Comments on: Lou Dobbs is mad at Condi the race troublemaker http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/ Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:14:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: The Crapture http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504886 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:51:46 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504886 Of course the rampaging irony is that Dobb's schtick would be non-existent if it were not for all of us crazy, job-stealing, cotton-picking, crime-spreading, leprous brown people. Without us, he'd just be some neighborhood's cranky old douchebag trying to keep the kids off of his lawn. Of course the rampaging irony is that Dobb’s schtick would be non-existent if it were not for all of us crazy, job-stealing, cotton-picking, crime-spreading, leprous brown people. Without us, he’d just be some neighborhood’s cranky old douchebag trying to keep the kids off of his lawn.

]]> by: Chan, Duchy de Leche http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504838 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:29:50 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504838 I, too, grew up saying "cotton-pickin'," and hearing it said in company too polite to bust out the Anglo-Saxons, and never considered until now the implications of it. I am sorry it didn't occur to me until now to consider it. I am able to say that it's not an epithet I use at all these days, having long since decided to dispense with weak pejoratives like "dad-burn" and power straight on through to our Anglo-Saxon heritage when I need something strong. So my first reaction was "Cotton-picking? That's it? That's what the flap is about?" and my second was "Oh. Well, shit." So there's been some result of our dialog on race, at least for me personally. I, too, grew up saying “cotton-pickin’,” and hearing it said in company too polite to bust out the Anglo-Saxons, and never considered until now the implications of it.

I am sorry it didn’t occur to me until now to consider it. I am able to say that it’s not an epithet I use at all these days, having long since decided to dispense with weak pejoratives like “dad-burn” and power straight on through to our Anglo-Saxon heritage when I need something strong.

So my first reaction was “Cotton-picking? That’s it? That’s what the flap is about?” and my second was “Oh. Well, shit.”

So there’s been some result of our dialog on race, at least for me personally.

]]> by: Tina H http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504825 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:22:34 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504825 I grew up saying cotton-picking, as in "not one cotton-picking minute." Alas, that was long ago in the country and I'm working on getting that, and other such language, out of my vocabulary. I grew up saying cotton-picking, as in “not one cotton-picking minute.” Alas, that was long ago in the country and I’m working on getting that, and other such language, out of my vocabulary.

]]> by: Caren, Creator of Animorphic Pancakes http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504724 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:34:15 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504724 Odds are practically nil, paul, since CNN scrubbed the "cotton-pi" from the transcript. Odds are practically nil, paul, since CNN scrubbed the “cotton-pi” from the transcript.

]]> by: paul http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504715 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:17:54 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504715 So what are the odds the Dobbs even apologizes, much less gets the Imus treatment? So what are the odds the Dobbs even apologizes, much less gets the Imus treatment?

]]> by: Orange http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504672 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:48:48 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504672 I used the phrase when I was a kid, completely unaware that it had any meaning other than "goddamn." My dad grew up in a white ethnic Chicago neighborhood near where they threw rocks and bottles at Martin Luther King, so I'm sure he grew up using the word and didn't think to jettison it when he opted to settle in an integrated suburb. It hit me in my 20s that it might have racist connotations. However, the <a href="http://www.answers.com/cotton-picking&amp;r=67" rel="nofollow">American Heritage Dictionary</a> merely defines it as an adjective "used as an intensive." "Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?" Sure, Dobbs just wanted to intensify his description of them as "leaders." Mm-hmm, that's the ticket. I used the phrase when I was a kid, completely unaware that it had any meaning other than “goddamn.” My dad grew up in a white ethnic Chicago neighborhood near where they threw rocks and bottles at Martin Luther King, so I’m sure he grew up using the word and didn’t think to jettison it when he opted to settle in an integrated suburb. It hit me in my 20s that it might have racist connotations.

However, the American Heritage Dictionary merely defines it as an adjective “used as an intensive.” “Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?” Sure, Dobbs just wanted to intensify his description of them as “leaders.” Mm-hmm, that’s the ticket.

