I was only vaguely aware of Paula Deen until recent events proved her to be a relic of the Old South who still likes to say "nigger" and various other less-than-pleasant holdovers from the Good ol Days. Granted, this is one of the few times when that segment of the commentariat who always rush to point out what appears to be at least plausibly racist MUST HAVE a plausible non-racist explanation will say "oh yeah, that's pretty racist." But then it invariably devolves into 'this shows how rare racism really is' and we're back to where we were before. For this reason, I hadn't really planned on writing anything until I read the TPM write-up of the affair, commenting on a part of her book:
In the book, Deen, who was born in 1947, frankly wrote about her youth in Albany, Ga., where she “never thought” about the fact she was living “in the mix of what was fixin’ to be a huge social change.”
“It was happening right under our noses: our local African-Americans were claimin’ their right for fair and equal treatment and some white folks were inspired to rethink old ways,” wrote Deen. “Still, I hardly noticed.”
Read more: http://blanksslate.blogspot.com/2013/06/quick-comment-on-paula-deen-mishigas.html
