Paula Deen thinks she’s oppressed like “that Black” gay NFL player

I thought the real life Olivia Pope was supposed to be handling America’s Paula Deen?

Apparently not, as this week the celebrity television chef, who has been plagued by lawsuits and first hand accounts of her calling employees the N word, is back to let America know that she knows just what it feels like to be to be the first openly gay player in professional football.

Deen, who admitted to using the N word and planning a wedding where she planned on having her staff dress up like slaves, saw her television show canceled and her long standing public popularity dry up. 

In a recent interview with People, Deen said (via CNN):

“I feel like ‘embattled’ or ‘disgraced’ will always follow my name,” she tells People. “It’s like that black football player who recently came out,” referring to NFL prospect and former University of Missouri football standout, Michael Sam.

“He (Sam) said, ‘I just want to be known as a football player. I don’t want to be known as a gay football player.’ I know exactly what he’s saying.”

It’s no surprise that Deen would feel embattled, but as someone who said racially insensitive things, it is a surprise that Deen sees herself as the oppressed, instead of the one doing the oppressing.  How is Paula the victim if she was the mastermind behind the slave themed wedding?  It seems to me that actually being oppressed and embattled by structural inequality and policies that lead to disparate outcomes for people of color is worse than being called out for your bigotry.  And being the first openly gay player in the NFL like Michael Sam is nothing like being a celebrity chef exposed for referring to your Black employees in explicitly racist terms.

Paula Deen should have stayed away.  Her comments would be funny if they weren’t so sad, because she appears to be oblivious as to the damage her use of inflammatory and racist language is.

Zerlina Maxwell really wants to be a superhero, but will settle for blogging.