Paula Deen apologizes; FIRED by Food Network over use of racial epithet.

Sorry, Paula Deen. 

No amount of butter is going to fix this.

'I beg for your forgiveness,' Deen said in her statement.

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Paula Deen fired from Food Network despite video statement apologizing for racial slurJust after canceling an appearance on 'Today,' the celebrity chef and Food Network star issued a formal video statement to make amends for her use of the N-word. Alas, her home channel still gave her the boot.

On Friday afternoon, the Food Network announced that it was dropping Paula Deen from its network after 14 years on air. The chef had aired a series of arguably racist comments while being deposed for a lawsuit. But the deposition wasn't the first time that Paula Deen has voiced questionable views on race.Though she ultimately says that the abolition of slavery was a "terrific change," she also takes some time to defend the practice. She says, back then, "black folk were such integral part of our lives, they were like our family," and, for that reason, "we didn't see ourselves as being prejudiced." (The first person plural here raises the question: did Paula Deen herself live in the Antebellum South? Is she a vampire?) It's also worth noting that she takes care not to refer to slaves as "slaves." She generally calls them "these people" or "workers."

And her defense of contemporary race relations is just as bizarre. She thinks the race relations in the South are "good... pretty good." OK. "It will take a long time for it to completely be gone. If it'll ever be gone." "We're all prejudiced against one thing or another," she continues. "I think black people feel the same prejudice that white people feel." Hmm...

Officials at the channel elected not to renew her contract, which expires at the end of the month.

The news came just after Deen released a video statement giving her mea culpa for using racial slurs, on the same day that Deen backed out of a scheduled appearance on the "Today" show about the controversy.Deen's choice of words became a public scandal earlier in the week, when the star admitted during a discrimination trial that she had "of 
course" used the N-word in the past.

"I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I've done," Deen said. "I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable."


"I've made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I beg you … for your forgiveness," Deen continued. "Please forgive me for the mistakes that I've made."In the second video, Deen addressed her cancellation on 'Today.'

"I have to say I was physically not able this morning," Deen said. "The pain has been tremendous."

"I want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is trying to say we are," Deen continued.


Deen, 66, and her brother Bubba Hiers were sued by former employee Lisa Jackson, who alleged sexual harassment and a hostile work environment at Deen and Hiers' restaurant, Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House.In the deposition, on May 17, the Queen of Southern cooking was asked if she had ever used the N-word.

"Yes, of course," Deen replied. When asked to give an example of the last time she used the epithet, Deen referred back to an incident in 1986 when she was held at gunpoint.
Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head," she said. "Things have changed since the '60s in the South,"Deen later clarified. "And my children and my brother object to that word being used in any cruel or mean behavior. As well as I do."

when she talks about a black employee of hers named Hollis Johnson, she says that he's become very dear to her in the 18 years she's known him, which is plenty sweet. But then she says points to the jet-colored backdrop behind her and says he's "black as this board." She proceeds to call out to him in the audience and ask him to come on stage, telling him, "We can't see you in front of that dark board!" 

The audience roars with laughter. The host, shocked, says, "Welcome to New York." And Paula, characteristically, responds, "Welcome to the South.".... Or the South as Paula Deen sees it, at least. Which, from now on, will be on view in her cookbooks and the soon-to-open Paula Deen Museum, but not on the Food Network.