Okay...i've read all the posts, and all I have to say is that I liked her show, and have met Paula Deen. She really is a soft spoken woman who was very cordial.

BTW - i've heard the N used more often by people of color to insult each other.

Good riddance to her!

was reading comments on fb, including several posts from a/am's....so far the majority were dropping food network, not paula...
i'm sorry she did it but then someone someplace has used equally offensive language...you've never looked at an overweight person and thought "pig" lardo, ect? or when making a "good deal" and used the word for a race of people? i'm sure paula will survive and find another venue...

Had the pleasure of meeting her at a $50 a plate luncheon.
A delightful lunch and talk by her.

Also ate at her restaurant in Savannah, but wasn't impressed.

This post was edited by glenda_al on Fri, Jun 21, 13 at 23:19

If they drop her, I hope they drop all of the celebs who say racist words. Might not have any tv to watch though.

lindylu, how would you feel if you and your ancestors had been on the receiving end of the violence and discriminatory treatment that that word and your attitude represent?

Most people find views like hers repugnant. It's not a small deal, it's a big deal To say it's a matter of culture is horseplunk, I can think of two ex-presidents (Carter and Clinton) steeped in Southern culture, who would distance themselves from any comments like that.

One celeb, asked to comment on the incident, said "it just goes to show that money doesn't buy brains or class." Well said and good riddance.

We know Clinton is an upright fellow cause he didn't inhale or sleep with that woman. And I'm sure he never uses bad language either!
:/

No, all Southerners are NOT like that! We can't blame it on her age, either. I am a Southerner and I grew up in Mississippi in the fifties.In my opinion, Paula Deen is a racist and a hypocrite and I am happy to see her show cancelled!

This post was edited by mamatoad on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 3:15

I'm no Clinton fan, I was citing him as an example of a dirt poor southerner who had better upbringing than to think any segment of his fellow citizens and neighbors were inferior to any other.

So toni, who's your favorite philandering Republican? There's plenty to choose from in all parties and groups, that's for sure. Hypocrites come in all flavors.

As for inhaling, cussing and sleeping with women, you're making me blush.

Thank you mamatoad for speaking up. I've known many fair thinking southerners like you. And many northerners with outrageous prejudices too.

There are outtakes of Paula's show recently taken where she used the N word. Very recently. And brother Bubba showed pornography at the work place. Classy people.

Her youtube "apology " was soooo fake. The second one was read off a TelePrompter.

And the rumors fly faster than a SST. Lily, I seriously doubt the network would let her get by with using that word and it would never get passed the censors.

Some people have made very cruel remarks about PD. Why not just form a lynching party and run down to Georgia and do her in. Geesh!

Clinton was "dirt poor"? His mother was a nurse anesthestist (the profession I am proud to call my own) and I can tell he was not dirt poor. I am sure he said the "n" word at some time in the past.

I am not excusing PD's actions, but if black people can casually call each other "n"s, it's pretty hypocritical to think that white people can't. Until the word is stricken from the mouths of all, I find this whole attitude odd.

I myself do not use the word.

Yep that's closer to the truth.

I hope this post doesn't turn into a bashing of one another and get pulled. That wasn't the intent at all when I posted it. I just find it odd that she would get fired for saying something that isn't politically correct, when many, many other public figures have done the same.

40+ years ago, our Prime Minister at the time, Pierre Trudeau was "famous" for giving the finger to a group of protesters as he was driving by. That was all over the newspapers (with the finger blurry, of course). Instead of getting chastised he is *revered*.

Hubby lived in NC and TX for a number of years and he has told me that he frequently heard the offensive word being bantered about among blacks, and not in a derogatory fashion. They just called each other that.

I've never said it, and seldom hear it, and when I do, I just cringe and my ears close up tight.

PC is way way over the top. Everything from not wishing each other a Merry Christmas because it offends.

I've said things that I shouldn't have, at some point in the past, I'm sure we all have if we think about it. (At the top of my head I can't think of anything, but I had to, I'm far, far from perfect).
I just feel that if she gets fired, so should a lot of other public figures.

This post was edited by jasdip on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 8:52

Idiot PC police at it's finest. Seriously, you lose a job over that? With all the serious, frightening, threatening things happening in our country right now, this is what the news focuses on? Oh wait, we also hear about Kim and Kanye. No wonder our country is going to he!! in a handbasket.

