Is cotton offensive to black people?

[LoveTrains]

Dec 10, 2014 13:44:11 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Dec 10, 2014 13:37:59 GMT -5 @smorriso said:

bimbi was the first to mention it, and I quoted her after. I didn't see any other responses to it being offensive. It there were, it was missed.

Decorating with it as marketing is the offensive part. Not wearing cotton. If Brooks Brothers wanted to get all nostalgic on people by bringing up the old harvest look of cotton, it's hard to separate that from black oppression. So, it's offensive.

Agreed. The South is mainly equated with its production of cotton fields. That's the main image that comes to mind. Tobacco and Sugar Cane are other exports, but sugar cane was a Caribbean crop. Cotton is one of the hallmarks of American slavery. 

The wealth of Newport, RI and much of colonial RI was derived from sugar and slavery. It was all linked. I think the RI ship owners would carry the slaves to the caribbean, then carry the sugar back up to new england. It is a sad chapter but sugar played an important role.

Didn't the main character in 12 years a slave spend some time on a sugar cane plantation? I agree that cotton is one of the hallmarks, but so are sugar, tobacco, and rice. 

[teengirlsquad]

Can I ask a legitimate question? Maybe I'm ignorant and that's definitely a possibility. But I come from sharecroppers who picked cotton. Including my 75 year old grandmother. Is cotton supposed to offend me? Or her? It doesn't but I'm white. Don't get me wrong I think slavery was unbelievably horrible. But being offending by cotton seems a little extreme. Sometimes I wonder if our culture gets offended too easily.

[erbear]

Cotton in the bouquets at a southern wedding on a former plantation? I did a double take. WHY?! Folks there looked at me like I was crazy.

[teengirlsquad]

Dec 10, 2014 20:48:47 GMT -5 @mx said:

Dec 10, 2014 20:40:48 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

Can I ask a legitimate question? Maybe I'm ignorant and that's definitely a possibility. But I come from sharecroppers who picked cotton. Including my 75 year old grandmother. Is cotton supposed to offend me? Or her? It doesn't but I'm white. Don't get me wrong I think slavery was unbelievably horrible. But being offending by cotton seems a little extreme. Sometimes I wonder if our culture gets offended too easily.

Generally speaking you don't have to be offended by something to see how someone else with different experiences and identity might be legitimately offended.

In my experience most people don't get offended easily, but it is common for people of all stripes, but especially those in the white, Christian, hetero majority to assume others are "more easily offended" when they simply haven't given thought to why someone with different day to day experiences might react differently than they do.

Thanks for not jumping all over me. I swear I'm not trying to be an ignorant jackass. It really did legitimately surprise me that people might be offended by cotton. But I can't deny that I am priviledged and come from the majority.

[erbear]

Dec 10, 2014 14:25:07 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Dec 10, 2014 14:04:13 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

Dumb question, but is cotton not grown in fields now? Are cotton fields an "old timey" thing or something that still exists and contribute to the production of the clothing items sold there? I'm sorry, I'm from the midwest and we don't grow cotton here so I really honestly have no clue. I assume it comes from somewhere, but I guess I've never thought about it. 

I think this is another reason why it's important to have diversity in people working in marketing. I may just be an ignorant white person myself, but I had NO IDEA that this would have been offensive and may have thought that cotton plants near cotton clothing made sense and it never would have crossed my mind to connect that with slavery. I know next to nothing about Brooks Brothers (other than that it is very much NMS) but if it's mostly white people clothing, I am guessing nobody involved in decorating gave even a second of thought to the history of the plant they were using as decoration. But stores should be conscious of ensuring that people of all races/cultures/backgrounds are part of these decisions.

If I was Helen I would have been mortified, felt completely awful, and absolutely taken it down. So I think it was right for the author to say something and teach Helen (and me) that this is offensive. But I would not assume that Helen or her company did anything intentionally offensive. 

Cotton fields still look the same. To illustrate a previous post - nothing much has changed from this:



And this except ain't no black folks or sharecroppers in the field.



And People - in Googling these images, I find tons of white folks taking family photos in cotton fields. Fix It Jesus.

Seriously!? Jesus, take the wheel.

[pamela]

Dec 10, 2014 18:39:34 GMT -5 redwino said:

I don't know if I would have been offended by the brooks brothers display. I'm having a hard time picturing what the display would look like and I now realize I've never seen raw cotton in real life. So I'm not saying that the display isn't offensive, I'm just not sure how I would react to it. This thread has actually stirred up some feelings I didn't know I had.

On the point of people getting married on plantations and taking pictures in cotton fields, I definitely feel some type a way. I just don't understand how people can give no thought to that type of thing. I have friends who live in a brand new neighborhood called Blah Blah Plantation. The first time I came to their house I mentioned the name and they said they hadn't thought about it. I'm sure they hadn't but it blows my mind that you don't hear the word plantation and not think, nah I'll keep looking.

