

Ms. Deen has managed to offend even her most uncritical fans before, most recently in January 2012 when she announced she had Type 2 diabetes on the same day she endorsed the diabetes drug Victoza and a lucrative collaboration with Novo Nordisk, the drug’s manufacturer. Because she had built her career on a no-holds-barred approach to sugar and fat (creating recipes like a cheeseburger patty sandwiched between two doughnuts and a Better than Sex cake made with cake mix, pudding mix, and heavy cream), she was roundly criticized for encouraging an unhealthy diet for others, hiding her illness and then trying to profit from it.

On Thursday, criticism of her racial remarks mounted on Twitter — even spawning a sarcastic hashtag, #paulasbestdishes — and on Ms. Deen’s own Facebook page.

The lawsuit against her was filed in March 2012 by Lisa T. Jackson, the general manager of Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, a restaurant that Ms. Deen owned with her brother, Earl (Bubba) Hiers. Ms. Jackson, who is white, said that her father was Sicilian, with dark skin, and that she had suffered prejudice as a result.

In the deposition, Ms. Deen said that she had used a racial slur in the past, though not in the restaurant, but that she and her family did not tolerate prejudice. “Bubba and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is” or what gender a person is, she said. “It’s what’s in your heart and in your head that matters to us.”

She also stated that “most jokes” are about Jews, gay people, black people and “rednecks.”

“I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/dining/paula-deen-is-a-no-show-on-today.html?hp

“I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,” she said.

Well, if she really wants to figure that out, and understand why others might feel offended, she has to start by actually listening to those who find her remarks and behavior offensive. Just doing a mea culpa isn't enough, she's got to start understanding the impact of her words and thoughts, and why they hurt and offend. When she's able to do that, her apology might actually ring true.

A woman who wants to plan a "plantation-style" wedding, with guests served by a livery of all black waiters dressed in white, as Deen said she wanted to do, is voicing nostalgia for an era, not just associated with Southern graciousness and 'charm', but also with slavery, bondage, discrimination, and the deprivation of human rights. Deen needs to stop whistling "Tara's Theme," from Gone With the Wind, long enough to realize what else her nostalgic romantic fantasies of the Old South conjure up for others--and why her desire to recreate, and live in that that era, even for a momentary celebration of a marriage, appears quite misguided and offensive to others.

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@BillRM,

Quote:

One wonder how any of us would look under such treatment covering all our lives.

The lawsuit concerns a portion of Deen's life as an employer--and the type of atmosphere she allowed, and contributed to, in the workplace under her control.

If questioned about any of those things, or similar issues, in my own life, I could honestly say I have never used racial/ethnic epithets or slurs against any group, nor have I ever negatively stereotyped, or thought about, others in such derogatory ways. It was never part of the environment or family I grew up in, and it never entered into my thinking as an adult, nor is it something I choose to tolerate in people I come in contact with.

So, speak for yourself. I'm sure there are plenty of others just like me. We don't all have ugly little secrets of that type lurking in our past. And, even among those that do, many have since gained in awareness, enhanced their perspective, realized where they were in error, or where they were being hurtful and harmful, and then altered their behaviors, patterns of thinking, and manner of expression. That's what farmerman said he did. And that may be the task ahead of Paula Deen, if she really wants to understand and move on from the current controversy she's gotten herself embroiled in.

Quote:

Second none of it have anything to do with her abilities to produce a cooking show that many people find interesting.

The Food Network obviously views this situation differently than you do, and they no longer wish to be associated with her.

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@firefly,

Quote:

The Food Network obviously views this situation differently than you do

so you know then that they were planning on offering her a new contract and changed their minds. what is your source?

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

A woman who wants to plan a "plantation-style" wedding, with guests served by a livery of all black waiters dressed in white, as Deen said she wanted to do, is voicing nostalgia for an era, not just associated with Southern graciousness and 'charm', but also with slavery, bondage, discrimination, and the deprivation of human rights. Deen needs to stop whistling "Tara's Theme," from Gone With the Wind, long enough to realize what else her nostalgic romantic fantasies of the Old South conjure up for others--and why her desire to recreate, and live in that that era, even for a momentary celebration of a marriage, appears quite misguided and offensive to others.

Apparently, It's not offensive to a whole lot of people. These services exist. Check out the internet, it's all over the place. There's a band named Lady Antebellum for the love of pete.

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@hawkeye10,

I didn't say they were planning to offer her a new contract and changed their minds. What's your source for my comments?

They decided to end their association with her by not renewing her contract. And that's what they said in their press release.

