Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Praising the "post racial" South.

I read an interesting article from Lee Habeeb who declared that Paula Deen is being persecuted against because she is Southern.

Habeeb argues that bigotry against the South is common among the elite media outlets, and that it has been on full display in the Paula Deen case.
 
"Over the years, my African-American friends... (we can't leave out the black friends) ...have shared with me stories of the senseless traffic stops they’ve endured for nothing more than driving while black. There’s an acronym for it: DWB. They admit it happens less than it used to, but it’s wrong, it’s bad, and Americans should not face a presumption of guilt for being who they are.
 
Which is why Paula Deen and the recent U.S. Supreme Court case involving the Voting Rights Act make for an interesting counterpoint. Both stories involve what’s perhaps the last socially acceptable form of bigotry left in America: bigotry against the South. It’s a brand of bigotry reinforced by our nation’s biggest media outlets — and by justices on the Supreme Court.
 
Let’s start with Paula Deen, who admitted to having used the “n” word — 30 years ago. If it had been, let’s say, Alec Baldwin instead, the media would have quickly given him a pass, because, after all, he’s one of them. Alec is a media guy. He’s smart and talented and thinks what they think about life. He’s also a northerner. He was born on Long Island! And my God, there’s no racism there.
Racism is a disease people catch when they cross the Mason-Dixon line.
Paula is from Georgia, and from that one slip, which she admitted and for which she apologized, was imputed all kinds of guilt. She was guilty of being born Southern, plain and simple. And the punishment she’s facing is so disproportionate to her three-decade-old lapse that it cries for someone in the media to defend her. No one has. No one will."
 
And no one should. I don't care where Paula Deen is from, she is a racist. And I would have thought of her as one whether she was from Michigan, New York, or California.

While I agree with Mr. Habeeb that racism is all over the country and not just in the South, this notion that the South has suddenly become a paradise of tolerance is ludicrous.
  
"Mississippi, my home state and once the worst of the Jim Crow offenders, had the highest rate of African-American turnout in the nation. And Mississippi has more elected black officials than any other state. Not just more per capita — more, period.
 
Judging from the hysterical reports in the media, and from the headlines of the lead editorials in America’s biggest newspapers, someone could have easily concluded that the court had overturned the entire Voting Rights Act, not just one provision — and that it was now open season for white racists in the South to bring back poll taxes and literacy tests and to make a push to return not to the 1950s but to the 1850s, to slavery itself.
 
“An Assault on the Voting Rights Act,” shouted the headline of the New York Times editorial.
 
“A setback for voting rights,” declared the Los Angeles Times.
 
Where did the media elite’s sense of outrage come from? It’s simple, actually. To admit that the South had changed would mean letting go of their own cultural and moral superiority, of their sense of regional superiority with respect to the issue of race. Media and academic elites believe that, but for proper adult supervision, the South will return to its racist roots and that they alone can protect helpless black southerners from the perfidy rooted in white southerners’ DNA"
 
There should be no  feeling of "cultural and moral superiority" by any particular region over another when it comes to racism. You are all equally guilty.

The fact that blacks now vote in record numbers in Southern states does not mean that race relations are better and that Southern whites have suddenly become "post racial". It only means that blacks in these states realize that they better exercise their hard  earned right to vote or they will lose it.

The reason we have more minority voter participation in these states ---that have traditionally discriminated against us--- is because of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act which forced people in places like Mr. Habeeb's adopted home state of Mississippi to do the right thing.

"It’s quite a story. Black and white Americans are moving in record numbers to a part of the country that liberal elites think of as backward, where taxes are low, unions are irrelevant, and the locals cling to their guns and their faith.
And yet Americans heard almost nothing about this great migration. We know why. The ideological prejudices of our media and academic elites won’t permit them to admit the obvious. They’d prefer to focus, as Breyer did, on the old South because they are more comfortable with that narrative and more invested in it, while a new one marches on right under their upturned noses." [Source]

I am not "comfortable with that narrative". In fact, nothing about racism be it in the North, South, East, or West, is comfortable to me.





    

25 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:55 PM

    Yeah well, I have a theory,and that is that the south being a hot climate had more plantations and therefore used more slave labor.

    So that perhaps that is why there is still such a deeply rooted wealthy white class there that was used to slave labor, and that resented the freedoms of blacks and having to pay them for the work they formerly did for free!

    I think that's why the South is considered more racist,because perhaps it simply is.

