June 22, 2013
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Who's Next? Don Rickles?
I hope not. At the moment, I'm furious at what's happening to Paula Deen. I don't know which scandal mag dug it up, but apparently years ago she did or said something that was offensive to somebody or other, and now she's being kicked off The Food Network, forced to humble herself with lame apologies, and I'm pissed.
This apparently started when a disgruntled former employee sued Deen for discrimination and some asshole lawyer asked her questions in a deposition that couldn't be answered honestly without admitting that at some time in the possibly distant past, she had uttered the N word.
Who hasn't?
I'm not the world's biggest Paula Deen fan, and I've already admitted that her apologies seem lame and repeated attempts to say publicly that she's sorry are only making matters worse. But I don't like what she's going through.
The term "politically incorrect" wasn't invented (in its modern sense) until 1970, at which time I was 30 years old. So if I had to answer questions in a deposition, and I grew up in the south, I wonder how I'd fare.
Here's my favorite definition of "politically incorrect."
Saying whatever you god-damn wanna say, and expressing your opinions, and not giving a shit if a spineless minority deems it "offensive".I'm reminded of an interesting episode from CGP, the Scrabble mailing list I subscribe to. Some idiot once smirkily asked, "Has anyone ever played [the N word] against a black person?" All such terms are legal in tournament Scrabble. So, stupid idiots that they are, subscribers gleefully smirked back with all their tales -- playing "FATSO" against an obese person or playing this or that against him or her. You know what I mean.
But I said it was an interesting episode. And it was. There was a black fellow I'll call X, who frequently used colorful language, including the F word and so forth and so forth, and some prudish little old lady scolded him for what the rest of us tolerated because, hell, it was just X being himself.
But this scolding came AFTER a smirking player I'll call Y had spelled out the N word in one of his stories in response to the thread started by the original smirker who asked for stories.
Well, X erupted with a tirade so offensive his posts had to be suspended by the list moderator.
I was a little confused by the excessive anger that had caused the tirade, and I wrote X a letter asking him "Wha happened?" And I said I knew all about the stupid stories repeating the N word and did that have anything to do with it?
X answered me by saying, "You said 'the N word.' What did Y say?"
That was when I got it.
So big deal. Paula Deen once spelled out the N word a million years ago. Oh, I'm sure she's done worse than that, but I still think that the public relations nightmare she's living is undeserved.
Too bad her multiple apologies have sounded so lame.
Comments (12)
Love your definition of "politically incorrect!" I believe that until we were about 30 the word N**** (a 5-letter word) was the correct appellation, incorrect only in it's 6-letter version. I'm sure Paula Deen is about our age (I turned 30 at the end of 1970), and I'm sure she used both terms as was the custom in those days. I completely agree with your assessment here of her "misdeed". It seems we should have more important things to worry about!
I love me some Rickles.
PC is a growing problem in education... to the point where teachers are just avoiding "touchy" subjects altogether. I'm relatively sure that isn't what the civil rights movement was all about. I'm just a believer that people need to be mature enough to be able to judge intent behind words. As someone with a passing familiarity with writing, it would not take me very long at all to string together a few sentences that are scary, threatening, and don't use a single bit of "condemned" language. On the other hand, I know a number of people who can write absolutely hilarious jokes using all sorts of foul diction... and bring laughter to the world while doing so.
People need to stop being afraid of a sequence of letters, and be afraid of meaning. A word, ANY word, should not be hated or feared or claimed to be representative of ANYTHING. Be scared of the actual thing, not the word that represents it.
At first I was afraid Bob Newhart had died.
I saw something about this. Now I know what it's about. It seems to me the point of something being politically incorrect, that it is potentially hurtful language, is lost in this kind of a (from the details I have gathered here) witch hunt. If we truly care about wrongful injury, we ought to object to it in all of its variations.
I am not a fan of Paula Deen. Forget about the N-word. Do you know she is a figure of ridicule throughout the world? The Taiwanese made a clever video about her refusal to meet with the dying kid who wrote her a fan letter. John Oliver made a hilarious story about her type-II diabetes and deep fried macaroni and cheese. She should have been booted off the food channel years ago - y'all.
I had not heard about this...
Oh hell... just say it.
Negro.
Nigger.
Throw in honky, cracker and spic while you're at it.
