Yeah this pretty much sums it up for me as well.
I used to hear it all the time growing up in the South and never once thought of it as racist, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be interpreted that way. There wouldn’t be a problem if black people hadn’t been forced to pick cotton, but they were for two centuries so I guess there kinda is a problem with the phrase, then.
From what I just looked up (Phrase-Finder) the phrase "cotton-pickin’ refers to the harshness of the work of picking cotton which was also not done exclusively by slaves.
Actually, it can be. In addition to a simple epithet, like “out of his cotton pickin’ mind”, the term can have a more nuanced meaning. A “cotton pickin’ minute” seems much longer than a regular minute. It relates back to the miserable work. Every sweaty minute spent in a hot field, stooped over, picking cotton seems to last forever. “Wait just a cotton pickin’ minute” means “Hold up until we can figure this situation out”.
Conversely, the phrase for a time that seems shorter than normal is a “New York minute”. New Yorkers were seen as always in a frenzy of activity, rushing around and squeezing something into every available second. “I’d do that in a New York Minute!” means “I would take advantage of that situation immediately!”.
I’ve heard “a New York minute” defined as “the time it takes for the light to turn green and for the driver behind you to impatiently beep his horn.”
I’ve heard that time described as a “cabbie-second”, which is around three picoseconds.
FWIW I just read an article about domestic worker abuse and in the article they quote one of the abusers as saying
So, taken in context, some people very much do mean it in a racist way (which I realize we’ve established here, just wanted to point out a recent example).
I’m pretty sure it’s that last word that plants the quote firmly in racist territory. If you replace that with “idiot”, say, I don’t think it would be considered racist.
Bumped.
A former Trump campaign official today said a black Fox News guest was out of his “cotton-picking mind”: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/06/24/former-trump-campaign-official-says-black-fox-news-guest-out-of-his-cotton-picking-mind/23466721/
I just saw that and I was going to bump this thread too.
For so many people the default reaction these days to virtually anything is racism.
Good Christ. It must be exhausting to be so offended so frequently.
mmm
Now that this has been revived, Brian Davis, the announcer that made the original comment, has been let go by the Thunder.
I work in Robstown TX where high school mascot is the cotton pickers.
Both mom and dad, and several other relations, have picked cotton. I’ve seen pictures. They are all white (rumors of Native American ancestors aside). It wasn’t a race thing, it was just being poor and wanting work.
Well, the guy who said it has decided his comments were inappropriate, and apologized.
Oh, she’s lucky she didn’t mention watermelons!
It may not be racist in origin, but it’s sure used by racists now.
And all those people talking about how their white forbears picked cotton- white people enjoy chicken and watermelon too, doesn’t make those caricatures any less racist.
In my experience, “cotton-picking” was always a substitute for curse words. I hardly hear it used today. It’s as relevant as buggy whips.
No, not anymore than “niggardly.” Anybody that gets offended needs to educate themselves on etymology.
Neither offensive nor racist unless you go out of your way to make it so, which means it’s not the words themselves that are the problem.
**Racist English Phrases with a Seriously Awful History **
My take on it is that it is best to avoid the usage.
Context. I’d never even consider saying it to, or in front of, a black person. Not for nothing, I can’t remember the last time I said it at all.