I have never been a fan of Paula Deen, frankly I can't stand hearing her talk. But give me a d@mn break already with so many holier than thou judgments of her. I'll say now, if someone told me they NEVER used any kind of racial slur, well, let's just say I wouldn't believe them. I don't think anyone would.

This PC crap has gone entirely too far.

She lost her job at the Food Network because the Food Network knows that it would be hard to find companies who would sponsor her show.

ML

I find her voice and accent very annoying, like fingernails on a blackboard. Non-PC statements have killed many celebrity careers.

I am sick of political correctness too! Its like the "retarded" issue.When I was young the term WAS retarded,and I still use it,without thinkng.Back then it wasnt offensive,its the term the medical field used. Now I try to remember it is offensive to some,,but I certainly would never mean it to be. We also called Brazil nuts N____ toes as kids.We didnt even know it was wrong! Even if times have changed some of us older folks say things we heard as kids out of pure habit,and do not mean to be offensive in any way shape or form.I dont know all the details about Paula Deen but I wont judge her. I used the term for Brazil nuts and I am not racist in any way! Please cut people a little slack! AND why is it acceptable to use racial slurs and comments in sit coms??? They do it all the time.

I have never been to the deep south since I was a kid with my parents on vacation, so I don't know how much of this "talk' is common. I can honestly say I never heard a derogatory word in my house by my parents describing any group of people...Blacks, Italians , Asians, Jewish people. But saying that, I grew up in a town which was so white bread that I'm guessing it was 99.9% white . We had one black kid in my class and one Jewish boy, both good friends of mine. Even Catholics were scarce . They went to their own school, and I didn't know any personally. The Greek family who owned the town's hotdog restaurant was exotic to me because they had a last name a mile long.

So I had NO experience with other groups of people so when I went to the Jersey Shore on vacation, I was in awe of the different cultures. But all that said...when we played jump rope, we all said 'catch a N by his toes', and I also heard Brazil nuts called N toes. Never gave it a thought because I was an innocent six year old, not 66.

If you all think racism was limited only to blacks in the south then think again...racism extends to Mexicans throughout the US, Cubans. Puerto Ricans, Jewish...etc etc...Negros and Southern Whites are just the issue of the day...and frankly I think it wasn't just southern whites that used the N word...In the south, the N word wasn't always a slur word either...It was also associated with a person's name ...As in Negro Jim...etc etc..For some reason people seem to think the the use of the N word stopped at the Mason Dixon line and I beg to differ...it was well used throughout the US like it or not.

Paula Deens use has come back to bite her in the butt however I suspect that if the Food Network lined up every employee that had every used a racial slur and shot them, they wouldn't have any employees left....

My only complaint about Paula Deen was the image that she projected of the Southern woman. Instead of the sophisticated modern woman of the day she tried to portray they as this "hey Ya'll Yokell" and that is so far from the truth...

I would be willing to bet Paula Deen is already talking with other networks about a new show! And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turns out to be OWN!!

Like lindyluwho said, it's all about "so many people these days that want what someone else worked hard to get".
Shameful!

My grandparents came from the South. My parents were raised with that Southern influence. However, I never heard the N word one time in our home when I was growing up. What I did hear, was the N word on the school playground in the words to Ring around the Rosie. I would have been in deep trouble if I'd ever used the word, although no one had to tell me that.

I am not a hard core Paula fan, but I do feel sorry for her. I'm sure all of us have made some mistakes somewhere in our lives.

I still don't know how this was said, heard two different things already, so no opinion at this point. Her shows were not on the Food Network this morning as scheduled, so they have already pulled her shows, not just when the contract is up.

Paula Deen on the OWN Network? I don't think so. lol!

Boy those of you don't like the way she talks better not ever waste your time talking to this Southern girl.. I use hey yall and talk with a strong southern accent and I am quite proud of it. and I would hate to offend any of yall!
As for the use of that word...I hear it all the time, I drive a bus with black kids and they say it to each other..but let one of the white kids say it and its on.. When I was growing up you had N town and N toes and N chasers and even NGeorge...It was a common word then.
I personally don't use it,, don't like it and get onto the kids that say it. But I have ever said it. Yes i have and so has many other people.
I dont think she should lose her job over something she admitted to saying! She could have lied about it. But she chose to tell the truth.