If you're going to complain about being p.c. (which is a good thing to gripe about) then don't fall into the trap. If someone will give you crap for saying the word in the text of talking about the incident (not actually calling a black person a nigger, just using the word you're talking about, like I just did right there) then they're idiots. Bowing to them by not even spelling the word out is the height of stupidity.
Nigger. Negro. Spic. Chink. Honky. Cracker. Wetback. Those are all JUST WORDS.
@Ghillies_guide - I take your point. Nevertheless, I claim the right not to spell out the N word if I don't want to. If I thought there was any doubt about what I was talking about, that would be a different matter. I didn't spell out the F word, either, when I was talking about Marlon, whose name I chose not to spell out in the blog entry itself. Again, my choice.
I was not "bowing to them," as you say I was. I was adhering to principles to which I hold fast. I actually do spell out fuck occasionally, when I'm in the mood or when it seems appropriate. I can't imagine any circumstance in which there would be any point in spelling out the N word, even though by not doing so, I risk offending YOU. In other words, I can't imagine any circumstance in which my audience would not know what I was talking about.
I DO agree with you that anyone who would give me crap for spelling out the N word deserves to be called an idiot. Moreover, even though I feel that you gave me crap for NOT spelling it out, I am not inclined to call YOU an idiot.
But if you reply disrespectfully to this comment, I might well change my inclination.
Wow.
Offend me? No ma'am, you didn't and you couldn't.
My point was not that your not spelling it out was an offense, not was it that I insisted you did, against your personal desires.
My point was that it's inconsistent to complain about the of being p.c.while simultaneously refusing to actually say the words, in an informative context. I wasn't even directly saying that's what you were doing. I was using rhetoric.
You misunderstood, and that's okay, it happens. I do find comical your "threat" to think me an idiot, though, given that your reply was somewhat terse, and even hostile, had I replied in kind.
.
Adieu.
@Ghillies_guide - Perhaps we both misunderstood. I was claiming the right to be inconsistent. Certainly, I note the irony involved here. And since my "threat" was meant to be comical, or at least light-hearted, and perhaps hostile, but in the most gentle of ways, I'm declining to take any further offense. (It was just the "bowing to them" that offended me in the first place.)
Peace.
As a personality, I do not care for Paula Deen at all! However, I think this whole deal with her is not fair at all, either. I think it is ridiculous. She answered honestly as far as I can tell when asked if she had ever used the "N" word. Did she use it in public? No! What was the context of the use of the word? As I understand it, as a young woman, she was working at a bank years ago when a black man robbed it. He had put a gun to her head! When she got home -- in the privacy of her own home - she did use the "N" word in relating what had happened to her husband. This woman grew up in the culture of the south during days when those of dark color were generally disrespected. I can see how she would be very upset by her experience and use that disrespectful word in telling her husband what she experienced. This was way before she became a "celebrity", and because of the "context", I don't think it should be blown up the way it is now. The diabetes issue and her status as a cooking and food maven is another story. Oh, yeah, you can call me a "kraut" and I won't get upset. I've called m'self that. But there were times in our history when I would not have wanted to refer to my ancestry in any way. Part of my family changed their last name because of it. ~~Blessings 'n Cheers
I love Paula Deen and always have. That she used what is now considered an evil word doesn't surprise me -- nor does it make her a racist. People her age used those words with little thought to the meaning -- they were just descriptive terms to delineate a particular subset of the population. That another set used the same words in a derogatory fashion doesn't change things -- the original set, including Paula, were not racist and would be in a severe state of shock to be thought as such.
I agree, this crucifixion of Ms. Deen is undeserved and unwarranted. I will still love her and will follow her anywhere.
@JVRCisMe - Thanks for the agreement. Even my beloved Eugene Robinson is dumping on her, but I stand my what I've said.
My LJ link is:
http://twoberry_bob.livejournal.com/
And my WP link is:
http://twoberry.wordpress.com/
I just tried them and they work. It's still frustrating learning how to navigate those sites. Even just finding my own entries is a headache. I tried to post something privately tother day, and it seemed to work in on place (LJ, I think), and not tother (WP, I think). But I can't find the private entry anywhere. Except at Xanga. Which is going away. Unless I fork over $48 a year, which I'm not going to do. If they paid ME $48 a year, I'd consider it.
The further I dig into this, the surer I am that I'm through with blogging.
Email me at
twoberry at comcast dot net
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