Over the weekend, the national outrage media awoke from their safe spaces to let the online sensitivity police know that our old nemesis and rival Ree Drummond – a.k.a. "The Pioneer Woman" – is apparently a racist.
When ComicBook.com starts calling you a racist, you're in trouble.
Just about every national website picked up on the story. The controversy stems from a 2012 episode of Pioneer Woman Cooks where Ree pulls a trick-a-roo and serves Asian hot wings to a hungry party of men who were "expecting" a more traditional buffalo hot sauce. After the guys innocuously moan and groan about the Asian wings, Ree tells them she's messing around and pulls the traditional buffalo wings from the oven.
Pretty damn racist, huh?
Here's the tweet / video that for some reason created the controversy.
When someone first sent me a link to this story, I really wanted it to be true. I'm not going to lie, I've been jealous about The Pioneer Woman's success ever since she defeated us for "Best Overall Blog" in the 2007 and 2008 Okie Blog Awards. Since then, her life and career have skyrocketed. She's an internationally famous TV celebrity, best-selling author and even has her own line of cookware for sale at Walmart. I, on the other hand, have made the community college hall of fame and have been sued by Aaron Tuttle. Let's just say the success she's earned from her fictional life has been difficult to watch.
That being said, as a person who regularly exploits Internet outrage and manufactured controversy for page views, even I have to take the Pioneer Woman's side on this. Thick Dumpling Skin should change its name to the Thin Skin Dumpling! It's not like Ree's guests were wearing Chop Suey Specs or chanting SAE songs about Asian-Americans as she pulled the dish from the oven. It was a stupid, non-funny, throwaway gag in a cooking show that targets middle-aged women. The Asian wings could have just as easily been honey BBQ, Caribbean jerk or Parmesan Italian. It was nothing more. Nothing less.
The Pioneer Woman agrees with me:
“Ree [Drummond] is absolutely stunned and bewildered by this ludicrous ‘racism scandal,'” an insider told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY of how the Pioneer Woman star is feeling about the accusations that a “joke” she made on her cooking show was very offensive to Asians.
“She truly can’t work out what the heck she is meant to have done wrong,” the source continued. “How can it be racist to joke about her husband liking a certain type of food over another?!? It has absolutely NOTHING to do with people, it’s just food, FFS! She’s completely floored by it. She’s also super, super upset, as she is the least racist person out there.”
“Ree is a total sweetheart, and she loves everyone — all colors, creeds and races” the insider added of the Food Network star. “She’s trying to get some perspective by hanging on to the fact that it’s just PC madness gone wild. Like, seriously, people need to get a life if this is what’s upsetting them, and stop creating problems where there truly are none.”
I wonder who this Pioneer Woman insider is? I bet it's either the Marlboro Man, Dooce or one her Basset Hounds.
Anyway, we'll keep our eyes on this story and let you know of any new developments. In the meantime, check out her recipe for zesty Asian Hot Wings. They sound pretty nasty.