]]> by: PhoenixRising http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504668 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:25:31 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504668 No, Mike, <b>I</b> have the Most Ignorant Relatives in America, and indeed they do not say this. I'm not sure I even know WTF it means. I get that 'pickaninny' is a racial slur, but my only exposure to the term was in a really interesting course I took as an undergrad called The History of Whiteness in America. Presumably 'cotton-pickin' pertains to the picking of cotton, which is associated with sharecropping, which is associated with blackness. However, see above for my authority on this, some of the Most Ignorant Relatives in America got that way by, wait for it, pickin' tobacco and/or cotton rather than attending school. (One of the many reasons I'm grateful that my granddad came down with life-threatening appendicitis while scuttling coal, the job that paid better than pickin' anything, is that the Peabody company paid for surgery then fired him. Thus beginning my parent's journey Up North where they have schools and all, and freeing me from the pickin' activity.) Wonder what Lou's family did once they came over here and found out that pickin' taters is not a way to keep body and soul together... No, Mike, I have the Most Ignorant Relatives in America, and indeed they do not say this.

I’m not sure I even know WTF it means. I get that ‘pickaninny’ is a racial slur, but my only exposure to the term was in a really interesting course I took as an undergrad called The History of Whiteness in America.

Presumably ‘cotton-pickin’ pertains to the picking of cotton, which is associated with sharecropping, which is associated with blackness.

However, see above for my authority on this, some of the Most Ignorant Relatives in America got that way by, wait for it, pickin’ tobacco and/or cotton rather than attending school.

(One of the many reasons I’m grateful that my granddad came down with life-threatening appendicitis while scuttling coal, the job that paid better than pickin’ anything, is that the Peabody company paid for surgery then fired him. Thus beginning my parent’s journey Up North where they have schools and all, and freeing me from the pickin’ activity.)

Wonder what Lou’s family did once they came over here and found out that pickin’ taters is not a way to keep body and soul together…

]]> by: MikeEss http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504660 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:00:39 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504660 <i>"Do people really SAY that expression outside of the way-off-Broadway production of Porgy &amp; Bess?"</i> Unfortunately, I'm related to people who I've heard use that phrase... “Do people really SAY that expression outside of the way-off-Broadway production of Porgy & Bess?”

Unfortunately, I’m related to people who I’ve heard use that phrase…

]]> by: PhoenixRising http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504659 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:56:59 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504659 That's just...I mean...Do people really SAY that expression outside of the way-off-Broadway production of <i>Porgy &amp; Bess</i>? No way. That’s just…I mean…Do people really SAY that expression outside of the way-off-Broadway production of Porgy & Bess?

No way.

]]> by: Caren, Creator of Animorphic Pancakes http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504649 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:40:34 +0100 http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/31/lou-dobbs-is-mad-at-condi-the-race-troublemaker/#comment-504649 <blockquote>Folks, the Villagers really do live in little enclaves of like-minded people and do not deign to notice the servitors or waitrons.</blockquote> Yes, Mold, we know this. That's why it's funny. Dobbs is in the middle of a rant about how racism is no more and there's no need to discuss it or even think that there's any problem about discussing it. Then he nearly busts out with a blatant racist statement, which, of course, negates his entire rant. It's funny (and sad). He's trying to convince us not only that he's not racist, but that no American is anymore. And he can't even make it 2 minutes without flubbing and showing the lie. Were that it was true...

Folks, the Villagers really do live in little enclaves of like-minded people and do not deign to notice the servitors or waitrons.

Yes, Mold, we know this.

That’s why it’s funny.

Dobbs is in the middle of a rant about how racism is no more and there’s no need to discuss it or even think that there’s any problem about discussing it. Then he nearly busts out with a blatant racist statement, which, of course, negates his entire rant.

It’s funny (and sad). He’s trying to convince us not only that he’s not racist, but that no American is anymore. And he can’t even make it 2 minutes without flubbing and showing the lie.

Were that it was true…

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