If you're one of the six people alive who hasn't heard about Paula Deen... you are a lucky bastard. It took forever for all the news stories to die down about how Paula Deen is a racist, she did this and that, all these companies dropped her, blah blah blah.
Then her knight in purple prose appeared!
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YFUp_MwKuCQ/VG7M-46m_SI/AAAAAAAAEY8/k8Qnp2nXEuE/s400/anne%2Brice.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z2TdGl2t-SE/VG7YQFEo4VI/AAAAAAAAEus/KwEHyO6Y6LM/s400/paula%2Bdeen.jpg
Wow, it's like they were separated at crazy-grin birth.
What's happening with Paula Dean? Is it fair?
Maybe. Maybe not. Who gets to decide?
But one thing I can say is that people who happily INTEGRATE their bigotry into their daily and professional life deserve the misery visited upon them. Not only are they bigots, but they are stupid enough to think they can get away with it, and arrogant enough to think that they SHOULD.
I never heard of her until today, and wow, this looks like a crucifixion.
"Yes, I regularly go onto facebook and post rants about people I've never even heard of. It gives me the objective self-righteousness to say everyone else sucks."
Also, if she's never even heard of Paula Deen, how does she know this isn't well-deserved? It's like coming online and declaring, "Hey, you guys are being too hard on that Woody Allen guy."
Opinions, thoughts welcome. Thanks to Troy Hawkins for the link.
And if you don't agree that people who criticize Paula Deen are meanie poopooheads, then I will disagree grandiosely with you all.
I may be wrong but aren't we becoming something of a lynch mob culture?
... wow.
If there is ONE thing you should never say in defense of an accused racist, it is "lynch mob." ESPECIALLY in the South.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xNEuRFsubn8/VG7y9dnRcYI/AAAAAAAAH3U/4cyFpMZLkCg/s400/lynching.jpg
Guess why.
And seriously, think about this. There are about five million ways to convey the sentiment without using the words "lynch mob." Coming from a Southern white woman who is defending another Southern white woman who is accused of using the N-word, segregating employees and hosting FUCKING PLANTATION PARTIES... that is like throwing a drink in the eyes of the people who have been offended. Except the drink is full of acid.
I don't think Rice meant for that to be offensive, but... let's just say that she might wanna consider using facebook or twitter. It allows too much unchecked diarrhea of the mouth.
Is this a good example of that? What are your feelings?
Write a short essay connecting this to the chapter we read last week. It will be on the midterms.
Well, people posted their feelings... and since they disagreed with Rice's take on the situation, she posted ANOTHER rant. Which, instead of being more muted, since she had now had time to digest the information... is even MORE bombastic.
I lived in the south where I was born, and it's almost impossible to describe to other people what really happens in cities like New Orleans and Atlanta.
Deep-fried Snickers! It's just so horrifying! You Yankees, Midwesterners, Westerners, Alaskans, Hawaiians and people of all other countries can't imagine how ghastly it all is!
They just don't get it.
Neither do you, darling. The words "white privilege" are stamped all over this blog. (Ugh, I have to get the taste of Tumblr out of my mouth)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-frJJ3daPNrQ/VHLc6TN8iuI/AAAAAAAAIaE/Zyh5PZd2LG8/s400/i%2Bthrew%2Bup.jpg
But all over this country I've encountered contempt for white southerners, hatred of them, disgust for them....a blind prejudice against them that is racism in its own way.
Yes, there is indeed a vile attitude that white Southerners are all racists achin' for the good ol' antebellum Gone with the Wind slaves-picking-cotton-in-the-fields days, which is not and never has been true.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that that sort of person does not exist in the South, and that it's racism to say that they do. It's like saying there are no overtanned shallow bimbos in Los Angeles, no backward yahoos in the middle of the Midwest, no trashy big-haired drawling brawling New Jerseyites... because there are. Those "types" all exist, but the regions that they live in have the ugly stereotypes attached to them.
