The Food Network’s Facebook page swelled with Deen supporters who disagreed with the punishment meted out by network executives.
“Everybody in the South over 60 used the N-word at some time or the other in the past,” wrote Dick Jackson, a white man from Missouri.
“No more ‘Chopped’ for me, and I suspect thousands like me,” he said, referring to a popular Food Network show.
In the line Saturday, some pointed out that some African-Americans regularly used the word Ms. Deen had admitted to saying.
“I don’t understand why some people can use it and others can’t,” said Rebecca Beckerwerth, 55, a North Carolina native who lives in Arizona and had made reservations at the restaurant Friday.