The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #90399 Message #1947394
Posted By: Azizi
25-Jan-07 - 05:20 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Pick a Bale of Cotton
Subject: RE: Origins: Pick a Bale of Cotton
"Picking cotton" has come to be simplistically associated in many people's minds with 17th 19th century African American slavery.
It is certainly true that that cotton picking wasn't the only form of labor that enslaved African Americans were forced to do. It is also certainly true that non-Black people and Black people picked cotton prior to and after the end of the US Civil War.
It is also true that "PIck A Bale of Cotton" can be considered a bragging song.
However, if Americans and other White people throughout the world had not [and still often do not] view Black people in such hightly contemptuous and ridiculing ways, and if the truth about African & African Diaspora cultures-including Black cultures in the United States-were fully taught from public schools on, and were accurately portrayed in the mass media, then perhaps, just perhaps Black people and other people would be less concerned about 'fun' songs like "Pick A Bale Of Cotton".