Oh Boy: Civil Rights Group Alleges Paula Deen Referred To Black Employee As ‘Little Monkey’, Paid Black Workers Less Than White Workers
It turns out that Paula Deen may not have just been racist twice (first when she used the n-word to describe a black man who held her at gunpoint, then when she wanted tap-dancing black men dressed as slaves to cater a wedding). She may have been racist at least three, or even four times, according to a lawsuit filed by her former employees. (Maybe — gasp — she might have been racist at All The Times?)
The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a prominent civil rights group, told The Huffington Post that Deen’s employees had repeatedly experienced serious racial discrimination — the kind that actually violates federal equal opportunity law:
[An attorney for Rainbow/PUSH] said one current and two former employees told him white employees are routinely paid more than black employees and are promoted more quickly. A black man who had threatened to go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Deen’s brother told him “you don’t have any civil rights here,” Rainbow/PUSH said in a press release.
Rainbow/PUSH said it has “found evidence of systemic racial discimination and harassment” by Deen and that “a family member consistently referred to a black cook as ‘my little monkey.'”
Patillo, who conducted interviews in Savannah where Deen’s restaurant is located, said current and former employees told him that Deen “preferred white and light-skinned blacks to work with customers” and that darker-skinned blacks were relegated to “back-of-the-house operations.”
If this is true (and keep in mind, these are still allegations at this point), this makes Deen’s admitted use of the “n-word” more than just the jokes she claimed they were in her deposition — it’s systematic and abhorrent racism.
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