no offense, some offense
so 630 mentioned that “mr. america” lou dobbs made a mistake the other night in that he almost used the term “cotton pickin” to describe evil politicians who discussed race frankly. he had enough sense to stop himself mid-phrase. according to lou, the country is already engaged in constant and thoughtful discussion about race and that the ‘cotton pickin’ politicians should just wake up and smell the coffee.
in our discussion:
- i said that cotton pickin’ isn’t a term that one should used in good conscience (inside voices lou).
- 630 said that back in the day, the term cotton pickin was offensive, but now, is just common term for “nitwit”.*
- i identified a host of modern day words to describe nitwit specifically arse, idiot, fool, jagaloon, dolt, dumbass.
we then moved on to some other discussion about the new behind the scenes camera at ac360. now that i’vei had time to reflect, here are my conclusions:
- the last two politicians that have talked about race overtly not covertly (bill clinton) are condoleeza rice and barack obama– two politicians that happen to have relatives that were cotton pickers.
- it’s totally cool for lou dobbs to use cotton pickin as a phrase, as long as
- he is willing to explicitly state that condi and barack’s ancestors couldn’t wake up and smell the coffee because they were ordered to make the coffee (if they were lucky enough to be house negroes).
- from here-on in lou can be referred to as a formerly whip cracking, slave owning, cotton growing news anchor.
*630 does not in any way condone the use of the term cotton pickin unless of course someone is actually picking cotton.
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Comments
fair point commenter. it not really a defense of lou, more like a defense of truth. you are a great (i’m assuming) american. 
Not to get all technical on this (and certainly not to defend Lou Dobbs), but I do not believe that Barack Obama has any relatives (except by marriage) who were, in fact, “cotton pickers.” His father was Kenyan, not African American, and his mother was white. So unlike many (if not most) people of African descent in this country, Obama’s ancestors were not slaves in the pre-Civil War American South. So unless they were doing it in Kenya, means that there are no “cotton pickers” in Obama’s ancestry. This technicality likely has not shielded him from being subjected to many of the disadvantages that accompany having dark skin in this country. But just thought I’d point out the inaccurate factual point.