Paula Deen mini rant

[Don Coyote]

Just an FYI, Paula Deen did more than just say "nigger" 25 years ago. There was that whole thinking it was a good idea to 1) have a southern plantation themed wedding with all the blacks dressed like house-slaves, and 2) say that they were going to be dressed like house slaves, or the whole her and her brother owning businesses with conditions hostile to minorities and women workers.
But no lets get outraged over a black man not getting fired by his record label for doing something that you find objectionable and make excuses for a racist white woman.

Or Kill Me

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

FUCK Paula Deen..

[The Johnny]

How can you say that!? Look at her! Poor thing! She's obviously sorry!

[Left]

How can you say that!? Look at her! Poor thing! She's obviously sorry!

[Golden Applesauce]

I'm still not clear on who Paula Deen is or why we care about her, but whatever the scandal was caused somebody to write this thing and I learned some stuff about racism and okra:

http://afroculinaria.com/2013/06/25/an-open-letter-to-paula-deen/

...

Problem two...I want you to understand that I am probably more angry about the cloud of smoke this fiasco has created for other issues surrounding race and Southern food.  To be real, you using the word "nigger" a few times in the past does nothing to destroy my world.  It may make me sigh for a few minutes in resentment and resignation, but I'm not shocked or wounded.  No victim here.  Systemic racism in the world of Southern food and public discourse not your past epithets are what really piss me off.  There is so much press and so much activity around Southern food and yet the diversity of people of color engaged in this art form and telling and teaching its history and giving it a future are often passed up or disregarded.  Gentrification in our cities, the lack of attention to Southern food deserts often inhabited by the non-elites that aren't spoken about, the ignorance and ignoring of voices beyond a few token Black cooks/chefs or being called on to speak to our issues as an afterthought is what gets me mad. In the world of Southern food, we are lacking a diversity of voices and that does not just mean Black people—or Black perspectives!  We are surrounded by culinary injustice where some Southerners take credit for things that enslaved Africans and their descendants played key roles in innovating.  Barbecue, in my lifetime, may go the way of the Blues and the banjo....a relic of our culture that whisps away.  That tragedy rooted in the unwillingness to give African American barbecue masters and other cooks an equal chance at the platform is far more galling than you saying "nigger," in childhood ignorance or emotional rage or social whimsy.

Culinary injustice is what you get where you go to plantation museums and enslaved Blacks are not even talked about, but called servants.  We are invisible.  Visitors come from all over to marvel at the architecture and wallpaper and windowpanes but forget the fact that many of those houses were built by enslaved African Americans or that the food that those plantations were renowned for came from Black men and Black women truly slaving away in the detached kitchens.  Imagine how I, a culinary historian and living history interpreter feel during some of these tours where my ancestors are literally annihilated and whisked away to the corners of those rooms, dying multiple deaths of anonymity and cultural amnesia.  I'm so tired of reading about how "okra" is an "African word."(For land's sake ya know "apple" isn't a "European word..." its an English word that comes from German like okra comes from Igbo and Twi!) I am so tired of seeing people of African descent relegated to the tertiary status when even your pal Alton Brown has said, it was enslaved Black people cooking the food.  Culinary injustice is the annihilation of our food voices—past, present and foreseeable future—and nobody will talk about that like they are talking about you and the "n word." For shame.

...

[Left]

I'm still not clear on who Paula Deen is or why we care about her, but whatever the scandal was caused somebody to write this thing and I learned some stuff about racism and okra:

http://afroculinaria.com/2013/06/25/an-open-letter-to-paula-deen/

  Barbecue, in my lifetime, may go the way of the Blues and the banjo....a relic of our culture that whisps away. ...

Barbecue going AWAY???
...I can see this woman has never had the pleasure (or horror) to witness the Houston Livestock Show Cook-off.  It's a Yearly Ritual Of Meat.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I'm still not clear on who Paula Deen is or why we care about her, but whatever the scandal was caused somebody to write this thing and I learned some stuff about racism and okra:

http://afroculinaria.com/2013/06/25/an-open-letter-to-paula-deen/

...

Problem two...I want you to understand that I am probably more angry about the cloud of smoke this fiasco has created for other issues surrounding race and Southern food.  To be real, you using the word "nigger" a few times in the past does nothing to destroy my world.  It may make me sigh for a few minutes in resentment and resignation, but I'm not shocked or wounded.  No victim here.  Systemic racism in the world of Southern food and public discourse not your past epithets are what really piss me off.  There is so much press and so much activity around Southern food and yet the diversity of people of color engaged in this art form and telling and teaching its history and giving it a future are often passed up or disregarded.  Gentrification in our cities, the lack of attention to Southern food deserts often inhabited by the non-elites that aren't spoken about, the ignorance and ignoring of voices beyond a few token Black cooks/chefs or being called on to speak to our issues as an afterthought is what gets me mad. In the world of Southern food, we are lacking a diversity of voices and that does not just mean Black people—or Black perspectives!  We are surrounded by culinary injustice where some Southerners take credit for things that enslaved Africans and their descendants played key roles in innovating.  Barbecue, in my lifetime, may go the way of the Blues and the banjo....a relic of our culture that whisps away.  That tragedy rooted in the unwillingness to give African American barbecue masters and other cooks an equal chance at the platform is far more galling than you saying "nigger," in childhood ignorance or emotional rage or social whimsy.

Culinary injustice is what you get where you go to plantation museums and enslaved Blacks are not even talked about, but called servants.  We are invisible.  Visitors come from all over to marvel at the architecture and wallpaper and windowpanes but forget the fact that many of those houses were built by enslaved African Americans or that the food that those plantations were renowned for came from Black men and Black women truly slaving away in the detached kitchens.  Imagine how I, a culinary historian and living history interpreter feel during some of these tours where my ancestors are literally annihilated and whisked away to the corners of those rooms, dying multiple deaths of anonymity and cultural amnesia.  I'm so tired of reading about how "okra" is an "African word."(For land's sake ya know "apple" isn't a "European word..." its an English word that comes from German like okra comes from Igbo and Twi!) I am so tired of seeing people of African descent relegated to the tertiary status when even your pal Alton Brown has said, it was enslaved Black people cooking the food.  Culinary injustice is the annihilation of our food voices—past, present and foreseeable future—and nobody will talk about that like they are talking about you and the "n word." For shame.

...

I think that is a very positive view of the situation. The author seems to be focused on a realistic perception of the world and how to improve, rather than punish.

(Faith in Some bits of Humanity +1)

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Paula Deen is just the tip of the iceberg steaming mountain of stupid shit, I agree.