Who Cares?

Sometimes I like to weigh-in on controversial topics.  All the talk of Paula Deen is prompting me to give my opinion.  

Is she racist? Is she not racist? Who cares! Has she committed a hate crime? No. Has she discriminated against someone because of their race? Not that I know of.  

She grew up in the south during the civil rights movement.  She hears African American young people calling each other the "n" word in her businesses.  What did you expect?! So why is it such a crime that she has used a stupid little word, that just happens to be offensive to some people? First of all, if African Americans don't like the word, maybe they should stop using it themselves (I know not all black people use the word in reference to each other, but I am talking specifically about those who do).  Second, I thought we had a thing called freedom of speech.  Does that mean freedom of speech, unless it offends someone?  Or freedom of speech for some people to use certain words, but not for others to use those same words?

And the food network and Smithfield brand did not drop Paula Deen.  They made a statement that they will discriminate against you if you either: do not conform to popular opinion, appear to not conform to popular opinion, or at one time did not conform to popular opinion.   They are only protecting their bottom-line.  They simply don't want to lose money over this.  So they will do whatever their cowardly little butts need to do in order to make the majority of people happy, so that they make the most money they can.   If it was socially unacceptable to have red hair, they would fire every redhead they ever had in front of the camera!

I could go on, and branch off on other topics, but I am guessing that that will likely happen in the comments anyway, so I will end for now.  Bottom line- big deal if she said a an offensive word once, a long time ago.  We have way more important things to worry about in our lives and in this country!