Paula Deen was fired from Food Network today after admitting, under oath, to using the n-word in the past.
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I am a food fan. I have also been a Food Network fan for many years and have thusly became a Paula Deen fan. You can look pretty dang hard and will be hard-pressed to find a person less racist than myself. I've never been one to like or dislike a person based on their color nor background... at least I've never tried to be. I have great white friends and great black friends. I've utilized white friends in different ministry scenarios and I've used black friends the same way. I have ministered to white, people, black people, and many other ethnicities. I have black people that I dislike and I have white people that I dislike. I have black athletes that I pull for and the same with white athletes. I have some favorite actors and actresses that are white and some that are black.
I try my best to see people for what they are at their foundation: humans. All of you know that this is who I am and who I try to be and who I try to raise my kids to be. My daughter, Kate, referred to her black friends as her "brown" friends until she was 7 or 8 because that was the best way for her mind to describe who they were.
I'm white. I'm okay with being referred to as a white guy if the need arises for someone to point me out in a crowd or describe me to someone. Because I am white.
"Deen and her brother are being sued by a former employee who claims she "worked in a hostile environment rife with innuendo and racial slurs," according to the AP." - Jennifer Brett, AJC
Deen admitted while being questioned in this deposition to using the n-word as a racial slur in the past but also acknowledged that it had been a very long time ago and assured the prosecution that neither her nor her family condone racism nor the use of hurtful words to describe people of any race.
I understand that Food Network is a business with an image to protect and anything short of firing Paula Deen would appear to support her past mistakes.
The fact that Food Network is being forced by society into this decision is nothing less than hogwash.
There isn't a person south of the Mason-Dixon Line that hasn't used the word "cracker", "nigger", or "wetback" to describe someone of a certain race or personality. At some point in the distant past, I have used all of these words and I've ignorantly used them to describe people in a hurtful way and I've ignorantly used them to describe people in a humorous way. I've been called a "cracker" and I've heard comedians across America use this word to describe white people for as long as I can remember.
But that's okay?
Understand that this is tough for me to write because to some it may look like "the white guy defending white people" but if you know my heart this is the furthest thing from my mind.
I want racism to end and fairness to win. My mama always told me "what's good for the goose is good for the gander"...
America has turned into a melting pot of whiny babies and our judicial system is nothing less than a horrible, pacifist mother raising all of us brats. Most white people don't care if racism ends, they just don't want to be called "crackers" by black people. Most black people don't care if racism ends, they just don't want to be called "niggers" by white people.
Racism is a nasty and distasteful part of America's personality, past and present.
My argument ends with this: Should we not applaud (or at least appreciate) an older southern white woman who grew up in segregated Savannah and who voluntarily admits to using racial slurs in the distant past but discourages using them now? Is this not what America wants?? Don't we want people to admit their faults, change their ways, and encourage others to do the same?
Lord, come quickly.
What are your thoughts?
