During a recent Oklahoma City Thunder game, play-by-play announcer Brian Davis said that Russell Westbrook was “out of his cotton-picken mind”. He has been suspended for today’s game. He has apologized. From what I’ve read, no one believes that Davis is a racist. The “color” announcer during the game is black and didn’t say anything or react to the phrase.
I have heard the phrase my whole life and have never considered it racist or offensive.
Poll coming.
I say it some. Like " get out of my cotton pickin’ way", I don’t think it’s racist at all. In the south it’s a common enough phrase.
Same here.
I really suspect that the literal meaning of the word is irrelevant, and it’s used as a sanitized version of the similar-sounding word that starts with m-f.
It never occurred to me that it was. Now that I think about it, I can see how it could be taken that way.
My first association with the phrase is Foghorn Leghorn, and if I heard anyone else using it, I’d probably assume that they got it from him, and thus wouldn’t assume that the speaker was racist. That said, on thinking about it, it probably is racist in origin, and so it would be a good idea to stop using it anyway.
If phrases.org is to be believed, “cotton-pickin” should be distinguished from “cotton-picker”. The latter is supposedly racist in origin while the former is not.
That was my thought. I heard the phrase all the time watching Warner Bros cartoons. In addition to Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam used it. I never associated it with racism.
But that said, let’s face facts. The classic Warner Bros cartoons were made decades ago and they didn’t hesitate to include racist jokes. So it’s possible the phrase has racist origins and I was just unaware of it.
Not racist. Maybe a bit dated. I can’t imagine anyone who is a racist would want the job of broadcasting NBA games
Same. I grew up hearing this on a daily basis from my grandfather (who, coincidentally, was black). It was a his generic substitution for basically any curse word. As I don’t recall EVER hearing anyone else say this outside of my family, the racial context would never have occurred to me prior to this thread.
As others have mentioned, it makes sense to me that the phrase has its origins in less-than-polite contexts, and therefore maybe should be avoided. But I would not have thought, and still do not think, that this announcer had any bigoted intent.
All of my relatives who picked cotton by hand way back when were white.
I am startled to think that anyone would consider it racist. Give me break.
It’s one of those things that upsets some people, so I figure it’s better and easier to just not say it. American English has no shortage of colorful turns of phrase. I can let that one go.
If “cotton pickin’” is racist, then I’d think designating someone as the “color” announcer would be racist. Especially if a person can designate a phrase as racist by simply proclaiming it to be so.
Now, I’m OK with the notion that I, as a person who has never been marginalized because of my race, ethnicity, or other related factors, might not be the best person to make such a proclamation. But I’ll draw other folks’ attention to it and let them make the call.
How dare they identify a sports announcer as the “color” announcer when historically it has sometimes been the case that the so-called “color” announcer is a person of color, and how likely is it that they’ve enjoyed the same status salary and privileges as the “play by play” announcer when the latter was white? C’mon, where’s the outrage?
** taps feet **
How about we stay on the topic, which is based on a real world issue, rather than get diverted by a strawman?
It is racist and offensive to those who are determined to be offended no matter what.
People have forgotten how community standards work.
Steps 1 and 2 are not actually optional on the way to step 3
This is pretty much my view. I’ve never bothered to look up the origin of the phrase, but I figure it probably is racist. I’m sharp enough to come up with some other phrase.
But that’s the thing: before this week, it would never have occurred to me that it was “one of those things that upsets some people.”
I thought it was in the cartoon series “Deputy Dawg” I watched in the 1970s…
…welcome to the age of social media? 
I don’t know if it is really all that racist, but it most certainly is classist.
Not all the people picking cotton in the south were black, but they were all poor.
It’s punching down, making fun of people who are not as well off as the people who didn’t have to pick cotton.
The modern version I would say would be “burger flipper.”