In fact, most apologies exact some toll on the offender, as it can be embarrassing to admit a mistake publicly or even to just one other person. And, as with Deen’s apology, the offender often suffers additional penalties as a result of the admission of guilt. Confession of a wrongdoing can damage a relationship, lead to loss of status or power, or even result in the termination of employment. These common costs may help explain the seemingly widespread reluctance to say, “I’m sorry.”  From politicians and professional athletes to friends and co-workers, denial of culpability is far too familiar.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

“It’s just not a part of who we are,” Paula Deen asserts, which is also a clear lie, and rather than apologize for who she is and make an effort to change, Deen insists that she has never “in her 66 years” used that word but once, and that she’s offended by others’ use of it. Anyone who grew up in the South knows this to be a lie, and while many of the people who know she is lying are winking right along with her tear-streaked face, the rest of us know.

Continue Reading...

Sears, J.C. Penney, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Novo Nordisk, Smithfield Foods, Caesars Entertainment and The Food Network have all parted ways with the disgraced celebrity chef as well.

On the bright side, Deen might be going on more cruises this year.

Continue Reading...

It was more than her food. It was her voice, with that easy Southern twang, her megawatt smile, her self-deprecating sense of humor, and her feistiness. She embodied the best of the White South. Her home base may have been Savannah, Georgia, a city with a history of discrimination, but I never saw any indication of the racism so stereotypical of Southerners. She often had black guests on her show, and she was on Oprah more times than I can remember. I cursed Anthony Bourdain when he attacked her fat-laden recipes -- calling her “the worst, most dangerous person to America” (a little extreme, no?). So last week, when I read that she admitted to using “the N-word,” I was more than a little disturbed.

Continue Reading...

[embedtweet id ="350355229721632769"]

Many found the remark offensive. But Jones, who has apologized for her ill-conceived attempts at humor before, has not yet responded to her critics, at least on Twitter:

[embedtweet id ="350655017113509888"]

[embedtweet id ="350360117738356737"]

[embedtweet id ="350614754433310722"]

Instead, she issued the following statement via Twitter:

[embedtweet id ="350669730769682433"]

Continue Reading...

This is a popular refrain for Schlafy, even though, as Jordan Fabian at ABC News notes, this is precisely the strategy that lost Republicans the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, to say nothing of how offensive it is to suggest the GOP disregard entire segments of the voting population based on race and ethnicity.

Schlafly was a guest on a conservative California radio show when she fired off her latest proclamation about the future of the GOP, announcing that courting Latino voters is a waste of the grand ol' party's time because they "don’t have any Republican inclinations at all,” and are "running an illegitimacy rate that’s just about the same as the blacks are.”

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

The story has become both a day-by-day struggle by a successful businesswoman to keep her career afloat and an object lesson on the level of tolerance and forgiveness in society for being caught making an insensitive remark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday that it ended its relationship with Deen and will not place "any new orders beyond what's already committed."

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said it had been "mutually decided" with Deen to remove her name from its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind.

At the same time, Deen's representatives released letters of support from nine companies that do business with the chef and promised to continue. There's evidence that a backlash is growing against the Food Network, which tersely announced last Friday that it was cutting ties with one of its stars.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Deen had called him and he agreed to help her, saying she shouldn't become a sacrificial lamb over the issue of racial intolerance.

Continue Reading...

McMillan then followed it up with these tweets, captured via Topsy:

She attempted to backpedal by saying she was quoting "a Mexican friend," but as people on Twitter point out, that just made it worse:

[embedtweet id="349956443341983744"]

[embedtweet id="349916117692710912"]

[embedtweet id="349915708500619268"]

[embedtweet id="349915033431576576"]

[embedtweet id="349916236555100161"]

The writer begrudgingly apologized and insisted that her words were "taken out of context," and has since deleted all of the tweets:

Continue Reading...

