Enter
ultimate confessor. (Frankly, if
Deen’s “handlers” haven’t considered this option, then they are
probably not very good handlers.)
Regardless if my prediction
comes to pass or not, Deen will
ultimately find ironic solace in the
fact that everyone is mostly fixated on the fact that she has used
racially charged language. Let’s go
back to Rosenberg:
Deen’s accusers haven’t just
suggested that she used ugly
words. They’ve alleged that she
created a broadly discriminatory environment, and that she
asked them to work for free. An
investigation by the Rainbow/
PUSH Coalition into Deen’s employment practices suggest that
many workers in Deen’s businesses have had good experiences, but also that many of them
fear retaliation, and that some
feel there’s an environment of
racial discrimination in promotions and raises. Those allegations are significant and important, and deserve just as much
attention as Deen’s language.
But they’re also less shocking
and sexy, and less easy to dismiss as a somehow-forgivable
relic of the past than Deen’s use
LOOKING FORWARD
IN ANGST
HUFFINGTON
07.14.13
of ugly words or antiquated
sense of aesthetics.
Right now, the fact that we are
overly fixated on the “shocking
and sexy” part of l’affaire Paula
Deen is the best thing that Deen
has going for her. There is the sort
of racism that involves the casual
use of slurs, and then there is the
Right now, the fact that we
are overly fixated on the ‘shocking
and sexy’ part of l’affaire Paula
Deen is the best thing that Deen
has going for her.”
sort of racism that literally plucks
money from a person’s pocket,
and it’s too bad that the latter
version doesn’t shock us more.
Racism is not a naturally occurring condition. It is learned behavior, and for that reason, I think
that it’s proper to believe that
one can atone for it. But in Deen’s
case, atoning for the language still
leaves us with the workplace discrimination and the hostile work
environment and the wage theft!
We should remember that stuff,
and not let Deen dance
past it.