ALSO, stop playing the "waaaaa, everyone is so MEAN to white Southerners! You're racist! You don't know how HARD we upper-middle-class white Southerners have it!" card. It's stupid. If mean stereotyping is your region's only problem, then you live an idyllic existence.
Finally, the American South has Florida, the most fucked-up state of the Union. Now THAT is something to whine about.
I'm frankly sick of it. This woman is just what you said.
... a racist?
She's an old southern lady,
Ah, so that's why Rice is defending her. See, Anne Rice may comment constantly about social issues, but she only really speaks out in defense of certain people when they are criticized. Like Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, E. L. James and Paula Deen.
Hmmm, I wonder what all those women have in common, besides being wealthy middle-aged white women, mostly from the South, much like Rice herself?
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and she never made these unwise remarks of hers to a black person.
Yeah, she only had race-segregated bathrooms in her restaurants, had a plantation wedding with all-black waiters who weren't allowed to interact with the white guests, referred to the PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING UNITED STATES with a racial epithet, allowed porn to be happily passed around at the restaurant, and other fun things.
But she would NEVER actually use the N-word to a black person's face! That means her racism is totally okay!
We have no evidence at all that she has ever personally insulted or injured any black employee or friend.
... except, you know, the testimony saying she did. Or does Rice just assume that the accuser was lying, because she's not as rich and cloyingly "Suthern" as Deen?
These remarks were made off hand in private to a white person who has sued her and spread these remarks all over the world.
It's not like the porn, the sexual assaults, the illegal workplace discrimination over race and gender are anything to be upset about! How dare that evil Lisa T. Jackson, who isn't even mentioned by name by Rice because she clearly isn't important because she's poor, be so mean as to sue her! Doesn't she know that off-hand private RACIST REMARKS are fine and dandy, and suing for years of a hostile workplace is a horrible thing to do?
It's all pretty damn ugly if you ask me.
Yes, it is. But not in the way that Rice thinks.
I feel sorry for Paula Deen.
She's so Southern! So white! So rich! She deserves our sympathy and pity!
It's so easy to persecute an older, overweight, unwise, crude, ignorant woman who may very well be a good person at heart who has achieved a great deal in her life.
.... wow. Give Anne Rice an award for that!
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-PNtJUOMJrTU/VG7xpOlCC4I/AAAAAAAAHmc/-S6Vrq2dQ3M/s400/Backhanded%2BCompliment.jpg
- So in one sentence, she referred to Deen as old, fat, dumb, crude and DID I MENTION DUMB.
- I might refer to Deen that way, but I like to be mean. I'm not trying to DEFEND her from criticism.
- Fun detail: Anne Rice is four years older than Deen. She may be "older," but not older than YOU, lady.
And really, this is the kind of snobbery you can expect from Anne Rice, who believes herself to be super-cultured and intelligent. Well, she is compared to Adam Sandler fans, but her idea of obscure esoteric texts and music... is pretty obvious.
So easy to vilify her and hate her and try to destroy her life. Woe to anyone today who is not slender, young, clever and politically correct.
- Woe to anyone today who is not like the protagonist of an Anne Rice novel!
- I hate to break it to you, Rice, but there are massive repercussions for ANY celebrity when certain bigotries are exposed. Tell me, why do you think Mel Gibson doesn't have a career anymore?
- Yes! Because he's racist, misogynist and anti-Semitic! All this was exposed, and he was revealed as someone that the public didn't like or want to support.
- Witty? Who cares.
- Young? No one cares.
- Slender? People don't care about that, so much as her shilling her artery-clogging recipes WHILE SECRETLY HAVING DIABETES.
- Nobody's trying to "destroy her life." We just refuse to support her.
- But we all know Rice is a big fan of free speech... except when she wants everyone with critical faculties to be forcibly silenced.
- And not being racist is not the same as being politically correct.
- The fact that Rice doesn't realize that it's not "political correctness" to see others as inferior and treat them like shit... really says a lot about her.
And here's a thought: maybe you shouldn't weigh in on issues of racism if you once wrote the line "Be my chocolate candy. I'm real unsure of my masculinity" without a hint of parody of condemnation.