Woman Who Doesn’t Understand Things Thinks Cotton, The Plant, Is Racist
I'll try to be polite as I possibly can here, but it's going to be hard. Cotton, the plant, is not racist. If you think it is, then you probably need to read more. A lot more.
This is going to be one of those "well, bless her heart" blogs. Because sometimes you have to keep civil when you attempt to combat ignorance at this level. Check out this post a woman in Killeen, Texas put on the local Hobby Lobby store's Facebook page.
Wow, that's a lot of stupid. So let's get started, shall we?
I am a Caucasian American. I am not an African American. I will never know the struggles African Americans face on a day-to-day basis, but I know that racism is still a huge problem in our country and around the world. I fight racism anytime I see or encounter it. Online, in person, in the media -- I always push back against racism as hard as I can because it's a plague that should hold no place in our society. Yet it still exists every day.
That said, not every thing that can be tied back to the horrendous act of slavery is inherently racist. Yes, African Americans were kept slaves on huge plantations across the south. Yes, many of those plantations farmed cotton. And yes, many hundreds of thousands of African American slaves were forced to pick cotton on plantations for evil, violent, racist slave owners.
But that doesn't make the existence of cotton racist. It's a freakin' plant! The plant didn't make people slaves, did it?! That's the dumbest damn thing I've seen in a long time!
Cotton, the plant, had nothing to do with racists and slave owners stealing and owning African people to farm itself. Are you serious here? What is wrong with you? Cotton, like many other plants, is pleasant to look at. I'm not a fan of raw cotton as home decor, but many people are. That doesn't make them racist! It means they like cotton. Its a plant!
According to Wikipedia:
Prominent plantation crops included cotton, rubber, sugar cane, tobacco, figs, rice, kapok, sisal, and species in the genus Indigofera, used to produce indigo dye.
Are you saying we should ban all these plants and all of their products because they were once farmed on plantations by slaves? Because I like rice crispy treats, too. That doesn't make me racist. I drive a car, and it has tires. Those aren't racist, either. They are black. But they're not racist. And literally every food in America has sugar added to it. I can tell you've had food with sugar in it. So does that make YOU racist, too?
Look, I get it that there is racism every day. And I hate it. And we should all be fighting to end it. But just because something was associated with the practice of slavery doesn't mean its racist or offensive. When you attempt to label innocuous things, like a plant, as being racist you hurt the entire fight against racism. A plant isn't racist. Home decor isn't racist -- unless it's in a white supremacist's house. Then it could be called racist. But that's not because of the item; it's the hate of the person. Get over yourself.
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