There are 2 neighborhoods within a mile of me named after the plantation they once were. Mine too, but it doesn't actually say plantation in the name. They are not all white neighborhoods either.

[gpw]

Oh, shit. Fix it NitaX.

[redwino]

Dec 10, 2014 20:57:17 GMT -5 pamela said:

Dec 10, 2014 18:39:34 GMT -5 redwino said:

I don't know if I would have been offended by the brooks brothers display. I'm having a hard time picturing what the display would look like and I now realize I've never seen raw cotton in real life. So I'm not saying that the display isn't offensive, I'm just not sure how I would react to it. This thread has actually stirred up some feelings I didn't know I had.

On the point of people getting married on plantations and taking pictures in cotton fields, I definitely feel some type a way. I just don't understand how people can give no thought to that type of thing. I have friends who live in a brand new neighborhood called Blah Blah Plantation. The first time I came to their house I mentioned the name and they said they hadn't thought about it. I'm sure they hadn't but it blows my mind that you don't hear the word plantation and not think, nah I'll keep looking.

There are 2 neighborhoods within a mile of me named after the plantation they once were. Mine too, but it doesn't actually say plantation in the name. They are not all white neighborhoods either.

This area was not previously a plantation. I would even wager to say that there were never any plantations in the state (Oklahoma) but I'm not completely sure about that. I think some developer simply thought blah blah plantation was a sweet name for the neighborhood. The smaller houses are called the blah blah gardens, which also makes me side eye. Something about distinguishing the garden homes from the plantation homes makes me feel icky. Anyway, this probably wouldn't bother me as much if the neighborhood wasn't less than 5 years old and plantation wasn't actually in the name. The developer should have known better in 2010. I have no problem if the housing development that sits on the grounds of the old Elliot Plantation is called Elliot Hills or whatever.

[Deleted]

Dec 10, 2014 21:26:10 GMT -5 redwino said:

Dec 10, 2014 20:57:17 GMT -5 pamela said:

There are 2 neighborhoods within a mile of me named after the plantation they once were. Mine too, but it doesn't actually say plantation in the name. They are not all white neighborhoods either.

This area was not previously a plantation. I would even wager to say that there were never any plantations in the state (Oklahoma) but I'm not completely sure about that. I think some developer simply thought blah blah plantation was a sweet name for the neighborhood. The smaller houses are called the blah blah gardens, which also makes me side eye. Something about distinguishing the garden homes from the plantation homes makes me feel icky. Anyway, this probably wouldn't bother me as much if the neighborhood wasn't less than 5 years old and plantation wasn't actually in the name. The developer should have known better in 2010. I have no problem if the housing development that sits on the grounds of the old Elliot Plantation is called Elliot Hills or whatever.

 Yup. Oklahoma had plantations.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murrell_Home

[stealthmom]

Dec 10, 2014 19:48:28 GMT -5 @mx said:

If I saw that display I would have been pretty wide eyed. Not just because of the history of cotton in the US, but because currently a great deal of global cotton production happens under conditions of forced labor and forced child labor. So...I would be surprised at a retailer trying to remind folks of where the shirts come from.

this is where my mind immediately went. I believe most cotton is grown in india and the conditions are poor.

[redwino]

Dec 10, 2014 21:50:46 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

Dec 10, 2014 21:26:10 GMT -5 redwino said:

This area was not previously a plantation. I would even wager to say that there were never any plantations in the state (Oklahoma) but I'm not completely sure about that. I think some developer simply thought blah blah plantation was a sweet name for the neighborhood. The smaller houses are called the blah blah gardens, which also makes me side eye. Something about distinguishing the garden homes from the plantation homes makes me feel icky. Anyway, this probably wouldn't bother me as much if the neighborhood wasn't less than 5 years old and plantation wasn't actually in the name. The developer should have known better in 2010. I have no problem if the housing development that sits on the grounds of the old Elliot Plantation is called Elliot Hills or whatever.

 Yup. Oklahoma had plantations.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murrell_Home

Yea I Google after I posted. I was going to edit but was being lazy.
Eta: I can see now how I kind of implied that there were no slaves in OK. That's not the case as many tribes had slaves.

[epphd]

Dec 10, 2014 21:32:06 GMT -5 mockingbird said:

This is one of those eye opening posts for me. It makes total sense reading it. Even to the point of feeling kind of dumb and embarrassed to admit that if I saw the display it would NOT occur to me to think anything of it. I would have thought it was a nod towards where the materials come from. A pretty rustic nod.

I feel like I've become a lot less oblivious/disconnected thanks to a lot of posts in on this board.

