Is this song racist? I don’t think so but I’m not a historian

2/25/2018 2:53:26 AM

No. There is nothing inherently racist about cotton.

2/25/2018 3:53:57 AM

My mother-in-law picked cotton as a youth. Much of her family picked cotton. As a matter of fact, some of them were sharecroppers.

You don't have to be a historian to understand that many poor people in the south picked cotton, regardless of what color they were.

Was there an inordinate number of African American sharecroppers? Sure - a holdover from Reconstruction. But like ^ said, you can't just hear the term "cotton" and assume someone is being racist with it.

2/25/2018 9:02:37 AM

Well, it was written by an African-American bluesman -- Lead Belly -- in 1940.

Maybe he was self-loathing. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Fields

2/25/2018 1:45:50 PM

^ that’s a cool version

^^

I was thinking more that the lyrics sound like there’s a deeper meaning— like it’s an allegory I don’t have the background to understand

Not that cotton=racist

2/25/2018 3:43:39 PM

There are plenty of bands from the 60's and 70's that make heavy use of allegory. CCR never really struck me as one of those. But who knows, maybe you're right.

2/25/2018 9:23:03 PM

Patches was actually about a white dude

2/25/2018 10:03:22 PM