Paula Deen insisted that she was not and never had been a racist, in a tearful interview on the “Today” show Wednesday morning.
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Usually bubbly, Ms. Deen, a celebrity chef and frequent guest on the show, appeared tired and subdued as she faced both fans and critics, who have responded passionately since last week, when her deposition in a workplace-discrimination lawsuit came to widespread attention. In it, she admitted to using racist language, and tolerating racist jokes in one of her restaurants.
For the first time, she publicly referred to the plaintiff in the case, Lisa T. Jackson, the former manager at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House in Savannah, Ga. “There’s someone evil out there who saw what I had, and wanted it,” Ms. Deen said.
The show’s host, Matt Lauer, whom she stood up for a scheduled interview last Friday, tried to focus on the threat to her multimillion-dollar business empire of restaurants, products and endorsements, asking, “Are you here to stop the financial bleeding?” Ms. Deen said she disagreed with the recent decisions of the Food Network and Smithfield Foods to end their relationships with her and noted that QVC had not done so.
On Wednesday, Caesars Entertainment announced that it had severed ties with Ms. Deen by “mutual agreement.” There are Paula Deen-themed restaurants at Caesars properties in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Illinois. “Caesars intends to rebrand the restaurants in the coming months,” the company said.
“While we appreciate Paula’s sincere apologies for statements she made in her past that she recently disclosed during a deposition given in response to a lawsuit, after thoughtful consideration of their impact, we have mutually decided that it is in the best interests of both parties to part ways at this time,” said Jan Jones Blackhurst, the company’s executive vice president of communications and government affairs.
In the TV interview, Ms. Deen, 66, kept her answers relentlessly personal, frequently dissolving into tears as she denied ever harboring any prejudice, and saying she used a racist epithet only once, after she was robbed at gunpoint in 1986. That statement contradicted her testimony in the deposition, where she said she was sure she had used the word since then, adding, “but it’s been a very long time.”
“People who have worked beside me, who have walked beside me, know who I am,” she said, adding that she “had to hold my friends in my arms while they sobbed” about the “hurtful lies” that have volleyed around the Internet and mainstream media since the deposition came to light.
When Ms. Deen said she stood by her statement in the deposition that she could not determine what was offensive to others, Mr. Lauer asked, “Do you have any doubt in your mind that African-Americans are offended by ‘the n-word’?” In her response, echoing that of many commenters online, she cited the frequent use of the word by African-Americans themselves. “I go into my kitchens and I hear what the young people are calling each other, and it distresses me terribly,” she said.
Ms. Deen ended on a biblical note, saying: “If there’s anyone out there that has never said something they wish they could take back, please pick up that stone and throw it so hard at my head that it kills me. Please.”
Credits: nytimes.com
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