I have met Paula Deen. Thru my wife's work, I have been to meetings she conducted and had dinner with her. I liked her because she appeared genuine. It steams me something from her past, her distant past, is now used to beat her around the head.
I bet, if you dig enough, most elderly people have used the term. Hell, my 82 year old dad lets it slip, especially when it is true. it was commonplace when he was younger and he is in no way a racist. He believed in hard work and if you worked hard he sure didn't care what color you were......along with your religion or who the hell you slept with.....just don't bring it in the workplace.
This nation makes me sick.
That's the thing -- there are times when that is the word that fits because the subject has earned the contempt and disrespect it connotes, and no other will suffice.
As has been said, I'll be damned if I'll condemn anyone for using a word Blacks toss freely at one another yet fall into paroxysms of horror and opprobrium should it come from the lips of a White person,
even when used in a quote, for pete's sake! Here we are, grown adults, some of us old, and we're reduced to saying "the n-word", as though we're all children?! f**k that.
As for Paula Deen herself, I'm not overly familiar with her either and never watched her show. She came to my attention about this time last year when she announced she was diabetic and the ensuing stink it caused made the news. Questions and accusations -- hypocrite! -- flew because consensus is/was that her "unhealthy" cooking and diet is suspect in her condition. ::snort:: Apparently, the Presstitutes lost no time getting her main competition,
Anthony Bourdain to weigh (heh!) in and he's a catty little bitch.
Look, what are the chances Deen is an Obongo voter? I'd say slim to none. Maybe she donated to a Republican, if she's at all political, but she got on the wrong somebody's radar and we know how judgemental are the
special, tolerant people when it comes to perceived opposition to their "virtues", and anything they consider "unhealthy" -- in this case it's food fer crissake -- requires, deserves, broad and vocal defamation.