I have read all of the posts and have agreed with parts of many of them. I am almost 68, grew up in the south in an integrated city until the schools were segregated in the 50's. Like others said, there was Ntown, Ntoe nuts, and N referred to them in general. I found a note, while in the presence of my grown children, that I wrote in 1960 from Nassau, Bahamas, in which I commented on how the only people on the island were Ns. I didn't remember writing it nor could my children believe I said it! The person I became just a few years after that letter was a far different one having matured and left the South which had also changed by then. But it certainly was never said where we lived in various military installations in different parts of the country, and it was probably never said there 5 years before when I wrote the letter. On the other hand, in southern Alabama where my late DH was from, he had an aunt who lived in the family home where she cared for a sister with cerebral palsy along with a black lady named Bertha. During a visit down there in the early 60's I noticed the absence of Bertha and when I asked about her the aunt said that she left in order to care for her own mother and she lovingly added, "She was the best old N that we ever had and I sure do miss her.". It was a different era and you just had to live in it to understand the evolution of it all.

I hate that I ever said it but, like Paula Deen, I would have to admit it. I think she is an isolated case among all celebrities and I would dare to say that many of our Southern politicians did say it before any of us knew not to. That is the true test of a person in this instance.... If we learned that it was derogatory, did we stop saying it and regret that we ever did.

socks - It wouldn't surprise me to see Paula team up with Oprah! Oprah needs some star power on her network and her & Paula had been buddies on her "old" show. I bet Oprah can see the financial value of having Paula on her network and would be willing to forgive and forget this incident!

One of my favorites that I have of her recipes:

Jambalaya
Ingredients
1/2 pound Smithfield Smoked Sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 1/2 cups water
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 beef bouillon cubes, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup long-grain rice
1/2 to 3/4 pound medium, fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined.
Steps
In a Dutch oven add water, tomatoes, tomato sauce. Add dry ingredients, smoked sausage and rice. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add shrimp and cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until shrimp are pink. You do not want to overcook the shrimp.

A tip from Paula: Never cook the shrimp before you add it to the jambalaya. You want all of the wonderful shrimp flavors to cook into your jambalaya and cooking it before would make the shrimp overcooked (rubbery). Shrimp cooks so quickly, it is best to add it at the last few minutes.

Oprah have a racist on her channel? Well, Juellie, I guess stranger things have happened!

Wonder if QVC is going to drop Paula Deen?

"Wonder if QVC is going to drop Paula Deen?"

They will never mention her again. After Princess Diana was killed, they stopped their hours with Harrod's Department Store in London (Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, was the son of the owner of Harrod's) and it vanished without a trace.Scandal is anathema to the shopping channels.

Dr Laura said it. She is still on the radio.

I was called it by my grand father-in-law... I was tan and had curly hair. He was a southern man and first met me at my wedding. He was not happy.....

I have some prejudices, myself.

I never liked her to start with, her recipes are overly fatty. I do think Food Network should have dropped her a year ago when it came out she was lying about having diabetes. talk about two faced LOL she has diabetes and is willfully hocking her diabetes causing recipes to everyone LOL! Her time is long gone, she is done! ~ liz

For all the bad you hear about her, here's a little balance. When she was younger and first married, she had a psychiatric illness known as "agoraphobia", literally fear of everything, fear of going outside. She became a shut-in recluse, a divorced single mother of 2 sons. She overcame her illness by opening a restaurant , writing several cookbooks and using her very over the top Southern (rich) recipes to become a TV chef .Her life has never been easy. My Dad always said you never know a person till you've walked a mile in their shoes.Since last week, she's begged for forgiveness. She's going to be on the morning TV news Wednesday. ..

This post was edited by jannie on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 8:57

I will say until the diabetes thing came out I did have a great respect for her (even though I do not like her food) because she did overcome a lot of huge obstacles and was self made. BUT that is now overshadowed by her deliberate lying and hiding the truth. I could even say she 'started' to get past that deceptive behavior by losing weight and admitting her downfall but definitely NOT now....now she gets no more chances and listening to callers on the radio this am on a middle of the road music show in Orlando she is most hated right now. Her people also handled this latest incident very poorly which reflects badly on her since they are employed by her essentially. ~ liz

She allegedly used this term years ago when a black man had a gun pointed at her head.

As someone said above, how about going easy on the harsh judgement until you have someone threatening to blow your brains out?

And for balance, Jaime Foxx said (recently) "I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?"

Which comment is more egregious? And yet what happened to Foxx?

