Is Paula Deen a Racist?

Ever since Paula Deen's deposition first became public knowledge and was devoured by news media outlets, I have been pondering this quintessential question: is she a racist? And more importantly, does it affect me, being a member of the group in which she demeaned. In the reading by Omi and Winant, they define the criteria for a racist act of being "if and only if it creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race" (Omi and Winant, 71). Deen openly admits in her deposition to having used the "N-word" in her lifetime. The "N-word" is one that has a very complex history and is a word that has constantly been remolded and restructured over time in American society. But the generally consensus around whites using the word, I feel, is that it will never be ok, especially in this day and age because of the power that whites still maintain in American soceity. Deen, however, insists in the deposition that the "N-word" is " just not a word that we use as time has gone on. Things have changed since the '60s in the south. And my children and my brother object to that word being used in any cruel or mean behavior."  Omi and Winant go on to write "there can be no timeless and absolute standard for what constitutes racism, for social structures change and discourses are subject to rearticulation" (Omi and Winant, 71). So can we consider Deen a racist for her usage of the "N-word" in the 60s? Well based on Omi and Winant's claim, then no, because prior to the 60s, Deen lived in a social structure that normalized whites ability to use such a word.  So does it bother me that Deen has used this once highly offensive term in her lifetime? No, because she was a product of her environment. What makes me uneasy about Deen, however, is this sense of justification she feels in being able to use the word because blacks will throw it around with one another. As she continues in her deposition, when asked to talk about using the "N-word" in a non derogatory way she says, "We hear a lot of things in the kitchen. Things that they — that black people will say to each other. " This is where it can be very complex because when two black people are throwing the word around, they are seen as equals and so the derogatory nature of the word is cancelled out. Whites at the moment, however, will always have this invisible but tangible layer of power that then feels as if it is reproducing the same structures of domination from the 60s when they use the word.