Paula Dean – Prejudice and Discrimination: Her Southern Culture of Fried Lies and Forced Tears
I have written about Paula Dean, her butter fixation, and her two sons in the food business before, but this time I am going to take a different approach with all of the recent Media coverage of her embarrassing interviews and despicable display of prejudice and discrimination.
Paula Dean is a southern girl, born and raised, with many of the cultural belief systems that have notoriously been discriminatory of blacks and other races. The hidden and blatant discrimination is exhibited in her family’s restaurant employment practices, in her choices of guests on her previous Food Network episodes, and in the way she pretends not to be a racist woman from the South with stories that dismiss the events that showed her true colors.
She poured on the fake tears and forced emotion when she was interviewed by Matt Lauer yesterday. She had the opportunity to describe and explain the exact circumstances and the specific situations that she needs to answer for when her brother, Bubba, behaved in a manner with their black employees at the restaurant in ways that are undeniably discriminatory against African Americans. She is dancing around the truth of the matter with stories of her childhood and examples of her behavior that don’t quite reflect her nature when it comes to interacting with Blacks or African Americans – you choose the term that you most identify with for people of color. Paula Dean has not only used the derogatory N word with employees and others, but shows discrimination in many ways. This is not an isolated incident. She is a liability to companies who want her to endorse their products.
Paula Dean: Matt Lauer Interview Filled with Forced Tears
This incident was not the first and I have observed on many occasions when she appeared on the Food Network that she is indeed a person who has prejudice in her blood and brain. She may not even be consciously aware of her feelings that we would classify as discrimination. More than anything, she is in denial. She was in denial when choosing not to disclose her medical condition of Diabetes while hawking food that is a causal factor in degenerative diseases with her Southern cooking style. Her fried lies don’t appeal to my appetite for honesty and integrity. She fries chicken and bake buttery pies, blends refined sugar with fruit and filling while betraying her body’s health for the sake of celebrity for cooking food that people must learn is detrimental to their health.
This is a double-edged sword which has returned to haunt her as she attempts to get out of her recent debacle with tears and Christian threats of casting stones. She is no Messiah figure who is pure white enough to question the right of reporters and employees to call a ‘spade a spade’. Is that analogy black enough for you? Is that reference white enough for you? OK, now that we got that out of the way. Let’s talk about sincerity. She is spewing insincere tears for the public watching Matt interview her. This is a childish and immature move that might be typical of a girl from the South, but it doesn’t fly with our cultural awareness about discrimination and prejudice in this day and age. Paula – we see through your facade!
I want to publicly commend the Food Network and the companies who have Paula promote their products and brands for withdrawing her contracts and the use of her celebrity for their corporate images and marketing campaigns. I wouldn’t buy anything with Paula’s name on it. I cannot, in good faith, support a person who promotes unhealthy food preparation methods and the consumption of foods that lead to Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, and other degenerative diseases. She is a walking nightmare of disinformation.
WalMart Ends Business Relationship with Paula Dean: The Intelligent and Responsible Choice
If you have to threaten your child with physical abuse of spanking to control their behavior, you know the parents and the child have a real problem. The internal attitude and belief system has to be monitored and regulated to control the behavior of a person who has grown up with prejudice and cultural attitudes about race, religion, and gender. It doesn’t come naturally for Paula Dean to be an ‘equal opportunity’ employer or hostess. She has tried to force sympathy for a single mom raising two sons, too. She has a bias of gender to add to the List. I have seen the way she treats different people when they are guests on her show. I am glad that I won’t have to waste a half hour of Food Network programming to wait for a better chef and hostess. I am glad to see all of the meager attempts to justify butter, refined sugar, and lard in her recipes. Even though she tries to support her son in switching her recipes to be healthier with better ingredients, she fails to realize that we have all been educated beyond those fried lies. Paula – good bye and good riddance!
