Paula Deen fired from Food Network after racial epithet

[chrisberb]

Well..


*snip*

Damn you Payday... while i'm not against her getting fired/no contract renewal..it's hard to watch that video and not feel bad lol

[Åmbulance]

I've told, and laughed at many racist jokes. I guess that makes me a horrible person. Oh well.

[fengosa]

You don't get a pass on being racist because you're from the south. I don't think racist jokes are completely taboo but there's a time and a place for it and work isn't one of those places.

[oxymoronic]

I don't think anyone is against freedom of expression here. It's just that. You can say what you want, but certain things will carry social, political, and economic (employment) consequences. You just won't be put in jail.

Which is what we're advocating against. Its silly in this day and age to hurt people cause of their beliefs. I thought we were pass all that childish behavior?

---------- Post added 2013-06-21 at 04:13 PM ----------

You don't get a pass on being racist because you're from the south. I don't think racist jokes are completely taboo but there's a time and a place for it and work isn't one of those places.

Why do you need a pass at all? As long as you're not hurting anybody which she clearly wasn't then what is the problem?

[Payday]

And yes, when you use a racial slur and it hurts other people you apologize, even when it's really not a big deal. All she said is she has used the word and knows it's wrong.

Actions have consequences

I doubt she's even really sorry, she just knows her career is in trouble. That still doesn't mean shes some evil villain for saying a word that's looked down on less where she's from than minor cursing is in the rest of the country.

Irrelevant

"notes that the National Enquirer reported that in 2007"
In her court report and in interviews over this she never said she told people she wanted a slave wedding. Tabloids do exactly what I was saying, take things out of context and twist them to make them gossip worthy.

It's in the deposition.

"A transcript of the deposition describes an instance when Jackson witnessed Deen’s racial views. Jackson was placed in charge of food and serving arrangements for Bubba Hiers’ wedding in February 2007, and asked Deen what kind of wedding reception it would be. “I want a true southern plantation-style wedding,” Deen replied.
Jackson subsequently asked Deen what type of uniforms she preferred the servers to wear."

“Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n—–s to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around.” Paula Deen laughed and said “Now that would be a true southern wedding, wouldn’t it? But we can’t do that because the media would be on me about that.” Citation

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/...hemed-wedding/
http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/paula-...theme-wedding/

[DEATHETERNAL]

The oversensitive weaklings and those who pander to them are laughable. The best thing for oversensitive people is to be told to get over it so they might choose to not be so weak in the future, not to be told “Oh, that’s horrible, let me try and make it better so you can go on being weak thinking it’s justified”.

[Chickat]

I liked her shows and she seemed like a nice lady. My grandmother grew up being taught that black people are wrong. Because she didn't want to be around them does that make her a bad person? Not in my eyes. She was the kindest person i ever knew. She didn't even say it on tape or air, so i think she was wrongly fired. And just so we are clear, the other half of my family's has a lot of black Indian, etc adopted children so.

[Deleted]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEltXZkgl-k

Joking about races and no one had problem with it. Sucks to live in modern days when only one who can make such jokes are non-white people.

[Ult92]

Which is what we're advocating against. Its silly in this day and age to hurt people cause of their beliefs. I thought we were pass all that childish behavior?

There is a very high bar for public figures though. An ordinary person could hold those beliefs, and not face consequences just so long as he or she is not actively trying to propagate them, speak them publicly, or speak them at a place of employment, etc.

In general, though, I agree with you about beliefs. I think there's a common understanding that you can believe what you want (and not only that, but propagate it too), minus things that are racist/discriminatory (and increasingly, things that are homophobic). Some countries go a lot farther, like Germany (where some political hate parties are just outright banned).

I don't think it's radical to understand that nobody has control over their birth. I can't pick my skin color, my sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. Nobody should be put down or joked about on the basis of factors that are uncontrollable. We just need to try very hard to think of every person as the same. Person X born in Country Y with skin-color Z is the same as anybody else.

[Merkava]

Oh who gives a flying fuck, look she said the N word, boo freaking hoo. I can run down the street and shout it but nobodys going to drop dead.

