Fried pickles with orange sauce. Buttered grits with salt. Pecan pie, warm, with whipped cream. Southerners know how to rock the food, so it is no surprise that a Southerner like Paula Deen rose to the top of the charts with her recipes from down home.

But something went terribly wrong with the recipe.

The statist attack machine, fueled by anti-Southern bigotry, went into full attack mode when it detected use of the “N”-word by a Southern white woman. Many patriots jumped to the defense of Paula Deen like batter pops on a hot griddle because the initial reaction of conservatives is to defend anyone against injustice. I, for one, have no pity for Paula.

I lived in the South for long enough to leave my heart there, and I know the heart of a Southerner. I know the generosity and pride that runs deep in the heart of a Southerner. Paula Deen may have been from the South, but she is no Southerner, or she couldn’t have supported everything contrary to basic Southern values. She traded her Southern street cred for a life of name-dropping and money-grubbing that has now traded her like a soggy, old, fried pickle.

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