SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) – The Food Network announced Friday that it will not renew the contract of Paula Deen after she admitted using a racial epithet – but a black pastor who is friends with the celebrity chef said she “can’t be a racist.”
Deen apologized Friday for “the wrong that I’ve done,” a move that follows revelations this week that she admitted saying the N-word.
See Deen’s apology here:
SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) – The Food Network announced Friday that it will not renew the contract of Paula Deen after she admitted using a racial epithet – but a black pastor who is friends with the celebrity chef said she “can’t be a racist.”
Deen apologized Friday for “the wrong that I’ve done,” a move that follows revelations this week that she admitted saying the N-word.
But Pastor Gregory A. Tyson Sr. from First Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, defended Deen to WTOC, a CNN affiliate.
“I know her,” Tyson said. “My children have been to her house. I’ve been to her house, I’ve sat on her furniture. I’ve been all through her house. What racist would let a black man walk all through her house?”
See video below:
“I know her,” Tyson said. “My children have been to her house. I’ve been to her house, I’ve sat on her furniture. I’ve been all through her house. What racist would let a black man walk all through her house?”
Tyson also said he is pastor to Hollis Johnson – the black man who manages much of Deen’s affairs, travels everywhere with her, owns a successful limo company with a fleet of cars that Deen helped finance.
“She is a mother to him, a mother figure,” Tyson said.
“People are going to jump on it and believe what they want to believe and add what they want to add,” said Tyson. “But one thing I can sit here today and look you in the face and tell you is that woman can’t be a racist.”
“She can’t have a heart against black people with all that she had done, and all she continues to do,” Tyson continued.
“That is why I’m here with you today to be a character witness for miss Paula Deen because she is a beautiful person, a beautiful spirit.”
Asked what he thinks about Deen’s admission that she has used the N-word, Tyson said, “Who hasn’t?”
“That’s what you want in a person, to be honest,” he continued. “She stood up and and confessed and made the point that she did use the word. Who hasn’t? That doesn’t make her a racist. Would a racist gives thousands of dollars to an organization that helps black boys?”
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