Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Paula Deen Had Employee Dress as Aunt Jemima


Paula Deen once had a black employee dress like Aunt Jemima and ring a dinner bell in front of her restaurant reminiscent of slavery days.  
Paula Deen has been accused of asking black kitchen workers to wear Aunt Jemima-style outfits while working in the restaurant that made her a star.
Dora Charles, Deen’s longtime chef, claimed that African American staff were also asked to ring a bell while hollering ‘come and get it’ in a throwback to the past.
Charles also alleged that she was paid just $10 an hour and had to endure the TV chef using racist language around her.
Deen, whose career is in freefall after admitting using the N-word, denied the claims and said that Charles was just after more money.
The claims will be another blow to Deen, who is currently scrambling to salvage what is left of her $17m a year empire over the race row.
She has been dropped by The Food Network along with corporate sponsors like Walmart, Home Depot, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and her book publisher - then fired her entire legal team.
Charles’ told the New York Times that she wanted to speak up now because she felt that the truth should come out about the woman who she once considered her ‘Soul Sister’.
She said: ‘It’s just time that everybody knows that Paula Deen don’t treat me the way they think she treat me’.
Her relationship with Deen goes back 22 years during which time she helped her make a success of her now famous Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, GA.
Charles did everything from developing recipes to training a new generation of Deen-style chefs and became an integral part of her empire.
But there was tension, not least when Deen supposedly asked Charles to ring a bell at the front of the restaurant when the food was ready.
Charles told the New York Times: ‘I said: ‘I’m not ringing no bell’. That’s a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day.’
When Charles refused Deen asked another worker called Ineata Jones - who everyone apparently called Jellyroll - to do it.
An image of Jones doing it was made into a postcard and sold in Deen’s stores.
Jones was also asked to make hoecakes, corn patties which are served to every diner, and asked her to wear an Aunt Jemima outfit whilst she did so.
But Charles said that Jones ‘didn’t want to hear that’ and also refused.
Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake flour that used to use racist pictures and slogans of a black female chef in its advertisements.
An image of a black woman is still used to advertise the product today.
Charles said that there were benefits to working for Deen, not least being part of a successful empire. Their birthdays were a day apart so they celebrated together.
Charles’ friends got jobs with Deen, she sometimes got free clothes and got to go on Deen’s TV show on the Food Network.
Charles said: ‘I’m not trying to portray that she is a bad person.
‘I’m just trying to put my story out there that she didn’t treat me fairly and I was her soul sister.’
In a statement to the New York Times, Deen’s spokesman denied asking anybody to dress like Aunt Jemima and denied using racist words in relation to her staff.
According to a Deen spokesman: ‘Fundamentally Dora’s complaint is not about race but about money.
‘It is about an employee that despite over 20 years of generosity feels that she still deserves yet even more financial support from Paula Deen.’
Deen’s career went into meltdown last month when her admission about using the N-word was first reported.
Jacked from The Daily Mail

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is all about money. She says that she made $10 an hour, but records show that this woman makes 71k a year and is one of the closes people to PD. If she has or had such a problem with her, why would you stay there for 22 plus years. I can tel you why MONEY, she was rolling in it and PD was taking care of her. She sees her money train coming to an end, so she is trying to get as much as she can before the well runs dry.

Anonymous said...

I believe every word, that is exactly why Paula Dean felt like that negro woman should do as she is told and obey her - she is massa and that negro woman is the slave - same white mentality just different years. Believe me when you need to work you put up with alot of shit especially the racist bullshit just like all those other employees had to. Also Black people don't have the option to quit jobs like white people can quit jobs in the blink of an eye. Many Black people have put up with the racist bullshit on jobs from supervisors bosses etc. for years because they need the job.

Many white people (not all) smile all day long but deep down are racists, that is why you get people like Paula Dean and many others who expect Black people to behave in that slave, massa type role and manner. Paula should be compensating all those Black employees she degraded and humiliated on a daily basis because it would be cheaper for her, because believe me if all those employees got together and filed a class action lawsuit Ms Paul would have to pay a lot more.

Anonymous said...

hilarious. what self respecting black person would agree to this?

Tippie Hippie said...

Soul Sister?

Why on earth would she believe that and Paula treated her unfairly?

Anonymous said...

Paula Deen's racist ass needs to go into a diabetic coma and die already and take her racist stans with her.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the comments in yahoo etc? Whitey love them some Paula Deen and don't give a shit what she's done. They all lined up in droves and sold out her Paula Deen cruises. She picked a group of people [blacks] to degrade that most likely wouldn't complain, since jobs are so hard to come by. Who would believe them anyway? PD was america's southern sweetheart. Took a white jew to expose her and be taken seriously. Everything that's BEEN said and WILL be said about this butter bitch, I believe it.

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