The Paula Deen Mystery

Well, I'm going to have to do this post.  I wouldn't feel right if I didn't because I've written about all the important news as it happens to us through the years as a blogger.  It may not be the politically correct thing to do, and of course, there is always the possibility I'm wrong about nearly everything.  But I have to write about the fall from favor of Paula Deen.

I will say that I'm always loyal to the celebrities I prefer.  I usually defend  my favorites because I actually don't have very many.  It takes a lot for me to accept a celebrity as a person instead of just a name..  Naturally because of her hard won success and home values, I have loved Paula.  Due to Food Network's hard sell, we watched her get engaged, we traveled with her to Paris, and we cried when she was surprised by her family. We were cordially invited and attended her wedding, we watched her have Christmas, holidays, and we basically went with her on all kinds of vacations and adventures.

Then comes the shock of this week and the tears, trauma, and near total destruction of her world...  And any part of ours we had allowed her to enter.  I'm a hard sell when it comes to seeing a person the object of an onslaught of half truth, deliberate semantic wording, and obvious discrimination.  I was at first shocked, curious, a little indignant.  As more and more dropped her I became truly sad, confused, actually outraged.  Words do not make racists.  I have heard both sides, and I have investigated and read diatribes both in her favor and against her....

The truth is...  She admitted a part of her past, and then something sinister, wild, and unstoppable took the reins to make a statement.  Can one human being be culpable for all the racism, bitterness, and resentment of two races of Americans?  Unbelievably, it seems both white and black America are having a go at that.  More than 50 years have passed since the dissident 60's.  Of course, another hundred before that was the slavery....   I'm not black.  But I, myself, nor my parents or grandparents refused to serve a black person...  Nor did we hold slaves...  And I don't think I'm responsible for the past.   You know what?  Neither is Paula.

Parties have been held in all manner of theme...  We have Marie Antoinette on a pedestal these days.  Homes have been decorated in Antebellum style by myriads of homeowners...  Our Prom was Gone With the Wind...  Somewhere, unscathed, IS that restaurant with the infamous back staff....  But the news slant pierces her reputation with " slave theme parties".   I was recently reminded of all the other groups of people who were enslaved....  All these periods of slavery throughout recorded history are examples  of man's inhumanity to man.  

We romanticize the wars, the struggles, and the misfortunes of any eras..  Really, we are all here as a result of some distinct, merciful blessings mixed with some cursed, regrettable atrocities...  I would hate for the groups associated with the history behind my parties, plans, and conversations to judge me by one or two comments or fleeting thoughts.

Bottom line.  I don't know who or what ------ but something big is behind this.  Vulnerable due to her private family enterprise, not syndicated, not headed up by groups of shareholders, the Paula Deen enterprise was a sure target for a takeover of sorts...  A destruction...  And/or a message, a lesson to anyone who is alive today.

We fans can vainly point out the ironies...  Truly racist movies, books, CDs, and products sit on the shelves of all the corporations that have dumped her.  I'm to believe that no CEO or boss in the world EVER said that word...  I'm also supposed to fall into the belief that one word is more hurtful to the Black race than other words to other people ...

It's too much for my brain, but I continue to search for a hidden agenda, the secret conspiracy.  If something is just too bizarre to be true, it probably isn't.   This Paula Deen thing is NOT about a word uttered to her husband in her private kitchen 30! years ago...  It is not about a fleeting thought for a wedding reception.  What is it then?  Possibly money.  Maybe a lesson to her for some code of corporate marketing...  Maybe a slur to her age and gender...  Maybe a distraction for the real news...  All I can believe for sure....  It ain't all about a word and a discarded idea for a party...  It won't happen to the CEO of Coca-Cola, or Kraft, or even Martha Stewart....

I have been a teacher long enough to know bullying when it happens.  This whole debacle is bullying...  Discriminatory and just plain weirdly cruel.  I'm sad.  I'm Shocked....And I am so very curious.  I want to know who " they" are...  I'm not sure America can stand the truth.  But I'd love to expose it.