Well, in all honesty that's probably because your're Tommo from MMO-Champion, and she's Paula Deen, cook, cooking show host, restaurateur, author, actress and Emmy Award-winning television personality.

[PACOX]

This just in people, words have meaning. Thats how a functional language works. If you just pretend that words don't have meaning then the language is useless. Its ashame that a 66 year old lady who can attribute of her fame to her charisma can be so stupid.

[Merkava]

This just in people, words have meaning. Thats how a functional language works. If you just pretend that words don't have meaning then the language is useless. Its ashame that a 66 year old lady who can attribute of her fame to her charisma can be so stupid.

Which brings to mind the question; Where's her lawyer in all this? She should have settled out of court.

[Celista]

Which brings to mind the question; Where's her lawyer in all this? She should have settled out of court.

Settling out of court didn't help the Elmo guy.

If anything, she should have lied on the stand unless they had concrete evidence (video/audio), instead she choose to be honest and it backfired on her.

Honesty should always be commended but I don't think it worked out well in this scenario.

[Roxinius]

love how people get so butt hurt over words the politically correct shit its really just stupid

[Chirri]

Why do you need a pass at all? As long as you're not hurting anybody which she clearly wasn't then what is the problem?

I'm not even clear on where she said it (apparently the "when" is between 2005 and, what, 2010?), but if it was at work, then fair enough. The words you use at work can have an effect on the atmosphere. Using certain inflammatory words at work can make people unaccustomed to hearing those words used often to feel uncomfortable, may become stressed, or straight up offended. Using certain inflammatory words at work may give the impression that "it's okay to fall back on insulting words," and encourage their use from others.

It's one thing to use these kinds of terms at home, or among close friends and family, and another thing entirely to use them in the workplace. Clearly her use of the N word upset someone enough that things even came to this point. I don't know whether it was how often and thoughtlessly she used the word, or whether it was used to refer to specific common acquaintances, or to refer to blacks in general quite often. Was it used in anger, in jest, or as a warped form of endearment?

I'm pretty neutral about her not getting her contract renewed. Her name and face is on some attractive cookware, and I use the lasagna dish from her line pretty often. As a cooking personality (I've never watched her shows), I've found her to be something of a joke - she's an older Southern woman who uses pounds of butter in everything she makes. That's the impression I've gotten from the caricatures I've seen of her.

I'm pretty disappointed that this is what's considered news. "Celebrity" news in general makes me want to hurt everyone who keeps the subject in business.

[Myrrar]

Actions have consequences



Irrelevant



It's in the deposition.

"A transcript of the deposition describes an instance when Jackson witnessed Deen’s racial views. Jackson was placed in charge of food and serving arrangements for Bubba Hiers’ wedding in February 2007, and asked Deen what kind of wedding reception it would be. “I want a true southern plantation-style wedding,” Deen replied.
Jackson subsequently asked Deen what type of uniforms she preferred the servers to wear."



http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/...hemed-wedding/
http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/paula-...theme-wedding/

She clearly said she didn't say that. So, either the guy is media whoring and he's lying, or she's lying. Let's not pretend we have any idea which one is true.


And sorry, but saying a racial slur in a joke/in your home/not using it to insult or attack someone isn't worthy of 'consequences'. Who gives a shit. Even if she's an ignorant bigot, she's not hurtful. The fact that this is what the media is focusing on is the problem and the main issue with society in general.

[Deleted]

If the TLR is racist jokes in the work place, then yes, she deserves to be out of a job.

I love a sick joke as much as the next guy, but it's common sense not to bring it to the work place.

[oxymoronic]

Actions have consequences

Most of believe that action should hold no consequences. That is like saying the hate you receive for being gay is okay cause its just a consequence of being gay.

[Hogmanlolz]

Nigger ! oh no im going to be fired lol

Infracted. Post constructively.

[PACOX]

I guess I don't understand why whenever a famous person makes the same mistake, the issue has new life breathed back into it.

Racism isn't cool. People tend to not like associating with racists. Case closed. What's there to talk about?

A lot of people in the limelight feel like they are holier than thou and have weak people skills outside of whatever it is that makes them famous.

Exhibit A: According to the quotes in the OP, Paula Deen lacks a certain degree of empathy.