Paula Deen - "I is What I is and I'm not Changing"

I was a huge supporter of Paula Deen’s. I have visited her restaurant in Tunica, Ms and use to visit her restaurant in Joilet, IL several times a year. I live in Chicago and it is a nice little drive to get to Joilet but I really liked the food and loved Paula Deen’s personality.

This is until I found out that Paula has referred to African-Americans as “N-Words” and that she thinks that a slave theme wedding is a wonderful idea. From the deposition I read, she also welcomes offensive jokes about racism, gays, and Jewish people in her home because according to her she can’t determine what offends people. It’s very easy to find out what offends people. Just about anything negative towards a particular group would offend people.

I feel that her supporters don’t even understand why African-Americans are upset but I also noticed that not just African-Americans are upset. The N-word is bad but I like to think that most African-Americans can forgive someone for uttering those hateful words 30 years ago. However, what is hard to forgive is someone that doesn’t think they did wrong. Someone who doesn’t realize that slavery is an extremely hurtful period in the history of African-Americans. That’s not a period where we think about the glory days! We don’t say let’s go back to pre-civil war days where we worked in the fields from sun up to sun down, where we did not earn a penny, where our women was forced to sleep with the Master’s, where we didn’t have the right to vote and we were considered as property. Nobody of African-American descent says that. We don’t say that because it was not a glorious time but it was a painful time!

I applaud Harrah’s Casino for stripping her name off their restaurants, Wal-Mart for discontinuing her products, Smithfield Hams for no longer doing business with her, and the Food Network for not renewing a contract with her.

I’m calling on Target, QVC, and any other business that is associated with Paula Deen to disassociate with her.

In her words: “I is what I is and I’m not changing” – Paula Deen