As reported by Zachary Roth at MSNBC, Davis was one of many candidates -- and tens of thousands of Texas voters -- impacted by Republican redistricting efforts in 2011:

The GOP plan radically changed the demographic makeup of Davis’ district, among others, moving tens of thousands of black and Hispanic voters into neighboring districts. In fact, of the 94 precincts that were over 70% minority, Republicans cut out 48. In the new map, blacks and Hispanics were placed in separate districts from each other and were outnumbered by the white conservative majority, which tends to vote Republican.

Continue Reading...

"I am here today because I want people to know who I am, and people who have worked beside me walked beside me, know what kind of person I am. I am so distressed that people I have never heard of are experts on who I am," a weepy Deen told Matt Lauer on the "Today" show this morning. "I'm not a racist."

When Lauer pushed Deen to talk about her use of the N-word, Deen maintained she used it only "once," 30 years ago. "The day I used that word was a world ago," she said.

"So reports that you were asked in that deposition, whether you had used the N-Word on other occasions and said 'probably' or 'of course,' are inaccurate?" asked Lauer.

However, Deen then said, "No. I answered the question truthfully."

Continue Reading...

According to Beck, the Food Network's decision not to renew Deen's contract (because allegations of racist discrimination against employees and a litany of racially impolitic remarks are, apparently, bad for business) has "contributed to the growing un-American atmosphere of fear and silence."

Then he said: "Hello, Joseph McCarthy!"

Then he said: "We need more speech, not less speech!"

Then he said: "You will be next!"

h/t Right Wing Watch

Continue Reading...

“Everybody in the South over 60 used the N-word at some time or the other in the past.”

“I don’t understand why some people can use [the N-word] and others can’t.”

“We have lived with each other and loved each other here for a long time. Sometimes I think there is more prejudice in the North than there is in the South.”

Continue Reading...

Rice, the "Interview with a Vampire" and "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" author, took to Facebook on Friday to ask whether it's "fair" that the media has roasted the star for her overt racism. As a writer who is (presumably) precise with her diction, Rice's defense of Deen may be the most offensive one, yet: Her note draws disturbing parallels between Deen and martyrdom, calling the public outcry a "crucifixion" against Deen. Rice then displays an appalling lack of racial sensitivity and calls the uproar a sign of "a lynch mob culture," alluding to the very violent lynchings of blacks in antebellum and Jim Crow south:

Continue Reading...

While waiting to gain entrance to Deen's "Lady and Sons" restaurant, a mostly white group of men and women discussed the network's decision, Deen's comments and their take on race relations in the U.S, as the New York Times reports:

Continue Reading...

Deen's use of racial slurs, her rep's response to the fiasco, and her bizarre apology have been indefensible. But Fox News, stalwart defender of civil liberties that it is, has come to her rescue. Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes said that the "liberal, anti-South media is trying to crucify Paula Deen."

"They accuse her of using a derogatory word to describe a black person. Paula admitted she used the word -- back in the 1980s -- when a black guy walked into the bank, stuck a gun in her face and ordered her to hand over the cash. The national media failed to mention that part of the story. I'll give credit to the Associated Press for telling the full story."

Continue Reading...

Paula Deen will no longer be a part of the Food Network:

[embedtweet id="348177071262011393"]

Updated: Friday, 4:18 p.m.

Things get stranger as Paula Deen releases another version of her video apology Friday afternoon, explaining that she canceled her morning interview with Matt Lauer because she was "physically not able" to do it.

"The pain has been tremendous that I've caused to myself and others," she says before asking that people understand that "my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are. I've spent the best of 24 years to help myself and others. The color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter to me," she said.

"I will continue to work and continue to do good things for good people," she concludes.

Continue Reading...

Through a rep, she issued a meek, problematic apology to TMZ (Deen was "speaking largely about a time in American history which was quite different than today") on Thursday, but was a no-show for her first real opportunity to address the controversy -- a "Today" show interview scheduled with Matt Lauer this morning.

Continue Reading...

On Friday morning, Deen was scheduled to appear on the "Today" show, but at the last minute, Matt Lauer announced, "We just found out she's a no-show." He added that everything had seemed a go for an "an open and candid discussion, no holds barred" interview when he'd spoken to her Thursday, but now her representative had simply said she was "exhausted."

Continue Reading...