A while ago I pondered this, and after searching it appears that we have 2 main theories:
A) That the connection to racism originated from minstrel shows (circa 1880). Many of the shows, especially for white people, showed blacks doing “funny” dumb actions that included the watermelon and chicken eating, along with gambling.
Needless to say, black performers learned that that was the way white people liked to recognize blacks. Black performers that grew during the minstrel era, by the 40’s or 50’s understood and remembered the connection and refused to play along.
B) Some others sites mentioned that in the slave era, the image of a black eating those items had the implication that the items were stolen. Slaves were denied access to items that were supposed to be property of the master; and here is the reason why the stereotype remains offensive: slavery was the ultimate theft of humanity. Those stereotype images maintained a “tradition”, among racists, of blacks being robbers (therefore they should be controlled, ergo: slavery and then prejudice against blacks was justified), it is an image that racists used and use to avoid thinking about the worse theft that those stereotypes reminded people of, an early example of propaganda to preserve (and then remember) the curious institution.
I think it was mostly a lot from column B, with a little of column A. I think this connection will fade as time goes on.
I must confess to having cotton-picking hands. Many schools in my area let out for six weeks in the fall for “cotton pickin’.” Those schools started a little early in July so that they would have that time off to help in the fields. It was a way to earn money when you were still a kid.
I have never known that phrase to be used as a racial insult. We were as likely to use the insult against someone else who picked cotton as someone who didn’t. It was a very mild teasing jab and we didn’t even think about the literal meaning when we used it.
I should note that there does exist some modern Black-themed merchandise - made in Asia. When I was in Malaysia I was surprised to see a “Darkie” brand toothpaste, featuring the picture of a Black man with a big, white grin. I’m sort of kicking myself for not buying some for that friend of mine.
Roy Clark had a hit with “I never picked cotton.” The speaker of the song, kills someone for implying that he had picked cotton, but as far as I can tell, the issue is not racial, but rather that cotton picking is very hard low paying unskilled work. “Keep your cotton picking hands off me” was used as a general insult in my house to anyone who was getting grabby and impatient. My mother did not raise the alarm about this being racist. She did use or allow any race based insults of disparagements to be used in her hearing at least when we children were around and would make it clear to us that we better never use such terms as they were wrong.
That said, I would not use the phrase now as I am aware it could be construed as racist.
Fried chicken travels well and tastes good cold. It is a good choice as a packed lunch. It was consumed heavily by travelers going between Chicago and St. Louis via bus. Those routes were nicked named “The Chicken Bone Express.” Many, perhaps most, of the travelers were black, but the name does come from actual chicken bones which at least on the bus were thrown on the floor by travelers not just from an assumption about race and diet.
Well here’s Johnny Cash doing the song. And again, there’s nothing racial about it. In fact, according to the song, the singer is the only one in his family who didn’t pick cotton.
I’m white. I live in Atlanta, and I work for a large “black” company. It’s black-owned and about 90% of the employees are black.
I asked the people in my department if they considered “black people liking fried chicken” a racist comment, and they all just laughed. They said of course we like fried chicken, who doesn’t?
My experience living and working closely with blacks is that, 1) they don’t tend to walk around with a chip on their shoulders, itching for a fight against racism, and 2) they are far slower to take offense to perceived racism, than overly concerned whites are who take offense on their behalf. Basically, they have better things to occupy their time with. The vast majority are busy working, earning a living, and trying to enjoy life, just like I am. The question that I got in response to asking my co-workers this, was, “is this what white people do for fun? hang out on the internet and talk about black people lovin they chicken?”. Sadly, I had to answer “yes”.