Food Network has fired cook Paula Deen from her cooking show. She admitted to using the "N word" in the past and allegedly wanted to plan a wedding for her brother using "little niggers dressed up like slaves in white shirts, short pants and bow ties. That would make it a real southern traditional style wedding."

I watched her appearance on the Today Show this morning, and she cried buckets of crocodile tears. Anyone else see this? Your thoughts? Do you even care?

Personally, I really don't give a crap. Old habits die hard. While I threw a side-eye at Paula's performance this morning, crying, sobbing and sniveling with not ney tear, I do think that she really didn't mean to hurt anyone and she regrets what happened. She claimed that young people today are to blame for the cavalier attitude they display using the word in videos and music. "That word just makes my skin crawl every time I hear it!" Well, Paula. If that's the case, your skin should have crawled away and died by now. I respect her for owning up to the fact that she has used the word in the past, and I wouldn't doubt if she has used it recently, but I can't talk. Hell, I use it frequently my damn self in company of folk who understand the context.

I was going to say Paula needs to retire with her hubby and her multi-millions kick up her feet and enjoy her grandkids or whatever. But I saw this morning where her newest book is selling like hotcakes, so she'll have her own reality show here soon. As for the Food Network, they have plenty waiting in line to take her place, for southern, down home recipes you still have the Neelys, and Sunny, and I'm sure there's somebody else I haven't even seen.

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As far as the word, I dropped out of the debate when I saw a bunch of asian, and I mean asian not mixed, kids using with each other. At first I was stun, a little shocked, and then I realized what the heck can I say, they weren't using to demean anyone outside their group, it was a weird experience for me. Personally, within my circle and family it's not used, definitely not as a term of endearment, if it's used at all it's done in anger and meant to demean, well okay my play uncle use to call us little nigglets, but outside of that it wasn't used, even he used the word to negatively describe someone, just try using it with him, I think he'd try to knock you into next week. So, if someone came up to me using it just because they heard some comedian say it, they heard it in a song or they heard a bunch of loudmouth teens, I'd want to slap the taste out of their mouth because it's not a part of my world and for someone just to assume it is based on my chocolateyness would piss me off. I don't care what some comedian does to get paid, personally I don't use words like honky, cracker, jap, beaner, spic, dago or any such term, it's not part of my vocabulary, I don't want to hear it.

Uhope said:

Interesting thread here: http://prince.org/msg/105/398603

I'm sorry I didn't see this before I posted. I did a search, but came up empty. Anyway, that discussion is much better.