Friday, June 28, 2013

PAULA DEAN: WHY DON'T WE JUST SHUT UP AND GET REAL?

Paula Dean

Ok, I don't much care for her personality nor her recipes - though some are tasty (on the odd occasion) - and she murders the English language (and seems to be proud that she does) - and I know for a fact that she can be very unpleasant in person (but who of us can't be?)
Being almost 70 and having been raised not 75 miles away from Paula (and 10 miles from Honey Boo-Boo) I grew up in the segregated south, I was taught that Martin Luther King was a communist dupe of the Soviet Union (ridiculous), I was taught that a black person was beneath me (preposterous).  Even my beloved mother (born in 1912) said to me, "No black woman is a lady" (Mama never met Lena Horne or Leontyne Price as I did).  And I certainly grew up using THAT WORD as a child.  But when I got out of town I realized that word was hateful and I stopped using it.
My point is: I used that word just as much as did Paula and I have told and laughed at just as many absolutely racist jokes in my time.   I got wise and now I don't do those things, and I'm not certain Paula does either.
I feel Paula DID try to make money on the backs of diabetics.  And yesterday morning when, on the Today Show, she said, "I is what I is" - that's just proof that she is unfeeling and has a loose tongue.
BUT (and here's the big one)  I feel Paul Dean has gotten a rotten deal from all her sponsors.  I think she should have been told by the Food Network to clean up her act and stop using terrible English and making fun of people and be a little more open sensitive to everyone's feelings.  She should have been given a warning.
But, as it stands, Paula has replaced Tammy Faye Baker as a mascara'd weeping icon.  A media hog.
She will certainly turn up on another network, why?  Because SHE SELLS.

IF Paula were smart, she'd open a FREE SOUP KITCHEN in SAVANNAH and feed the poor - and call in the press to cover that.
"Keep her file active, she'll be back...."     

1 comment:

Rick said...

The only reason she ever caught my eye is that she looks so much like my 80 year old California madeover aunt.
I don't have cable so I've never seen her show and you know I've NEVER seen her get to finish a segment on a network tv show. She seems like a real hayseed. But...I can smell a good ole media lynching from a recliner away. I know that I would LOVE many of her recipes but I don't have any of her cookbooks and that's a good thing. I agree with you Richard that she'll be back and if not in as big a way so be it. She should have enough to retire.
If the media wants to tackle an empire why not do a story on the over 300 NFL players arrested since the first of this year?