Phoenix Suns co-owner won't tolerate Sarver's racism. But he saved Paula Deen from hers

Well, that takes some cheek.

Phoenix Suns vice chairman and co-owner Jahm Najafi wrote an open letter calling for the resignation of Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver.

Najafi told the so-described “hundreds” harmed by Robert Sarver that he has arrived to be their voice, to stand with them now that the NBA has released its investigation of Sarver, a probe that documented actions “that clearly violated workplace standards” over Sarver’s 18-year tenure.

Sarver’s misdeeds included “racially insensitive language, unequal treatment of female employees; sex-related statements and conduct; and harsh treatment of employees that on occasion constituted bullying,” NBA investigators found.

Unimpressed by the one-year ban and $10 million fine the NBA dished out to Sarver, Najafi wrote, "There should be zero tolerance for discriminatory actions of any level, in any setting, let alone a professional one.”

Najafi dives deep into modern social justice

Remember those Najafi words.

“Zero tolerance.”

Let them linger on your tongue.

Writing to the “hundreds,” Najafi continued: “There is no question that the findings determined that Mr. Sarver’s lewd, misogynist, and racist conduct had a substantial negative impact on you and has no place in our society.”

Najafi is a social justice advocate, a friend and business associate of civil rights icon and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. When the ESPN exposé surfaced that launched the NBA’s investigation, Najafi made a loud statement by sitting courtside with Kaepernick at the next Suns game.

He told an Associated Press interviewer in 2021 he shares much of Kaepernick’s world view.

One of the hallmarks of modern social justice is a powerful appetite to cancel people, and Najafi is doing his utmost to cancel Sarver.

Another view: Robert Sarver deserved to lose the Phoenix Suns

“I cannot in good judgment sit back and allow our children and future generations of fans to think that this behavior is tolerated because of wealth and privilege,” he wrote. “Therefore, in accordance with my commitment to helping eradicate any form of racism, sexism and bias, as vice chairman of the Phoenix Suns, I am calling for the resignation of Robert Sarver.”

Big words for someone who saved Paula Deen

Heady stuff. High-minded.

Unfortunately, Najafi long ago surrendered any moral authority to be Robert Sarver’s judge, jury and executioner.

Because in 2014, Jahm Najafi became no less than the “cash savior” of Paula Deen, the celebrity belle of Southern fried cooking, the woman Anthony Bourdain once called, “The worst, most dangerous person to America.”

When the late-food personality Bourdain said that, he didn’t know the half of it.

In July 2013, Paula Deen would set her culinary empire on fire with what food writer Lauren Michele Jackson called “the N-word heard around the world.”

Less than a year later, Jahm Najafi swooped in to save Paula Deen’s bacon.

Less than a year.

That’s less time than Robert Sarver will spend in NBA purgatory.

'The enterprise will be ... valuable,' Najafi said

Deen’s food empire was crumbling. Her Food Network programming canceled. And her sponsors were fleeing one after another – Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Sears, Walgreens, Kmart.

Then in February 2014 came an AP story that “Paula Deen has found a key ingredient to bringing some sizzle back to her career – a cash infusion of at least $75 million from a private investment firm.”

That private investment firm was Najafi Companies “investing $75 million to $100 million to help Deen make a comeback.”

“We know that the enterprise will be successful and valuable,” CEO Jahm Najafi of the Najafi Cos. told AP. “Paula and her team continue to bring quality products and experiences to her loyal fan base.”

I contacted Najafi's office on Friday. He was not available for comment.

Deen’s troubles began in 2012 when Lisa Jackson, a woman who worked at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood & Oyster House, a Savannah, Ga., restaurant co-owned by Deen and her brother Bubba Hiers, filed a lawsuit accusing Deen of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.

“Jackson claimed that Black employees were held to a higher standard of performance and required to use bathrooms and entrances separate from white employees,” recounted Eater, a Vox Media website.

“She also alleged that Bubba often made racist remarks and sexual comments and forced her to look at pornography with him in addition to putting his hands on other employees.”

Deen's dance with racism blew up her empire

According to the lawsuit, Paula Deen was engaged in Bubba’s 2007 wedding to recreate an Old South fantasy, and was alleged to have said she wanted “a bunch of little (racial slur) to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around,” Reuters reported.

Deen would deny she had used a racial slur in that instance and the other discrimination allegations.

However, she did admit she wanted her brother to experience a plantation wedding in which Black people waited on white people, Eater recounted.

In her deposition, Deen also acknowledged “she had used racial epithets, tolerated racist jokes and condoned pornography in the workplace,” The New York Times reported.

While she asserted that she and her family didn’t tolerate bigotry, she did state “that ‘most jokes’ are about Jews, gay people, black people and ‘rednecks.’ ‘I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,’ she said.”

Deen “admitted to living in a household where jokes involving the N-word are told to her ‘constantly,’ ” reported Eater. “When asked if she had ever used the N-word herself, Paula responded, ‘Yes, of course.’ ”

That was the bomb that blew up the empire.

To say 'no tolerance' now is a bit rich

Even before those allegations had surfaced, Deen faced significant criticism when she went on the “Today” show in 2012 and told the world she had been living with type-2 diabetes for three years and was launching a partnership with a Danish pharmaceutical, Nova Nordisk, that sells the diabetes drug Victoza.

As Eater reported, “The bald-faced doubled-up announcement confirmed everything her eagle-eyed critics knew to be true.”

Paula Deen would eventually settle the lawsuit accusing her of sexual harassment and racial discrimination. She would tearfully apologize to a national TV audience.

In time, and with her “cash savior,” she would eventually get back on her feet and begin rebuilding what was lost.

Is that wrong?

These are hard questions. There is redemption in this world for people who do wrong and then atone for their mistakes.

Even in its searing revelations about Paula Deen, The New York Times noted there was genuine affection and loyalty shared by Deen and her longtime Black employees.

But for Jahm Najafi to stand up today and tell the world there must be “zero tolerance” of racism is just a bit too rich.

About as rich as Paula Deen’s “Peanut Butter Cheese Fudge.”

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: If Jahm Najafi doesn’t tolerate racism, why did he save Paula Deen?