    Our dear buttery Paula was so enamored of this lifestyle that she wanted a "plantation weddin" slaves and all.

    How very quaint and picturesque!

    Ya think maybe that quaintness may have a little sumthin, sumthin to do with the fiery backlash??? Huh?
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/149360282/Deposition-of-plaintiff-Lisa-T-Jackson-vs-Paula-Deen-Enterprises-etc
    This is the deposition of Lisa Jackson,
    the plaintiff in the Paula Deen case.
    On page 153, she admits that she was treated better than black employees. Ms. Jackson is white.
    On page 267, she is asked what Jim Crow is. Ms. Jackson thinks that Jim Crow is a singer.
    Lisa Jackson is a white woman, playing the race card to shake down a former employer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've got no patience for people like him.

    Field, that's just one more person who's talking and probably hasn't read carefully the actual complaint against Deen and her brother in the lawsuit. Nothing about the charges in the lawsuit suggests the South has changed. In fact, what's charged in the lawsuit suggests that Deen and Bubba are more locked in time than the South overall.

    I wasn't going to comment on Deen, but the more sponsors who jumped ship, the more I felt something nastier than wanting a plantation wedding was at the bottom of the story. So, for the first time in a long time, I wrote a racism chasing post. If even part of the allegations against Deen's company are true in the lawsuit, then Paula Deen's former sponsors were right to jump ship.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Chamblee54
    1.) If she's alleging that black employees were treated unfairly and she is not black and then she admits that she was treated better than black employees because she was white, how do these admissions support your belief that she is simply a white woman shaking down her employer?

    2.) Well, it's possible was thinking of Jim Croce, the folksinger. But does ignorance of Jim Crow make it more likely she's making up her allegations or less likely she's making it up? In this case, I think her not being a history scholar plays in her favor.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:58 PM



    As a bm I must stand up for Paula Deen, and YOU should too, Field. This N-word that she used some 30yrs ago does not deserve to lose millions and a career and you know it. The ONLY reason she is being severely punished is because she IS from the South.


    Your claim that there is no bias is bullshit. I didn't see you and the media railroading Imus, demanding that he be banned from radio forever. I didn't see a line up of Sponsors drop him like a hot potato. Oh sure he lost a job but he was back so fast that there was hardly a gap in his career.

    You lack fairness and justice when it comes to the South, you bigot.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:10 PM

    Anonymous Anonymous said...
    "Oh sure he lost a job but he was back so fast that there was hardly a gap in his career."
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    HA! and who watches/listens whatever to Imus? The same people who watch/ listen to the crybaby guy GB and who will watch the antebellum chef PD!If she returns.

    and as you well say, she just might, cos they represent an entire population in the country.

    Unfortunately a country that is very divided by many things.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When SCOTUS ruled on Prop 8, they said that a person had to be injured by something to fight it in court. (IANAL, so that might not be 100% accurate) When I heard that in a radio discussion, I thought of Lisa Jackson and Paula Deen. http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyer_in_paula_deen_case_says_white_plaintiff_had_no_standing_to_pursue_ra
    The complaint is mostly about Bubba Hiers, who apparently is not a nice man. He is not a celebrity. There is no publicity value in trashing him. There is publicity value in trashing his superstar sister. The racial attitudes of Paula Deen have almost nothing to do with Uncle Bubba's Oyster House.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Now why would Ms. Deen's 'Southern Culture, Ya'll" neo-confederate groupie act attract animosity? How could anyone take offense at her blowderizing of the terror of Black America's 3 century long holocaust in that culture? Talk about thin skinned!

    There's no material difference to my mind between Southern pride and celebrations of Nazism by their descendants. Yes, Ms. Deen's White-Southern brand is inherently racist. That this is news to (white) people is not surprising, we have the privilege of ignorance.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous9:55 PM

    Desert, "Unfortunately a country that is very divided by many things."

    9:10 PM
    ------------------
    We became very divided when Obama became President. Now there is this NSA thing, which he has kept secret from Americans and the world. Thank God for Snowden.

