RACIAL BIAS, ANTI-SEMITISM, AND HOMOPHOBIA

I only first heard about the chef Paula Deen about a month ago when Mika Brzezinski told how unhealthy her recipes are.  Shortly thereafter Deen and her brother were sued by a (white) woman, Lisa Jackson, who had managed their restaurant over how they treat their employees.  Somehow, Deen’s behavior regarding Blacks in her deposition dominated the news for awhile.  She lost her TV show and some sponsors over this.  Some people have a lot of sympathy for her,* but not me.  She wanted to become a celebrity and then it turns out she couldn’t handle it.  She is a public relations disaster.

Some say that Deen's "slips of the tongue or actions" were long ago, but Lisa Jackson says the N-word has nothing to do with the law suit.**  Ms. Charles, Deen's cook of 22 yrs, also tells a different story:*** “I’m not trying to portray that she is a bad person,” she said. “I’m just trying to put my story out there that she didn’t treat me fairly and I was her soul sister.”**  The columnist Robert M. Levy* shows his sympathy for Paula Deen by using an analogy from "Back To The Future" where George McFly was bullied by his acquaintance Biff, "Biff used George to do Biff’s homework. He then shoved George out of the way when he had served Biff’s purpose."  Mr. Levy uses Paula Deen to be George and Biff being the "elite clique."  It seems more likely that Deen's cook was George and Paula was the elite clique.

Well as far as I am concerned Deen can cry all the way to the bank.  Last year her reported earnings were about 8 times more in one year than I earned in a 35 yr paid career, and most people would say I have had a good life.  Deen's recent recipe book became a best seller at least partly because of her notoriety.  I'm sure Paula Deen will come out of this all right.  With so many TV stations, I'm sure she can find one willing to handle her show, if that is what she wants, and, if nothing else, she can put one on the internet.  As for the law suit against Paula Deen and her brother, I am happy to let the courts decide.

But Deen is not the sole purpose of Mr. Levy's article. He goes on to say, "For instance, Paula went to (Jessie) Jackson to ask forgiveness for her use of a racial slur decades earlier, or about the same time Jackson was referring to New York in an anti-Semitic rant as “Hymie Town [1984].” Yet Jackson was noncommittal about forgiving her."  Mr. Levy then follows this comment up with "When liberal actor Alec Baldwin ranted against a reporter in homophobic terms so vile [2013] that it was eclipsed only by a tape recording in which he called his child a “pig,” there was not even a ripple of anger by the credit card company he endorsed."  And Mr. Levy is hardly alone on this point.  See the article by Patrick Strudwick in The Guardian.com.*

Mr. Levy's real point, I believe, is that Paula Deen said some bad things about Blacks and paid a heavy price whereas Jessie Jackson and Alec Baldwin said at least as offensive things about Jew's and gays and have paid no price.  I sympathize with Mr. Levy on this point.  I have long admired Jews for their ability to motivate their children into careers such as law and medicine and to become prominent in other fields such as science and the arts.  Let us hope that anti-Semitic statements like those of Jessie Jackson are a thing long in the past in this country, but they still seem to lurk just below the surface in some (many?) people.  Enlightened views on homosexuals, who have also contributed greatly to this country, are more recent, but slurs in 2013 are certainly just as regrettable.

* http://www.thepilot.com/opinion/article_36645ac0-eaf8-11e2-a7d0-001a4bcf6878.html  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/28/hollywood-alec-baldwin-gay-slur?guni=Article:in%20body%20link
** http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paula-deens-accuser-breaks-silence-578605  "Jackson, a former manager at Deen’s restaurants in Savannah, Ga., has accused the TV chef and her brother of committing multiple acts of violence, discrimination and racism that resulted in the end of her five-year employment with them. Deen’s lawyer has called the allegations false."
*** http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/opinion/the-soul-sisters-in-the-kitchen.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130730