Out of our cotton pick'n minds

My dad's family were sharecroppers. He left school in fourth grade to pick cotton full time. I'm good.

 

My take is when in doubt (especially in a public setting) just say something else.

I think Bill Worrell has said some dumb things that slipped as well and people let it slide because they know the man and understand what his intentions were and weren’t.

People just need to be a little more careful and people need to be a little less outraged and instead opt for dialogue with others that offended you. If they are still a dick about it, then go for it and chastise them.

Russ going right to the media instead of maybe walking over to a colleague isnt cool. I assume he could have just seen him in the hall of the arena and told him he understood he meant no harm but found that saying to be a bit offensive.

 

Is foghornleghorn still a thing?

 

Slavery is a topic that naturally makes white Americans uncomfortable. Cotton-picking is on the milder spectrum and mostly used in the south, but it's pretty obvious where it came from.

If you want to poke the bear, poke it. Just don't act cute when pulling back on the topic.

 

I think cotton picking mind is not that commonly used. It is usually "he is out of his mind" or "out of his ever loving mind." The ESPN guy got fired for the chink in the armor reference.

 

People get offended easily by connotation, even when the intent isn’t there.

As a broadcaster, your job is to communicate in a manner that the audience will enjoy. That means don’t offend a huge chunk of the audience.

I don’t think what he did is morally objectionable, but it’s a screwup nonetheless. An on-air apology should be enough for him to move past this. I don’t think he should have to do anything beyond that.

 

My grandmother would say it commonly, but like OP she said weird words to avoid cussing.

 

Not sure why ESPN is mentioned in your poll. Announcer didn't work for them and they were only reporting what many other news outlets were reporting.

I honestly never thought of it as a negative comment before but I also do not have any familial connection to slavery. I can see where it would be construed as an offensive thing to say. I doubt the announcer thought about that when he said it and had absolutely no ill will.

 

I'm surprised that the TEAM announcer had the balls to criticize the STAR PLAYER of the GUY THAT SIGNS HIS CHECKS!

LOL.....ballsy, not smart...like not at all.....but ballsy.

 

You basically have to know when you are a broadcaster that you are speaking to some of the dumbest people on the planet. As such, ANYTHING that can possibly be taken as offensive....along with a good deal of things that can't even be taken as offensive, will be spun as offensive.

You should avoid all idioms or colloquial phrases and speak in the most simple to understand terms possible at all times. You'll still get people accusing you of being offensive no matter what, but all you can do is try your best to limit the opportunities for the worst of society to feign outrage.

 

#WhyTrumpWon

 

the phrase is not racist in nature at all. It comes from the fact that picking cotton (my grandmother grew up picking cotton and talked about it quite a bit) is such repetitive, droning and difficult job that it makes people feel like they're losing their minds. Hence the phrase "out of his cotton-pickin' mind". It has changed over the last century to also be a substitute for words like "d@mn". But it has absolutely no basis in racism.

IF the broadcaster had called him a "cotton-picker", THEN you would definitely have a case for racism.

this is another case of colloquialisms being misunderstood by someone looking for something to call offensive.

 

I used the term when I was a child because I heard it on cartoons and from older family members. I didn't use it to be racist or insensitive and I don't think my relatives did either. I think it was just a term used that is common and no one really thought about what the origins or it were when it was said.

Having said that, I can see why someone could find it offensive and I wouldn't use it now. I have a son, and I wouldn't want it to become part of his vocabulary and be offensive. Times change and what is and isn't acceptable changes. Sixty years ago you could use the term negro and it was acceptable, and it no longer is.

I don't think the announcer was trying to be offensive, why would he? He would risk losing his job and he has to deal with a controversy. Having said that, he really should make a public statement and say he won't say it again and move on.

 

The fact that people actually get offended by stupid s**t like this is part of the reason legit issues are brushed aside. Trump voters get a hard on when stuff like this makes the news.

I actually do use this phase in a joking manner on occasion, and I would pretty much get fired before I would apologize about it being insensitive.

PC culture has gotten completely out of control. Looking for things to be offended by.

 

Isn't this kind of like "chink in the armor" and "inmates running the asylum"?

Just an outdated idiom that's not necessarily racist but shouldn't really be used when talking about a specific person or group?

My paternal great-grandfather was so poor he was a sharecropper for a landowning black family.

If you've never read John Grisham's "A Painted House", you should. Not a single lawyer in the whole book.

 

I think many of the people that do use it knows what it means. its the people getting offended who doesn't know what it means.

 

Never heard it before