I know three people who picked cotton as a child and they say they will never do it again, not even for their own profit. They were not slaves they were on a farm, their families sharecroppers. It was hard grueling work that barely kept that family growing. These individuals left the farm and return only when necessary, mainly for funerals.
During that same time there were people who worked tobacco farms. I remember visiting my grandparents as a child and being taken with all the other children to the tobacco field to work. I saw one tobacco worm cried so much that they took me back to the house where I remained with my grandmother. Strange how people don’t talk about tobacco farms!
I made a positive comment on the White House YouTube channel, a while back, and a woman jokingly said: Next they will have you picking cotton! Well, I do pick cotton and I told her so. It triggered her.
Why cotton? Because I like growing things, I knit cotton wash cloths and I want to learn how to spin. My goal, should I find that spinning is something I want to do long term, is to go from seed to product without leaving my home. In order to spin your own cotton you have to pick your own cotton. To date, I have succesffully grown and harvested cotton but spinning is not as easy to learn as it looks on the video; but, I am not as dedicated to the art of spinning as I need to be.
I subscribe to a channel on YouTube in which the person is growing his own tobacco, for personal use. No one thinks this is “niggerish”, this is the ideology of those who think it is wrong for Black people to voluntarily grow cotton.
I am motivated by the idea that we should all become as self- sufficient as possible. Even if you don’t make your own clothes you should understand the process. My YouTube channel, NETTIE F. R., started out being about living a practical life, wherever you are. I have learned that there are so many things getting in the way of practical living that I can’t just talk about growing things.
The woman who made the snide remark about me picking cotton lives by a stereo-type. She believes that it is the “White man” that keeps Black people down, she does not see Black people are making money owning the farm. Picking cotton is not a sign of my bondage but that of my independence.
Black Americans are not the only people that were, and still are, enslaved. Unfortunately, they are the only ones (NOT ALL) that are so busy looking back they can’t look forward.
The problem is not me picking cotton. The real problem is a person who struggles with their finances but insist on: buying hundred plus dollar sneakers that they don’t need, clothes they can’t wear every day and even eating out because they “deserve” it. To date I have less than $2,000 in personal debt and prayerfully that will be eliminated in six months. Picking cotton is not enslaving me to the “white man” but using that credit card will.
written by Marsha L F Randolph
NETTIE-OLOGY /NETTIE-ISM reflects the opinions of and is the soul property of the author MARSHA L F RANDOLPH. All rights reserved- do not use without permission. Disagreeing with what is written is not offensive to the author a disagreeable comment will be deleted.
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