A new complaint has been lodged against Southern cook Paula Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers. Lisa T. Jackson, a former employee, has filed a lawsuit claiming that she endured an unfavorable work environment with constant racial slurs being used during her time working in the restaurant.
The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition stepped in after the allegations were made and sent attorney Robert Patillo to Savannah to interview employees, past and present. During the interview it was revealed that Deen and Hiers allegedly referred to one of the black cooks as “my little monkey.” While the attorney interviewed several employees who had stories of racial slurs that had been used, Patillo told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution during an interview, “It’s a free country, we have freedom of speech, and you can say what you want. Our issue is whether that mind-set has filtered into employment decisions.”
Some of the comments recorded by the Rainbow/PUSH lawyer included Heirs telling one employee, “you don’t have any civil rights here,” when the employee threatened to file a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and told another employee, “you people are all the same” during an outburst after an event at the restaurant.
As allegations continue to be made, Deen has apologized. But despite her apology, Deen’s been fired from Food Network and lost an endorsement deal with Smithfield Hams.
Deen has publicly acknowledged her mistake in using racial slurs and offered a sincere apology in two YouTube videos. Was that enough to settle the score?
