As an icon for "real" (white) America, it's not surprising that Paula Deen would get some love on Fox & Friends after a racially insensitive photo was posted on her Twitter feed. Poor Paula Deen - who knew that she is the victim of African-Americans with "too much time on their hands!"
Elisabeth Hasselbeck began this morning's segment with a report on a 2011 Halloween photo which "popped up" on Deen's Twitter. The picture was shown, in which Dean is dressed as Lucille Ball and her son, in "brownface," is portraying Lucy's husband, the Cuban-American Dezi Arnaz. Hasselbeck explained that Deen has "been struggling to rebuild her brand after her career damaging scandal last year, now social media lighting up with new accusations of racism." She asked "is that fair and is it taking it too far." The banner suggested that poor Paula Deen is being persecuted: "Taking the Heat Again, Deen Under Fire For "Brownface" Twitter Pic." Note - Hasselbeck didn't describe the "scandal" which included Deen's alleged tendency to use the "N-word" and her desire to host a plantation dinner party complete with slaves.
Her first guest, Rich Benjamin, from liberal think tank Demos, said that the "brownface" was "unseemly," given Deen's history. Hasselbeck's other guest, right wing radio host Carl Jackson, disagreed. Jackson, who thinks that World Cup soccer championship is a liberal conspiracy to "bring America down to size," proceeded to do his job, as a conservative African-American on Fox, to denigrate African-Americans.
Within only a few minutes, he proffered a litany of right wing talking points. He said that this is "a bunch of nonsense" generated by blacks who "have too much time on their hands" because of their high unemployment rates and, as such, "focus on nonsense." He worked in another favorite persecuted conservative meme with his totally batshit crazy quip that if Deen were "organizing gay chefs ...to confiscate Christian bakeries then what we would see is the left championing her." He denigrated Democrats and George Takei when he said that if Deen contributed money to Democratic campaigns, she could "get away with real racism like George Takei" who accused SCOTUS Justice Scalia, of being "a clown in blackface" and later apologized for the comment.
Benjamin spoke of the context and how, rather than seeing racism in everything, we need to see the "bigger issues" such as racial profiling, police brutality, and unemployment. After reporting Deen's response, Jackson provided more crazy talk. He asserted that "redemption matters" and, on cue, attacked "the left" for concocting "ridiculous stories" which "proves to me that racism is not as prevalent as people would like to believe." In saving the best for last, he said that the reaction to the photo "will lead to black racism fatigue."
The "brownface" speaks to insensitive and ignorant portrayals of Hispanic-Americans whose skin tones range from white to deep black. As such, wouldn't you think that at least one of the guests would have been Hispanic. But who cares about reality when there is racist propaganda to push - in this case, the assertion that lazy blacks are unfairly and senselessly denigrating a nice, white lady. When it comes to racial insensitivity, Fox News makes Paula Deen seem almost tolerant!
I hate that phrase.
It’s like “at the end of the day…”
It’s just verbal throat-clearing.
Now Rich I like.
It’s just the stupidity of not thinking that brownface just doesn’t cut it! Trust me some Cubans pride themselves on being able to detect just the slightest black blood in you.
So much for “personal responsibility” . . .
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Here’s a color picture of Lucille and Desi from 1952 that shows why the image is offensive:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3029768192/nm0000789?ref_=nm_phs_md_1
And another from 1955:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2945501440/nm0000789?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_pbl_17
And another from 1957 (this one taken outside):
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2576521216/nm0000789?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_bts_8
And, of course, if you watch ANY of the old “I Love Lucy” episodes, Ricky doesn’t look any darker than Fred Mertz (played by William Frawley who was born in Iowa) or Ethel Mertz (played by Vivian Vance who was born in Kansas).
Bobby (Paula’s son) is okay as far as the hair is concerned but he shouldn’t have done the face makeup. I guess he really should’ve watched that episode of “Designing Women” when Suzanne decided to go all-out for her Diana Ross impersonation and put on the skin toner. (He might also go back and find out why Neil Diamond took such heat for HIS little “blackface” performance in “The Jazz Singer.” The film’s producers said it was to pay tribute to the Al Jolson version but they completely ignored how tone-deaf the brief appearance was.)