Food superstar Paula Deen seems to have fallen from grace after former employee Lisa Jackson accused the cook and her brother of being racist. Jackson filed a lawsuit against the two alleging racial and sexual discrimination. It claims in the lawsuit that Deen made derogatory remarks regarding African Americans. In June the National Enquirer published a story where Deen admits that she did in fact use the “N” word at times. She also says she used the word when describing an incident that happened to her years ago.
As result of this firestorm, Food Network announced that they would not be renewing her contract when it ended in June 2013 as well as Smithfield Foods dropped her as a spokeswoman. Walmart, Target, QVC, Caesars Entertainment, Home Depot, diabetes drug company Novo Nordisk, J.C. Penney, Sears, and KMart have all followed suit and terminated or suspended endorsement deals with Deen.
However, Deen has issued a public apology though it seems to have not helped her any; a week after the apology Deen’s publisher Ballantine Books decided to cancel the deal to publish five of her books including the one which was due out in October.
A diehard fan of Deen had this to say, “Now lets look at this. Deen shouldn’t be punished for something she said in her past, she’s apologized repeatedly and even made a public apology but it seems as if its not enough.”
In all this bad press Deen has been getting lately a lesson could emerge from this: people will form their own opinion no matter how the facts are presented to them.
