In the opulent San Francisco Opera House last week, I looked around at my fellow patrons in a packed house for a cast which included the soprano Natalie Dessay, a name which guarantees a sell-out. I pondered on the total worth of the audience in the theatre. Certainly, billions of dollars.
After the matinee performance, they stepped out on to the streets around the Opera House, which is in a district close to one of the poorest areas of the city, the Tenderloin. It's necessary to walk past a shocking number of psychotically ill people walking or lying in the streets to get to one's parked car, or the MUNI underground train. It's unavoidable, as the streets are littered with the bodies of people whose faces are twisted with mental pain and torment and they struggle with the voices in their head tormenting them as they shout back at them. Many pace up and down, unable to find relief. I'm told quite a number of them are veterans who have struggled to come to terms with what they saw during service on behalf of the United States. Their presence in the streets of US cities (I'm told by people here) followed a policy of President Reagan of closing the large mental hospitals in the US. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any care put in their place. If there is, it isn't working, as a stroll along these streets would tell you.
There was another thing I noticed. All of the people on the streets I saw were African American. It's not that there are not others who are untreated and psychotic. It's just that none of the people I saw were white. The picture of them in the street stayed in my mind and troubled me afterwards. I couldn't see what hope they had of a better life, and I felt it was hard not to conclude that race did not play a part in the cards they were dealt.
I was reminded of my visit a few days later when I had half an ear on a bulletin on TV which reported a crisis involving a well-known celebrity cook and restaurant chain owner in the US, Paula Deen. The report alleged she had used the "N" word (the most offensive of the racial slurs), and I, half listening, assumed it had slipped out on air. I thought she must either be very stupid or very ignorant.
As I watched later bulletins more closely, it turned out that Mrs Deen was being sued by a former employee of her restaurant chain, who was making numerous allegations about her, including that she had used racist language. In a deposition for the case, Mrs Deen accepted she had used in the "N" word in the past, although she did say "that's just not a word that we use as time has gone on". There were other allegations that Mrs Deen had said she liked the idea of a Southern style wedding with only African American waiters dressed in white just like the old days (Mrs Deen is Southern). The issue was leaked to an American magazine. It took a while to take off, but take off it did, as general outrage ensued, stoked by the media and social media. She was suspended from the Food Network and lucrative sponsorship deals fell one by one.
Mrs Deen appeared to make it worse with a video apology that wasn't an apology. Then she was to appear on the Today show. Then she cancelled it. Then she appeared on it. Her tearful sort-of apology was described by a commentator on CNN as the "worst mea culpa ever" and "sentiment towards Paula Deen was worse after the Today interview". "I is what I is", she said, and what she is, isn't much liked apparently.
Mrs Deen was portraying the worst kind of crisis management. Because she is a famous TV personality, she did not appear to have taken the right advice before appearing and her apology was at best late and equivocal, depending on an emotional performance, and appeared to be driven by her loss of sponsorship, not genuine regret at the hurt she had caused.
But I was less interested in Mrs Deen's gifts of media management than the apparent outrage at what she had done. Let me be clear: racist language hurts deeply and causes damage. It is not OK, and where it is used, we need to correct it and help those who use it understand the damage it causes. When language like this is used, it is the moment for an unequivocal apology - and most of the public require to know that you understand fully why what you did was wrong.
But here was a situation where across America people and companies were outraged at the use of a racist slur against African Americans. Well, except several hundred thousand Paula Deen fans who took to Facebook and queued up at Mrs Deen's restaurants to show their support.
What I couldn't understand was this. Were some of the outraged the same people who stepped over untreated psychotically ill African American people outside the Opera? Where was that same outrage at that point?
I asked a wise American friend about it. He explained. This story is not really about racism any longer, he said. It's the usual. It started with genuine anger that this word is still being used in America today, a country with an African American President. But now, it's about money and the fall of a celebrity. That is what is driving the news coverage and the crisis. It's not that anyone is saying racist language isn't unacceptable. It's just that they are more interested in the consequences. And people are always more interested in money.
I felt muddled that a nation apparently outraged at the use of a word was not outraged that African Americans are lying on US streets in torment and if anyone cares, I didn't see it. If that isn't racism I don't known what is. And it's a far worse kind of racism than Mrs Deen, once seen as a wholesome woman, and now regarded as rather silly, appeared to exhibit.
It was a reminder to me that a crisis is not always at its core what is appears at first to be about. Of course, the root cause (the use of racist language) must be addressed. But once the consequences start to roll, you're in trouble, because you can't address consequences.
But what causes sudden and widespread offence sometimes surprises us. Social media, frequently a vehicle for sudden and emotional expression, accentuates this sense of overwhelming offence. In this case the offence was real and it needed to be recognised and accepted - and addressed directly. But there's no rule of human behaviour that says that offence must be logical.
Mrs Deen will bounce back from this. She's a popular woman who made a terrible mistake, and hopefully she's learned something. I hope she realises why it was wrong, and that she will get some good advice on restoring her reputation, and she'll listen to it. But when the public reacts strongly to something you do (and I understand in this case why they did), you have to address the emotion and hurt that they feel, whether you like it or not.
Here is my advice if you ever get into Mrs Deen's situation:
1. When you are involved in litigation, scenario plan on all the negative aspects of the case, and try to pre-empt them. Don't hand your pursuers a PR gift.
2. React quickly and sincerely. Don't assume because you work in the media that you know how to deal with a public relations emergency. In my experience media people almost never do.
3. Make sure your apology is sincere and is accompanied by action. For example, Mrs Deen could have announced she was meeting with an organisation that fights racism so that she could better understand the issues. It's my own view that emotion (including crying) during TV interviews isn't a good thing and tends to be viewed as insincere. However, I accept that the American market is different. I know you can be over composed but sobbing I think is treated with scepticism in Britain, particularly when it is from performers. In Mrs Deen's case some viewers felt she was crying because she had lost all the deals and her business was falling apart.
I love the United States and I love Americans (well most of them), but as a British person, I still don't completely understand them. Trust me, there are untreated psychotically ill people on the streets of London, but not in the quantity one sees in US cities. I wish American people would be as outraged about the people they step over as they leave the Opera as they are about a terrible word a TV cook said in her office. Then something might be done.
In the meantime, Happy 4th July!
(Posted from San Francisco)
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