Paula Deen admitted to having used the ‘N’ word in her past and has lost her job and major endorsement deals with Walmart, Caesars, Smithfield Foods and others as a result. Yet the embattled food star swears she is not a racist. And we should at the very least, hear her out before we condemn her as one.
Deen appeared on the Today show Wednesday in an effort to explain her previous admission of using the foul word.
Deen told Matt Lauer: “It’s hard for me to even find the words. I was just overwhelmed, I was in a state of shock.” Deen added, “Let me say this: The main reason I’m here today, it’s important that I tell you and everyone out there how I live my life. I believe that every one of God’s creatures was created equal, no matter what church you go to pray. I believe that everyone should be treated equal, and that’s the way I was raised.
“I am here today because I want people to know who I am, and people that have worked beside me, have walked beside, know what kind of person I am,” she said.
Lauer then asked Deen the one question we all want answered: “Are you a racist?”
“No, I’m not,’ Deen answered.
Deen then went on to explain why she had used the “N” word in the past. She recalled being held at gunpoint by a black man back in 1986 and says that was the only time she used the derogatory term.
“The day I used that word, it was a world ago.” And then Deen turned the table on all of us who are judging her. “If there’s anyone out there that has never said something that they wish they could take back, then please pick up that stone and throw it at my head so hard it kills me…Hit me as hard as you can.”
Deen’s sons Jamie and Bobby Deen came to their mother’s defense Tuesday with Bobby telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo: “We were raised in a family with love and of faith and a house where God lived. And neither one of our parents ever taught us to be bigoted towards any other person for any reason and this is so saddening to me because our mother is one of the most compassionate, good-hearted, empathetic people that you’d ever meet.”
Jamie Deen the recalled his parents teaching him the story of his hero, baseball legend Hank Aaron. “They told me that he’s a man of character, and the challenges that he overcame because of his color was unacceptable.” He added, “This is a lesson that my mom and dad taught me when I was 7 years old, and it’s a lesson that I’ve carried throughout my life of inclusion and to treat everyone fairly and by their character and by their own merit. Under no circumstances should you ever judge anybody for any other reason.”