Paula Deen was on The Today Show for an interview earlier this morning (which you can watch below) with Matt Lauer after she bailed on them last Friday. I’m going to cover this in the lower paragraph, but for now, let’s just jump straight to the B.S., shall we? Via Us Weekly …
“There’s been some hurtful lies told about me,” the Georgia native said after she admitted to previously using the N-word in a court deposition. “The main reason I am here today, Matt,” she began. “It’s important to me that I tell you and everyone out there what I believe and how I live my life. I believe that every creature on this earth . . . was created equal. No matter who you choose to go to bed at night with. No matter what church you go to pray. Everyone should be treated equal. That’s the way I was raised. That’s the way I live my life.”
In the last moments of the sitdown, Deen directly addressed the camera: “If there’s anyone out there that have never said something that they wish they could take back. If you’re out there please pick up that stone and throw it so hard at my head that it kills me. Please, I want to meet you. I is what I is, and I’m not changing.”
Oh, where to begin? Actually, let’s start with that violation of the English language at the end there: Racism is not a deeply-held facet of a human being’s nature. Racism is an act, or an idea. You can purge that out of your system and still be a functioning human being (a better one for that matter.) No one’s asking Paula to change herself, they’re just asking her to actually think about what she says and how she treats people.
Second, it’s not the fact that she said the N-word. It’s not a word I think people should use, but that’s not the crux of this situation. People are pissed because she participates in casual, systematic racism and she not only refuses to acknowledge or think about it, but when confronted about it, she shrugs her shoulders and goes, “welp, I’m from the South. That’s just how I am.” No it isn’t. It’s 2013. You can change and learn from this. You don’t get to stubbornly sit on systemic racism under the assumption that “it’s a Southern thing,” because there are plenty of non-racist southerners.
But mostly? I’m starting to not care more and more about this. Paula got rich by teaching people it’s okay to eat grossly unhealthy things fully aware of the fact that it had negative consequences (specifically: Type 2 Diabetes), and then only revealed those negative consequences afterwards when she had a business deal to fall back on. And now she’s being undone by her stubborn, backwards way. Whatever Paula. You have dug your own grave, now lie in it.