“Old White Dude” lays down some atomic southern logic about picking cotton

Mad World News: By now, you have probably seen the Facebook post by Danielle Rider imploring Hobby Lobby to remove decorative cotton from their shelves because, as she sees it, the home decor is “racist.” Additionally, you may have heard that a group of black college students was offended when Lipscomb Universtiy put them up in a house with cotton decorations.

A university president in Tennessee apologized Friday for hosting black students in his home, which displayed a cotton decoration.

Randy Lowry, president of Lipscomb University, apologized for showing centerpieces bearing cotton stalks while hosting black students at his home in an email sent to the school Friday and posted on Facebook.

“The content of the centerpieces was offensive, and I could have handled the situation with more sensitivity,” said Lowry. “I sincerely apologize for the discomfort, anger or disappointment we caused and solicit your forgiveness.”

The president reported that multiple students confided in him about the cotton decoration displayed during a Thursday dinner he hosted at his home for black students to share their experiences at Lipscomb with him. [Source: Daily Caller]

His proper response should have been, “Shut up and get a life!” But that’s just me remembering the days when educators actually operated with some control and authority over students rather than bending over backwards to be so sensitive to stupid perceptions of offendedness.

MadWorldNews.com tells us:

Facebook user Frank Jones, a self-proclaimed “old white dude,” decided to post a family photo on social media, where it has since gone viral. According to Western Journalism, the picture showed a white family picking cotton in the southern United States.

This is for all those black college kids who were so offended by the cotton centerpiece. My guess is not a single one has ever been in a cotton field,” Jones captioned the photo. “Well folks this is what it looks like to crop cotton. Grew up doing this. Started picking cotton at age 6. Worked our farm and worked for neighbors farms. Did I mention some were black? Didn’t matter when you had to get the crop in. All by hand so we helped each other. Black and white we worked together, ate together and shared the same water jug,” he added.

Frank Jones and members of his family picking cotton. (Photo Credit: Frank Jones/Facebook)

This is for all those black college kids who were so offended by the cotton centerpiece. My guess is not a single one has ever been in a cotton field,” Jones captioned the photo. “Well folks this is what it looks like to crop cotton. Grew up doing this. Started picking cotton at age 6. Worked our farm and worked for neighbors farms. Did I mention some were black? Didn’t matter when you had to get the crop in. All by hand so we helped each other. Black and white we worked together, ate together and shared the same water jug,” he added.

 Jones defended his logic, saying, “Couple of folks think I was off base with that post but most understood my intent. No black person I grew up working with ever mentioned anything about cotton reminding them of slavery. And yes, we talked about the Civil War and about the then policy of segregation.” He added, “It was the segregated South but not in the cotton fields or the one general store we had or in our conversations. We all had [hoped] it would change one day.”

Being a child of the South myself I’d have to agree with Jones assessment.

Apparently over 17 million people that have watched my Facebook video commentary on the topic seem to agree. You can re-watch the YouTube video below.