YES. So true. Thank you.

ETA: And also, with these types of posts, I feel like a dick for not knowing, but also - will never UNknow. In fact I just talked with DH about this particular case (we talked about Strange Fruit last night).  He said "I don't know. I don't see it that way." I told him that didn't matter - it's not FOR him to say. Which he agrees with.

And I can only imagine how fucking tedious it must be to hear a constant refrain from sheltered white women announcing "oh MY I had NO idea!" So sorry for that.

[MrsAxilla]

Dec 10, 2014 21:32:06 GMT -5 mockingbird said:

This is one of those eye opening posts for me. It makes total sense reading it. Even to the point of feeling kind of dumb and embarrassed to admit that if I saw the display it would NOT occur to me to think anything of it. I would have thought it was a nod towards where the materials come from. A pretty rustic nod.

I feel like I've become a lot less oblivious/disconnected thanks to a lot of posts in on this board.

Ditto.  I probably would have thought it was interesting to see and touch raw cotton (I never have). Kind of like when you go to a brewery and they let you play with hops.  

[sparrowsong]

It would not have occurred to me either. As a former florist, I would've just thought - oh, that's an interesting material.

[epphd]

Dec 10, 2014 22:03:29 GMT -5 @soudesafinado said:

All this post has done has convinced me to get married at a plantation with my bridesmaids dressed as house slaves and field slaves depending on who I like the most and they can carry stalks of cotton and flue-cured tobacco and we can sing ol negro spirituals and jump the broom.

I found your bouquet.

[iammalcolmx]

Dec 10, 2014 20:40:48 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

Can I ask a legitimate question? Maybe I'm ignorant and that's definitely a possibility. But I come from sharecroppers who picked cotton. Including my 75 year old grandmother. Is cotton supposed to offend me? Or her? It doesn't but I'm white. Don't get me wrong I think slavery was unbelievably horrible. But being offending by cotton seems a little extreme. Sometimes I wonder if our culture gets offended too easily.

If you believe it to be wrong and horrible why is a visceral by people(especially those of us who are descendents of slaves) extreme? For the record I don't like looking at sugar cane either. And I am sorry but as an African American who has a grandma that was a second generation college graduate I seriously doubt we are of the same culture. As a result I don't believe you are in a position to speak as to us being offended so easily.

[NitaX]

Dec 10, 2014 20:40:48 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

Can I ask a legitimate question? Maybe I'm ignorant and that's definitely a possibility. But I come from sharecroppers who picked cotton. Including my 75 year old grandmother. Is cotton supposed to offend me? Or her? It doesn't but I'm white. Don't get me wrong I think slavery was unbelievably horrible. But being offending by cotton seems a little extreme. Sometimes I wonder if our culture gets offended too easily.

Out of respect for @mx who gave a very nice response, I'm not going to come at you as strong as I usually would. But, I am gonna say a few things.

No, WE aren't easily offended. There are plenty of things that Black Folks side-eye and keep it moving. But, we get tired of having to remind people that this nation began some of its early prosperity through the blood and sweat of people who were NEVER invited to sit at the table and share in its wealth. Yet, we were conveniently used to give the southern states more voting power and even then we weren't counted as an entire human being. 3/5ths of a person. That's all. Not even 4/5ths, just 3/5ths.

Those cotton fields not that far from my house are the same dayum fields that my paternal great-great-great-great grandparents picked. The land about 4 miles from me was given to them by Massa because he fathered some kids and left them the land they still have to this day.

Or the fact that my great-great grandmother told me that she was a sharecropper and every time they went in to weigh cotton, the landowner would put weights on the scales. Her quote was "We left Mississippi owing that man money." But, I don't know if your grandparents were basically cheated or not because maybe that guy was a lot nicer to people who looked like him.

Then after we were freed, we were systematically denied participation in this society that hails bootstraps and bald eagles and Horatio Alger stories of triumph. Just 50 YEARS AGO people were marching because they wanted basic civil rights. My own mom tells stories of how she wasn't allowed to go to the zoo except for one day a week. and to think this - some schools in Memphis weren't even integrated until 1972. I myself was only born 4 years later.

Yet, WE are easily offended. The only thing we get offended about is that people have selective amnesia about the things this nation has done to every minority in it. Chinese? Yep - we're gonna restrict your ass from being here.Native Americans? Even after the Supreme Court says something different, we march you across the country to the worst dayum land there ever was (as in not fertile and not suitable for farming). Latino - we kick you out of the communities you established and violated all the previous agreements with our neighbors. Black folks - we enslave and lynch you. Oh and immigrants who are white but not like us - we make your life a living hell until you change your last name so that you can fit in better - oh and lose that accent.

