Oops, she did it again. Paula Deen, who has been off the radar since her 2013 admission of using the N-word and wanting to hire "slaves" to cater a pre-Civil War era wedding, shared a photo on social media that depicts her dressed as I Love Lucy's title character, alongside her son who is in full brownface as Ricky Ricardo.
For someone who has more or less lost her career over being racially insensitive, one would expect at least a smidgen of evolution on the issue, yet here we are, discussing why Deen deemed this photo appropriate for a silly #TransformationTuesday share.
It's safe to assume that Deen employs publicists to keep her on brand and out of any more controversy. But there's only so much a publicist can do to cover up the true belief system of their employer. If Paula Deen's attitudes on race are problematic, they will bubble up in some form, no matter how many prepared statements she memorizes.
Take her 2014 apology tour, for instance. On The Today Show, Matt Lauer asked what she had learned. Deen decided to use the moment to plug her products:
"I’ve learned so much over the year; it’s going to require another book. We are working on a documentary that’s going to air on [my] network because I feel like everybody needs to know the whole entire story.”