Paula Deen’s word is being challenged again following her refusal to come clean about her Type 2 diabetes until she became a paid spokesperson for Now Novo Nordisk, company who sells a diabetic drug, back in January. This time, explosively and explicitly, an ex-employee, Lisa T. Jackson, a Caucasian female, is insisting the “American lifestyle icon” is racist and harbored a working environment where sexual harassment was norm.
Jackson’s lawsuit, a 33-page civil complaint, was filed in Savannah, Georgia on Monday, almost two years after the former manager at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, left her position in August 2010. Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House is one of five restaurants in Deen’s group and is co-owned by Deen and her brother, Earl W. “Bubba” Hiers, according to LA Times.
The lawsuit alleges some pretty ghastly innuendos and outright racist remarks and sexual harassment treatment by Deen and Hiers.
“In the presence of Ms. Jackson and Uncle Bubba’s restaurant manager and a vendor, Bubba Hiers stated they should send President Obama to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico so he could n***er-rig it.”
The lawsuit also suggests Paula blatantly used the racial epithet herself in front of employees—as in Jackson heard with her own ears. One particular time in general when she asked Deen what servers should wear at Bubba’s wedding in 2007.
“Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n***ers to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around,” Jackson alleges Deen told her. “Now, that would be a true Southern wedding wouldn’t it? But we can’t do that because the media would be on me about that.”
The documents further state that Jackson became General Manager of Bubba’s Oyster and Seafood House in Savannah, Georgia after the previous GM was fired for having a romantic relationship with the servers.
“If you think I have worked this hard to lose everything because of a piece of p**y, you better think again, and now I’m going to do something I have never done I am going to put a woman in a man’s job,” according to Jackson who was allegedly present during this meeting.
Afterwards, Jackson was given six months to turn the failing restaurant in the opposite direction by doubling profits at the restaurant. But she alleges the task was not done without sexually harassment by Bubba who routinely viewed pornography on a computer in their small, shared office.
“Bubba Hiers is a frequent customer of pornography web sites and would download and view such sites at work. In the small office he shared with Jackson, it was impossible for her to avoid the pornography,” the lawsuit states.
Hiers also asked Jackson to “bring pictures of herself when she was young for him to view,” and that he would like to replace the staff with “Hooters girls,” the lawsuit alleges.
And, “At a weekly manager’s meeting that included Ms. Jackson, Bubba Hiers brought printouts of an email that stated ‘Why Gay Marriage Should Be Legal,’ and showed pictures of women having sex with women. Mr. Hiers proceeded to pass emails around the table for everyone to see. No outrage was expressed and no action was taken in response to his behavior.” Wow!
Do these allegations make you think differently of Paula Deen?
