I don't particularly care about Paula Deen, a woman I'd barely heard about before it got out that she uses the "n" word. I do kinda care about racism and I hope someone somewhere will remind people that there's a lot more to not being a racist than to not say the "n" word.
I worked once (briefly) for a guy I thought was a racist. He did not use the "n" word. He even hired black people occasionally but it worked like this: If a black person walked in and applied for employment, it was more or less presumed that he was stupid and criminal until he proved otherwise. When a white person walked in, it was the opposite.
There were a few black employees…folks who'd made the cut. The boss talked about them like they were cocker spaniels who'd learned somehow to talk. Once he said of one, "You see? He proves that if a negro applies himself and cuts out that 'black power' crap, he can compete with the white man." I would say that's the language of a racist but the boss didn't think he talked like one because he didn't use the "n" word. And of course, he pointed to the black employees as proof he wasn't bigoted.
Actually, these days, I'm more inclined to think that using the "n" word is as much a sign of stupidity as racism. You'd think even a person who had a deep, abiding repulsion or contempt for other races would at least have enough smarts to not let it out in such a gratuitous manner. Then again, you'd think that male Republican members of Congress would have figured out that they can't talk about rape without looking like insensitive, sexist idiots. And still they do.