President Carter, it isn't up to white people to forgive Paula Deen.

[Ken Burch]

You're a good, decent man, but you're sort of missing the point here. White were never the victim of anything Ms. Deen said. It was and is people of color. And it's their decision, not ours, as to whether or not she should be forgiven.

The rest of us aren't really involved with that.

We can be angry, but we weren't the ones hurt by what she said.

[Gravitycollapse]

1. We forgive ourselves and then pat ourselves on the back for being so understanding.

It's fucking ridiculous.

[Scootaloo]

2. All while obliviously being bewildered over why "they" can say the word and "we" can't

I've seen that so often, even here on DU, that I wish I had a nickel for each time.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. Along the same vein as men's rights advocates.

The oppressors assuming further authority and taking offense when they are excluded from a certain practice uniting the oppressed.

[Scootaloo]

5. I just wonder why anyone would want to say it.

...Actually I don't, it's entirely rhetorical - I figure anyone upset over not being "allowed" to use a racial slur is someone who wants to use it, because they're racists... But still, to basically announce that to everyone in earshot is a little bewildering to me.

[Gravitycollapse]

6. Black people using the n-word represents a disconnect between the oppressed and oppressors.

What this means is that the power dichotomy is crushed. The oppressors are threatened by this precisely because they lose control of both rhetoric and action. The push back against black people using the n-word, in all its many forms, is the transparent manifestation of a white person's need to regain control.

[Scootaloo]

7. I misphrased a bit...

I was meaning those people who are so hurt that they "don't get to say the N-word," not exactly the "anyone" I mentioned.

Still, good to see it laid out as you did

[Judi Lynn]

3. Damned right. Outlandish reasoning on his part. Onset of senile dementia? n/t

[graham4anything]

8. Rev. Jesse Jackson has also come out for forgiveness. I trust Jesse 100%.

If Rev. Jackson, who was there the day Dr. King was killed can forgive, that shows what a far better person
Rev. Jackson is, than the crass, lowly Paula Deen.

Same with Jimmy Carter.

Remember, as Willie Nelson sang, Forgiving is easy, however forgetting will take a long long time

Real liberals forgive.

And real religious leaders like Rev. Jackson, and Jimmy Carter is also a Sunday school teacher, real religion shows forgiveness.

That is what it is all about.

Doesn't mean we need to see her on tv or buy her books.

Just means we can all learn and grow and want to rid the world of the hatred of Paula Deen and make sure our kids
and grandkids are not like Paula Deen

and more like Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, peace and love.

After all, the 60s was about peace and love, not hatred.

To move forward, we need to not carry grudges, we need to remove hate from our hearts and move forward in love.

And I trust Rev. Jackson. I voted for him twice for President, and in 1992, for VP with Jerry Brown in the primaries.
And I voted twice for Jimmy Carter
(what were people thinking who did not vote for Jimmy in 1980 and voted for Reagan or John Anderson. WHY?????????

Thank God for Jimmy Carter. The single greatest man who ever was President, and one of the five best Presidents of all time.
(Certainly the single best after Presidency President ever).

Forgive but never forget and move on in love not hate.
100 years from now, no one will remember Paula Deen. Jimmy Carter already is immortal.
(btw, no one should eat anything Paula recommends, it is damn unhealthy. She should have been fired after covering up how
ill she was, and it was because of the stuff she cooks that she is in such bad health).

[Flatulo]

9. Either way, her legacy will live on in countless angioplasties. nt

[LuvNewcastle]

10. It really isn't my place to forgive her or not.

She didn't do anything to me. This is about the sloppy way she ran her business, or the way she allowed her business to be run. Regardless of whether or not people forgive her, she allowed her employees to work under bad conditions and she should be penalized for that.

[Ilsa]

11. It's not true that only African Americans were

hurt by Deen, her brother, and top management of her companies. The complainant, Jackson, was sexually harassed, discriminated against due to her gender, and suffered emotionally for her inability to change the discrimination, harassment, and violence against herself and African American employees.

It was so bad that she quit her job and thought she needed hospitalization.

I hope other employees join her in the lawsuit.