    BTW, PR is divided more than any other country in our Hemisphere. I read that just yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous10:17 PM

    Anonymous said...
    "BTW, PR is divided more than any other country in our Hemisphere. I read that just yesterday.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Could you please post a link? I'd like to read it too. I know there is division here also, and plenty, but I just want to read the article also, if you're not fibbin' that is :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous10:20 PM

    Vérité Parlant is Nordette Adams said...
    "So, for the first time in a long time, I wrote a racism chasing post."
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Great article! Left me wondering about Bubba too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wesley R10:30 PM

    Here's one of those literacy tests they gave Blacks in Louisiana.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/could-you-pass-the-literacy-test-given-to-black-voters-in-th?sub=2386284_1323058

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:49 PM

    Wesley R said...
    "Here's one of those literacy tests they gave Blacks in Louisiana.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/could-you-pass-the-literacy-test-given-to-black-voters-in-th?sub=2386284_1323058"
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    LOL! Sheeeeet! If I had to take that test I wouldn't ever be voting,you can believe that!

    I'm still cracking up at the male commenter that wrote "Someday when I have a daughter, I'll require potential boyfriends to take this very test"

    Ahahaha!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Desert, "Could you please post a link? I'd like to read it too. I know there is division here also, and plenty, but I just want to read the article also, if you're not fibbin' that is :)"

    10:17 PM
    -----------------
    My dear Desert, I am a very honest man with integrity beyond reproach. Quite frankly, I am insulted and hurt that you would request a link because you don't believe me. All this on the eve of our great nation known for its truthful and honest people.

    Just what is it that I have honestly conveyed to you that you don't believe?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous11:22 PM

    Anonymous said...
    "Quite frankly, I am insulted and hurt that you would request a link because you don't believe me"
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Okay so there's no link huh?
    I am SO dissapointed in you! No more cupcakes for you!

    and on the eve of July 4th when we celebrate the great Independence Day and George Washington who NEVER TOLD A LIE!!! How could you??? *sob*

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous1:44 AM

    Desert, "Okay so there's no link huh?
    I am SO dissapointed in you! No more cupcakes for you!

    and on the eve of July 4th when we celebrate the great Independence Day and George Washington who NEVER TOLD A LIE!!! How could you??? *sob*"

    11:22 PM
    ----------------
    Ok, Ok...I'll get link for you if I can find it. I ran across it while looking for another link for Field. Some of you Negroes want too many links. I'll get back to you....Just hold on.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The most common printed beach towel seen on the beaches of New Jersey is the Confederate battle flag. If there's any "historical" debate what displaying that flag over a southern state capitol means, there can be no debate what it means as a beach towel. It is a racist statement. The "Old South" is very much alive.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Maybe its the lack of education in the south. Ya know tex ass and Miss teaching creationism and such. The south shall rise again!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Great post Nordette. I heard about it on twitter.

    Thanks for the link.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous2:12 PM

    Nordette, your article about Paula Deen was outstanding! I was ignorant like some others about Paula Deen and the allegations against her and her company. Until I read your article, I actually thought the sponsors who dropped her like a hot fat potato were overreacting. It never occurred to me that those sponsors might be dropping Paula based on a lot more hidden information than perceived in the public eye.

    Thank you for such clarity and truth. I wish you were more involved, in the eye of media, because we need more media informants like you. Thanks again. I hope Paula loses a lot of weight over her fat sick-ass brother and the media exposes him as one of the biggest racist today in America...not that that will change him in anyway. "He is what he is."

    anon505

    ReplyDelete
  22. parvenu5:29 PM

    Field, some years back when Col. Sanders started his Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, he was accused of stealing his famed "secret" recipes from his black employees who worked in his kitchen. Since the controversy went public it quickly turned into a nasty racially based situation where Sanders was accused of running a "plantation" type operation. However, Sanders proved to be a very astute businessman and he soon decided that all of the expanding negative racial publicity was beginning to hurt his business, a sizeable amount of which was with black customers. Col. Sanders quickly settled his case quietly and out of court. As a result all of the negative racial complaints against KFC also evaporated almost overnight, and KFC became an accepted food source for large numbers of black families as the number of his franchisees grew around the country. This continued until his original business was bought out by a conglomerate. The difference between Sanders and Paula Deen is simple, Col. Sanders recognized the importance of the fact that the dollar is GREEN regardless of what color hand is holding it. Unfortunately Deen's level of business ignorance has kept her blind to this important fact.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous6:48 PM

    Without sponsors, Paula Deen is funished. Paula is now associated with the kind of Southern racist who longs for the antebellum period when Blacks were slaves.

    She ought to scare the hell out of Americans, including some racist Whites in the South. I hope she is done and will never be heard from again. The same goes for her KKK white supremist brother.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Making it plain

    As long as house negros like Jesse and Al support her she will keep calling us GODs!

    ReplyDelete
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