What actually went down

I was trying to explain to my wife yesterday exactly how Paula Deen's career got ruined, and it occurred to me that I didn't know the real details.  In the course of a great column looking at the difference in the way the culture has treated her and the way it gives the likes of Al Sharpton and Bill Maher a pass, Larry Elder spells out just how this all became the issue that it did:

In a deposition given in a harassment lawsuit filed by a white ex-employee at a Deen family-owned restaurant, Deen admitted using the "n-word" in the past, during a private conversation: "When a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head," she said, "I didn't feel real favorable to him." Deen says she didn't use the word during the holdup, but "probably" used it later, "in telling my husband."

Asked if she ever used the word again, Deen responded, "I'm sure I have, but it's been a very long time." When pressed to recall specific instances, Deen could not, saying: "I don't know, maybe in repeating something that was said to me. ... But that's 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, as well as I do."

Deen has, so far, apologized, apologized and apologized.

That the ex-employee is white, not black, and worked for her for five years did not seem to matter. Nor does it seem to matter that others have not come forward to corroborate her alleged racism. Does she refuse to hire blacks? Has she mistreated them or paid them below the wages of white workers? And, for what it's worth, Deen supported and campaigned for President Barack Obama.

But, you see, she celebrates Southern culture.  That's one of those no-nos in post-America, like being an actual Christian or an actual Jew.  The chance to destroy her presented itself, and the Freedom-Haters were all over it.