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@firefly,

Quote:

woman who wants to plan a "plantation-style" wedding, with guests served by a livery of all black waiters dressed in white, as Deen said she wanted to do, is voicing nostalgia for an era, not just associated with Southern graciousness and 'charm', but also with slavery, bondage, discrimination, and the deprivation of human rights.

LOL anyone who love the movie Gone with the Wind should not be allowed to have a cooking show or anyone who have express a high opinion of General Lee or other southern leaders even going back to Washington and Jefferson and so on should be stone or at least kept from earning a living.

Hmm that does not just apply to the south as Rome and Roman society was basic on slave labor living hidden in underground living quarters under the homes of the rich.

So anyone who had throw a togga party in honor of the Rome culture with "slave girls" servers should be black ball from having a cooking show.

In any case, that one hell of a high horse you love to ride around to pass judgment on other people Firefly.

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

I didn't say they were planning to offer her a new contract and changed their minds. What's your source for my comments?

They decided to end their association with her by not renewing her contract. And that's what they said in their press release.

right, and do you have any source that says that her saying nigger has anything to do with it?

Quote:

After the shocking revelation that Food Network host Paula Deen was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago, many questions remain. High among them: what happens to her television career? According to Food Network insiders, the celebrity chef has no plans to change the way she cooks on TV until at least 2013.

"Before Paula's announcement the producers of her show, Gordon Elliott's Follow That Productions, had delivered enough shows to run until the end of 2012," a source close to the network said. "None of the shows address her bombshell statement and none of the shows make any attempt to change the way she cooks, even though they obviously knew what was going on when she filmed them."

From a studio on her property in Savannah, Georgia, Deen shoots several shows a day over the course of several days to keep costs down. She has delivered around 34 completed episodes to the network.

"Paula shoots in February, May and the fall. There have been no major conversations between the network and her team about re-editing the shows or making changes," a network insider tells me. "As far as [Deen's people] are concerned, they have met their contractual obligation and have moved on. However, this doesn't mean that the network has to air what they have been given. They have hired a crisis PR company and are having internal conversations -- even if Paula's team doesn't wish to be part of them -- about how to proceed in this very ugly situation."

The Food Network declined to comment on the matter, while Paula Deen's representatives have yet to respond to our inquiry.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/07/paula-deen-diabetes-food-network_n_1260827.html

i think that her problems with the network go back to the lie by omission of her diabetes, and that the die was cast on her leaving a long time ago.

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@firefly,

Quote:

I could honestly say I have never used racial/ethnic epithets or slurs against any group, nor have I ever negatively stereotyped,

Good for you however we all know you well enough that there is no question in my mind that lawyers given a license to example your whole life in details would be able to come up with all kinds of information that could be used to paint you in a very bad light.

Saint Firefly you are not and your ethics even on this site have at times fallen short of the ideal.

Riding that high horse of your and finding reasons to look down on others is a dangerous thing to do.

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@Ceili,

Quote:

Apparently, It's not offensive to a whole lot of people. These services exist. Check out the internet, it's all over the place...

The Klan and White Supremacist groups are also all over the internet.

Since when did being on the internet confer respectability, or decency, or anything else?

I have no problem with people embracing aspects of their Southern heritage, as Deen does, and celebrating those, as long as there is also some recognition of what was also wrong with aspects of that 'Old South', aspects that don't merit resurrection, and certainly not celebration, in something like a "plantation-style" wedding with all black servers dressed in white.

Deen seems, at best, a little disconnected from current cultural realities, and awarenesses, in her nostalgia for the good old days of the planations and her desire to recreate them. I honestly think she's clueless, and in a way that's proving to be potentially damaging to the viability of her business empire.

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@firefly,

Quote:

Deen seems, at best, a little disconnected from current cultural realities, and awarenesses, in her nostalgia for the good old days of the planations and her desire to recreate them. I honestly think she's clueless, and in a way that's proving to be potentially damaging to the viability of her business empire.

she built that empire on the back of this schtick which you object to, even if it did fail now that would still count as a win. she is 66, the kids are set, it is a fine time to retire. the most embarrassing thing is her current running all over the place with apologizes for saying nigger, those who love her schtick will think poorly of her, and those who did not like her before will still not like her. and it is too late now to apologize for hiding her diabetes.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

right, and do you have any source that says that her saying nigger has anything to do with it?

Go back and read all my posts in this thread. I previously hypothesized that this latest controversy might have been the last straw for the Food Network, in terms of whether or not to continue their association with her. And I mentioned her concealment, for years, of her diabetic condition in that regard.

The Food Network chose not to re-new her contract, and they chose not to elaborate on their reasons for doing so.

So all of this is just speculation, about the Food Network's decision, but there are obvious factors that might have influenced their decision.

2 Replies

Paula Dean Fired By Food Network Over Racial Slur

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