Turns out it was a white woman who filed against Paula Deen and her brother...
http://www.blacklegalissues.com/Article_Details.aspx?artclid=7dfdbe0461#And 'they' say racism is dead. I call BS.
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but can't take the plantation out of the girl. Sadder than sad. 
Both sides of my family (the PA family and Alabama family) have always been racist. REALLY racist.
The difference, in my experience, is that the northern family acknowledges they're racist. Hell, they're proud of it.
The southern family members take on that genteel tone, talking -- just as Deen did here -- about how black people were always part of their lives.
They truly don't realize that they have a sense of white entitlement and are racist.
As one overtly racist northern family member said to a closeted southern racist family member: "The difference between us is that you grew up in an environment where blacks know their place. And they're place was serving your family in some way, so you like to say you view them as family members but, if you were honest, you don't view them as equals."
That's pretty fucking profound. Horrific, obscene, appalling...but profound in the sense of getting a glimpse into a racist mindset.
was make me a warrior for social justice at a very early age.
with a certain type of bigot -- especially in Texas and in rural CA where I have the most experience with them -- is that they will feel more comfortable in saying certain things in front of other "white people" than they would directly to a minority or in front of mixed company. People would see my "white" face and feel freer to tell me racist jokes, observations, trash talk.
Ms. Deen reminds me of that kind of bigot -- she knows better and wouldn't be caught dead calling a person a "nigger" to their face, but, in company she felt comfortable with, she would let her head down a bit and out would come the Old South.
My mom was an Exec VP of a hotel management company from the late 1980's until early 2000's when she left for a re-branding opportunity.
She opened hotels some boutique - some nation brands up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Two business budget hotels in Albany, GA.
Had to fire a manager on the spot back in 1998 for popping of N's in regards to the maintenance and housekeeping staff.
The woman didn't realize the white Exec Female VP with the 'western' accent had been married to a black man for 30 years and had two black grown children she had birthed. 
And people wonder why I think this country is ugly.
I think you are right. I think there are certain people that will say things ONLY when they think they are in the company of those 'just like them'.
I live in SF so it is easy to forget that type of what I call "casual racism" is out there. I am in a bubble and happy to be so. When I get out and it happens -- man, it is always like someone threw a bucket of water on your face. 
Your Mom experienced that first hand. My Mom was on the receiving end when she was a kid in the South -- she has dark features and tans to the degree that she was taken for "colored" back in the day -- someone was always trying to kick her and her Mom out of restaurants/hotels because they didn't accept "that kind". 
