The old saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” is another important aspect of the Deen controversy that has not been discussed. Many of the companies who dropped Paula Deen seem to have forgotten their past indiscretions, where their employees were treated like a racial slur. No matter how you feel about the “N” word, I think it is time to stop the Perils of Paula. She doesn’t deserve it. I like Paula Deen, having interviewed her, but I truly appreciate her now. She owned up to her past, apologized and says she has changed with the times, and she does not condone the use of racial slurs. And to those of us passing judgment, black and white, we need to stop being hypocrites. We may not use the racial slurs publically, but have we thought them – particularly after jockeying for a parking space with a white woman driver, being passed over for a job that went to an Asian, or encountering a black person who acts “uppity”? Have you told jokes, forwarded emails about, or described other races, nationalities or religions with words found in the Racial Slur database? Start cringing. Words like bitch, camel jockey, chink, coon, fag, hymie, honkey, slut, trailer trash, wetback and wop, to name a very few. And those epithets translate to actions. My mama says, “Actions speak louder than words.” When you call a group out of their name, mentally or verbally, you remove their legitimacy, objectify them and then it is easy to deny equal opportunities. You disconnect and then discount them as human beings who deserve respect. Epithets really are an expression of stereotypes, prejudice, fear, misunderstanding, hatred and mostly ignorance. The old saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” is another important aspect of the Deen controversy that has not been discussed. Many of the companies who dropped Paula Deen seem to have forgotten their past indiscretions, where their employees were treated like a racial slur. Here’s what I found on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website. In alphabetical order, in 2007, Caesars Palace paid $850,000 to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit involving Hispanic female workers. Home Depot in 2004 settled a suit for $5.5 million involving its Colorado stores employees, who claimed a hostile work environment based on gender, race and national origin. Home Depot denied the allegations. In 2009,
MONICA KAUFMANN PEARSON IS ONE OF THE SOUTH'S MOST RESPECTED AND LEGENDARY JOURNALISTS. SHE IS UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO SHARE HER ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE ON THIS HIGHLY DEBATED STORY. J.C. Penney settled a race discrimination suit in New York for $50,000. And in Chicago, Sears, Roebuck and Company agreed to pay $6.2 million to resolve a class lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Smithfield Foods in 1997 was fined $12.6 million by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia because of violations of the Clean Water Act. In 2007, Target agreed to a race discrimination settlement of $510,000 involving two of its Wisconsin Stores. Walgreens denied allegations of race discrimination in 2007, but agreed to a proposed settlement of $20 million. And as for Wal-Mart, in 2011 in Dallas, it paid out $27,500 to settle a sexual harassment suit, and last year agreed to pay $70,000 to settle a religious discrimination suit involving a Mormon worker. So no company is perfect. Nobody is perfect. We all have a flawed past and, especially when you are famous, it catches up with you. That’s why I embrace two statements. The first is from the Bible, John 8:7: “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...” And the second is from Mama Hattie, “There but for the grace of God, go I.” SOUTHERN SEASONS MAGAZINE
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