Gawker writer Caity Weaver had to know what it was like to go on a weeklong cruise with Paula Deen, so she booked and recently completed the January 2014 Eastern Caribbean Paula Deen Cruise—and wrote nearly 7,000 words about the experience for Gawker, including a list of more than 57 food items she consumed while on the trip. For those of you most interested in Weaver's take on racism, she writes: "Everyone on the boat is racist and nice," noting that the other "Deen cruisers" don't find Deen's use of the n-word offensive. "They use that word to each other," one says, referring to black people. "It's in their music." Another points out that her white granddaughter is called "cracker" by black students in her kindergarten class.
Weaver hears "the slur pronounced aloud five times on the cruise," only ever "in the context of a discussion of either the word itself, or of Paula's deposition." And yes, there are "visibly African American" people in the Deen group; four of them, to be exact, not counting Weaver, who is half-black. "None of them remarks upon the fact that there are not many black people here on the Paula Deen cruise, or gives any indication that this is the sort of thought that should ever enter one's mind," Weaver writes. "All four appear to be having a fine time." Of course, Weaver's article includes a lot more, like a picture of Deen's butt in the air from the "Deen Family Lawn Olympics" and a detailed accounting of every bawdy comment Deen makes (she likes to joke about "beating one's meat" and once randomly asks her husband, while he is cooking chicken, "if he is choking his chicken"). Click to read the whole thing. (More Paula Deen stories.)
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