Now We're Cooking with Bias

By now, I'm sure y'all have heard that The Food Network has dumped Paula Deen because of the controversy stirred up (see what I did there?) by her use of the "N word" in the past, and other alleged racial affronts.

While I don't see what all the fuss is about for using the word "nonfat," I...what? Oh, you mean the other "N word." Never mind.


Okay then, I see your point; although some, including even über-left Bill Maher, argue that the woman is a product of her upbringing, as a child in pre-integrated Georgia.

Still, I think she deserves the same degree of ostracism that others have suffered for similarly egregious indiscretions.

A few examples:

A man, born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr., who was once a recruiter and leader of his Ku Klux Klan chapter, later, as a youthful 47-year-old senator, filibustered the Civil Rights Act. Yes, I'm referring to the much-despised Senator Robert Byrd, the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history. After his death, he was reviled as "a very close friend of mine, one of my mentors," by, uh, Vice President Joe Biden.

Speaking of the Vice President, about a year and a half before he was publicly shamed by being chosen as his presidential running mate, he referred to then Senator Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Another Senator was censured forced to renounce his Senate leadership position reelected after it came out that he called the presidential candidate a "light-skinned" African-American "with no negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

I'm beginning to think there's some selective outrage over the use of particular words. Spelling seems to play a part.

For instance, the current administration apparently doesn't have a problem with inviting someone to the White House like Jay-Z, who rose to fame with songs like "Jigga That N***a" and "N***a What, N***a Who."

Perhaps the rejection of certain entities has more to do with intent, actions and threats, rather than just words.

The President doesn't seem to have any qualms about giving F-16 fighter jets and hundreds of advanced, M1A1 Abrams tanks to a country whose "moderate" leader openly calls Jews “descendants of apes and pigs.”

And now we're sending arms and rocket launchers to Syrian rebels—you know, like the ones who just recently beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, and the "well known rebel fighter" who was filmed cutting out and eating the heart of a government soldier. Now that there's a hole in their programming, he should get in touch with The Food Network. "Eat Your Heart Out, with Abu Sakkar."

I wonder if Michelle Obama will want to revise her healthy eating campaign to be more inclusive.

Maybe I'm just completely confused as to what delineates racism from acceptable cultural differences.

In any case, it seems The Food Network is simply not an appropriate venue for the evil, racist Paula Deen. I've heard that the ratings of a certain "news" network are languishing. Perhaps MSNBC would consider revamping its lineup, replacing the eminent egalitarian Al Sharpton with a cooking show:

With special guest Joe Biden