| Culturebox Paula Deen Is America's Racist Grandma She may embarrass us, but that doesn't mean we can—or should—ignore her. By Tanner Colby
Posted Tuesday, Jun 25, 2013, at 09:09 PM ET  There was this Thanksgiving dinner once, at my aunt's house in Houston. That morning we'd read an op-ed in the local paper about a school that still used corporal punishment. A white teacher had paddled a black student. People were up in arms about the obvious racial overtones, and my grandmother, my sweet little 70-year-old Nanny, offered that she, too, didn't think the white teacher should have paddled that black student, because she "wouldn't want no niggers beatin' on her kids, neither." This occasioned lots of eye-rolling from the grandchildren and some gentle rebukes from our parents. Then someone passed the gravy. As a typical Southern white family, we didn't talk much about race. But whenever the older generation hauled it indelicately to the surface, it was an opportunity for us grandkids to see the ugliness our country would rather forget. For our parents it was a teachable moment, a chance to show us just how ugly prejudice is. In this way it was useful, instructive even, to have an old racist grandma at the dinner table. Which brings us to Paula Deen. By now Deen's crimes are well known. Among other offenses, she's confessed to saying she wanted "a bunch of little niggers" to dress up in antebellum finery for an Old South-style wedding feast she was throwing. As punishment, she has been stripped of her Food Network show and her endorsement deal with Smithfield Ham. In other words, polite society has ... To continue reading, click here.
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