Last week during a trial about a lawsuit brought against her brother and her by a former employee alleging discrimination, celebrity chef Paula Deen was asked under oath if she had ever used the "N" word when referring to African Americans. She answered truthfully that she had.
Things went downhill from there for Deen, who went on to reveal some other questionable attitudes, with crazy talk of her penchant for things like plantation weddings. This all led to networks lining up to cancel her shows, stores dropping her products, and her publisher dropping production of her upcoming book.
Mr. Rip and I recently watched “Shut Up and Sing,” a documentary about the now infamous incident in March of 2003 when Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said she was “ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas,” (her home state) from the stage at a concert In London.
Things went downhill from there for the Dixie Chicks, one of the most popular country bands in America at the time. Country stations stopped carrying their songs, they had to cancel concerts, Toby Keith decided to take it upon himself to denigrate them in his concerts, and they received death threats.
I don’t know that much about Paula Deen. I don’t watch her shows, or buy her books. I didn’t know that much about the Dixie Chicks. I’m not really a country music fan.
Personally, I think that language can be powerful, dangerous, and polarizing, and we should all take care in the language we use especially when that language is aimed at people. To use clearly offensive language when referring any group of people is never okay.
However, I do believe in freedom of speech which is not for nothing a protected right in the U.S. Constitution. In general, you should be able to say anything you want, as long as you don't act in such a way that is unlawful or discriminatory. Also, in America we have the right to disagree with our leaders openly and vehemently.
Freedom of speech has always had some limits. You cannot slander someone else, and you cannot incite others to commit a crime, for example. Therefore, criticizing the president is okay; making death threats against the president or those who criticize him or her is not.
I will let the courts decide if Paula Deen was guilty of discrimination in running her business, but I cannot agree with taking away her livelihood because of something she said. As far as I know, the Dixie Chicks just expressed an opinion; no one accused them of doing anything that was unlawful.
It is a dangerous place to go when we start censoring words, ideas and opinions. If a consumer decides not to patronize a particular celebrity or artist because of their politics or opinions, then that is his or her choice. But they should make this choice; the choice should not be made for them.
In honor of Independence Day which we celebrate this week, let’s let Freedom of Speech ring throughout the land.
While I think that both the Paula Deen and Dixie Chick situations are glaring examples of ridiculous overreaction, there is one distinct difference. The Dixie Chick comment was current; Paula Deen was admitting to something she had said in the distant past.
ReplyDeleteIf every 60+ year old person was held to account for every statement he/she had ever uttered, then this would be a pathetic society indeed. People should be more outraged by the reaction to these people than they should be by the original statements.
Agreed. You can't go back and "unsay" something.
DeleteThere are several differences here. I agree that it is hard to go after someone for comments/behavior from years ago, which you hope are old and no longer present attitudes. However, the various companies are paying Paula millions of dollars to represent them and/or sell their products, so I can understand them not wanting to be associated with black waiters dressed as slaves or some of the comments supposedly made. If these things were not considered by most people to be so offensive, Paula probably could have apologized her way out of this issue.
ReplyDeleteThe Dixie Chicks, actually Natalie Maines, was simply expressing her feelings about a fellow Texan getting us into a war she disagreed with, which is still creating tragedies for families all these years later. The stations who chose not to play the Chicks' music were not necessarily losing out and it became a patriotic bandwagon thing and ratings boost to slam the girls. Of course, as time passed and everyone became disgusted with the war, the girls became somewhat heroes again, winning multiple Grammys,etc. Perhaps time will help Paula, though I hope we never get back to a day where the majority sees those comments as ok.
I absolutely do NOT find the words Paula Deen expressed or her sentiments to be okay or acceptable, and I honestly don't think that we will ever go back to a day where the majority thinks they are.
DeleteAs for Natalie Maines, I think that many people agreed with what she said at the time that she said it.
My point is in a free society we should be able to express our beliefs, no matter who agrees or disagrees with them.
Personally, I could never stand Howard Stern's radio station. I disagreed with what he believed and how he expressed it. So, I did not listen to the show, but never advocated for his removal from the air, because obviously he had many faithful listeners.
I use "N" words all the time to describe my friends of color:
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Neighbors
Noble
Normal
Notable
On the other hand, we are all intelligent people and should be smart enough to realize that Paula Deen is being made an example of by commercial interests who have nothing other than their bottom line at the root of their actions.
Tune-in to some hip-hop music on the radio and you will hear the same word used over and over by black artists who use the same word over-and-over. You will also hear the same artists using denigrating language to describe other ethnic groups, women and each other.
When I was a child, I used the f word (to be more specific, the 'fa' word) quite a bit, and I was called that word by others probably much more than I used it. It was the go to playground insult in those days, and nobody really knew what it meant. Now that I do know, I'm not proud of it and will certainly never use that word again. If I was famous, I would hope I would not be removed from my platform over something like that.
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