Absolutely nothing.

actually in her depostion she said Deen: "I'm sure I have, but it's been a very long time." when asked if she had used the racial slur at any other time... many employees, co-workers and associates have come forward to say it was commonly used by her in work environments. I think by her lawyers saying she grew up in a "different day & time" is just their way of trying to stave off the severity of what she said, this was said during the deposition just before she said the quote I put above. ~ liz

It was in 2008 she wanted to plan a civil war wedding with little N..... boys in pure white shirts and short black pants serving guests...just like in slave times.

And not a rapper has said a bad thing about Caucasians, killing the police, doing your daughter or stealing. The double standard has caused me to realize, Americans are allowing one culture to do as they please because they feel bad about the distant past. I think Everyone should be held to a standard of respect for others. Nothing in my past , my parents or my grandparents has caused any harm to another culture. I do not expect that I will allow certain people to have lowered standards because a few of their ancestors were slaves. If Paula Dean can't ever say the N word, then no one should, without the same media attention she has gotten.
Lets bring to the KT, every celeb who has uttered the N word or any other cultural slam and we would be awash in posts.
I have no investments in PD at all. She is just being used as an example and crucified because she's a white old lady that makes some bucks. Would anyone dare condemn MnM or the many other rappers that so obviously say it on the songs they sell. So why the whoop on PD all of a sudden?

I hate the words black rappers use. Absolutely revolting and disgusting.

Smithfield Hams dropped Paula today.

Told ya: Rainbow/PUSH, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is now getting their nose into their own investigation.

Bet Jackson will be in Savannah soon and on the news!

Deen is white trash, I'm not sure what other word applies. I'm surprised there are so many of you who want to rationalize her actions and defend her.

Jackson is no more a representative of black people than is Deen a representative of white people. He's equally despicable but thankfully also irrelevant. Most people know and ignore his games.

Yes he is despicable but his face will still be all over the tv. I'm sure he will try to shake her down for a pay off so his organization won't be forced to bring any kind of action against her. Guaranteed, somebody is going to try to sue her over this.

What a load of bull.

No one has mentioned Al Sharpton. All tring to get press.

Snidely...I rarely hear the term you used. It's as ignorant as someone using the "opposite" term.

LOL, I just read the title of this thread and I thought for a moment that Paula has dropped by the Food Network for a visit!

The more power we give to these 'banned' words, the more we increase the race divide. The more we point out our differences, the more different we are. And the media is always willing to jump right in and stir the pot. Telling me I can't say or think a word makes it easier for me to say it and easier to think poorly of the people telling me I can't say it.

I find it hard to believe anyone would defend here. She is not some pumpkin that just fell off a truck. She has traveled the world, rubed elbows with the jet set and ran a successful business for many years. She was wrong and admitted it. There have been other celebrities fired for the same thing, though I don't know if I would have fired her without knowing everything that has gone on between she and the network. Who knows if this was a first offense or a long line of missteps that could have been the final straw. I personally watched few of her shows. Didn't like the food she prepared and didn't think she had a sincere bone in her body.

Gardnerwannabe, you reached over here and snatched those words right out of my keyboard! And you're right, next thing people will be ordered to give sworn testimony as to whether they've ever THOUGHT that word. I hadn't got that far in my thinking.

I've lived in the South my entire life and I assure everybody that the use of the n word was not acceptable in my home at any time. That would go back to before the '50s. It wasn't a big deal, it just wasn't acceptable and never spoken. That's just to clear things up for anybody who believes some great wave of enlightenment swept the South at some fairly recent time in history.

I think katlan and ruthie made excellent points. I so agree that we ourselves have given this particular word far more power than it deserves. I sincerely hope that those who are so self-righteous about the whole thing have never said or done anything that might have hurt anybody's feelings or offended anybody in any way, ever. And I'll add that there are regional accents in some parts of this country that I find unpleasant, even irritating, but darned if I'm going to get on here and point those out because I know that some of them just automatically go with some very nice people.

Much ado about not very much...

I don't need a network to drop somebody, I vote with my own choices of which shows I watch (or do not watch), books I buy (or don't buy), cookware I buy (or don't buy) - you get the picture.

I didn't mind her. Most of her recipes were not to my taste, but some other tv chefs don't appeal to me either.

Whether or not things were "okay" in the past, does not mean we should not know better NOW.

I don't support companies that have ideals and values different than mine. I don't need them pulled from the planet, but I would hope that others would do the same and eventaully they would die out from lack of sales.

Dances.