Opinion

People Are Calling For A Total Ban On Cotton Because — You Guessed It — Racism

Cotton (Credit: Shutterstock)

Jena Greene Reporter
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A woman in Texas berated Hobby Lobby last week for selling cotton as a decorative home accessory.

Daniell Rider posted her complaint to the craft store’s Facebook page:

There is nothing decorative about raw cotton. A commodity which was gained at the expense of African-American slaves. A little sensitivity goes a long way. Please remove this decor.

The post received close to 15,000 shares and 160,000 comments. The user, Daniell Rider, then received backlash for her sensitivity and responded to her critics:

All those who are offended by cotton being a decoration need to quit buying any product made of cotton!

And other users quickly came to her defense, one adding:

What difference does it make if it’s a decoration or part of a product. You’re being hypocritical if your offended by cotton being a decoration and not offended by any product made of cotton.

Brutal grammar aside, these people are actually serious. They legitimately want consumers everywhere to stop buying cotton products because cotton “racist.”

Now perhaps these people didn’t get a proper high school economics education, so I’ll break it down quickly.

Cotton rules the economy.

It has for centuries. We fought a war about it. The Antebellum South exported lots of things, namely cotton, tobacco, and indigo. It’s true, these products were largely cultivated dependent on slavery, which was eradicated after the Civil War.

A hundred-some-odd years later, though, and the South still exports these things. Without slaves. Do you know how many things are made of cotton nowadays? You can’t go five minutes without coming into contact with something made of cotton. Most of our clothes are cotton byproducts. Bedsheets, rugs, coffee filters, even some fire hoses are made of cotton.

Is Daniell Rider perhaps suggesting we let houses burn down because fire hoses are racist?

I bet she was wearing a cotton product when she wrote the post.

I sat out the war against the Confederate Flag. I patiently weathered the outcry over a statue of General Lee. But cotton? I won’t let cotton be the next victim of the rabid race police.

Next, they’ll be calling for the dismantling of ancient religious monuments in the Middle East because they were likely build by slaves. Know who else wants to destroy ancient monuments? ISIS.

I rest my case. Keep your clothes on.