We can't keep thinking America is some place where everything comes up all roses and get mad when people say - "you ain't right for selling cotton in black folks neighborhoods." Because it's tasteless and shows that you don't really care enough about making people feel welcome in a country that has done some really fucked up shit.

[erbear]

Dec 10, 2014 22:35:46 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Dec 10, 2014 20:40:48 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

Can I ask a legitimate question? Maybe I'm ignorant and that's definitely a possibility. But I come from sharecroppers who picked cotton. Including my 75 year old grandmother. Is cotton supposed to offend me? Or her? It doesn't but I'm white. Don't get me wrong I think slavery was unbelievably horrible. But being offending by cotton seems a little extreme. Sometimes I wonder if our culture gets offended too easily.

Out of respect for @mx who gave a very nice response, I'm not going to come at you as strong as I usually would. But, I am gonna say a few things.

No, WE aren't easily offended. There are plenty of things that Black Folks side-eye and keep it moving. But, we get tired of having to remind people that this nation began some of its early prosperity through the blood and sweat of people who were NEVER invited to sit at the table and share in its wealth. Yet, we were conveniently used to give the southern states more voting power and even then we weren't counted as an entire human being. 3/5ths of a person. That's all. Not even 4/5ths, just 3/5ths.

Those cotton fields not that far from my house are the same dayum fields that my paternal great-great-great-great grandparents picked. The land about 4 miles from me was given to them by Massa because he fathered some kids and left them the land they still have to this day.

Or the fact that my great-great grandmother told me that she was a sharecropper and every time they went in to weigh cotton, the landowner would put weights on the scales. Her quote was "We left Mississippi owing that man money." But, I don't know if your grandparents were basically cheated or not because maybe that guy was a lot nicer to people who looked like him.

Then after we were freed, we were systematically denied participation in this society that hails bootstraps and bald eagles and Horatio Alger stories of triumph. Just 50 YEARS AGO people were marching because they wanted basic civil rights. My own mom tells stories of how she wasn't allowed to go to the zoo except for one day a week. and to think this - some schools in Memphis weren't even integrated until 1972. I myself was only born 4 years later.

Yet, WE are easily offended. The only thing we get offended about is that people have selective amnesia about the things this nation has done to every minority in it. Chinese? Yep - we're gonna restrict your ass from being here.Native Americans? Even after the Supreme Court says something different, we march you across the country to the worst dayum land there ever was (as in not fertile and not suitable for farming). Latino - we kick you out of the communities you established and violated all the previous agreements with our neighbors. Black folks - we enslave and lynch you. Oh and immigrants who are white but not like us - we make your life a living hell until you change your last name so that you can fit in better - oh and lose that accent.

We can't keep thinking America is some place where everything comes up all roses and get mad when people say - "you ain't right for selling cotton in black folks neighborhoods." Because it's tasteless and shows that you don't really care enough about making people feel welcome in a country that has done some really fucked up shit.

I want to like this a million times.

[bina]

Dec 10, 2014 12:53:32 GMT -5 @smorriso said:

I don't know. In the Brooks Brother's situation, I think it likens itself to the Blake Lively Southern Belle marketing. It has ties to a troubling time.

Like she said, we sleep on it, wear it, etc. So, it's hard to escape. However when cotton in this country was produced and stored as it was in the retail display, it was picked by black folks, either slaves or sharecroppers. My vote is offensive and tasteless.

I think that commonality with a product such as cotton is what helped to inspire Kara Walker's sculpture Subtlety that was housed in Brooklyn this summer. She wanted to call attention to the sugar trade and its ties to slavery and the abuses associated with it. Sugar is in damn near everything, like cotton, and it has a sad horrific history.

There was a bag raved about on Style and Beauty and the company name was Whipping Post. I think only bimbi284 and I were the only ones that even caught how inappropriate that was.

Wow, I was one of those people that did not catch the connotation of the name of that at all. Thank you ladies for helping me learn in this thread, I could immediately recognize how the raw cotton would be offensive I didn't catch that at all.

[teengirlsquad]

I really am sorry. I am just trying to learn and that's why I asked. I can see it was very short sighted of me to react and think how could anybody be offended by cotton. I really can see now how it would be offensive. And I do get that I am more fortunate than I can really comprehend because I was born into an upper middle class white family. I want to be able to see beyond that. I really am trying. And I really am sorry.

[Kattey]

This thread was eye opening for me. I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought yesterday. This is why I love CEP, you guys explain so many things that I wouldn't otherwise consider outside my bubble.

There is a cotton field smack dab in the middle of the town I live in. Maybe 10 acres? I mean smack fucking dab between some apartments, Toyota dealer, bank, funeral home...and this isn't a super tiny town, it's a military town, so a pretty decent size.

Aaaaannnnddd, the subdivision maybe two miles from my house, Tara Estates, all named after characters from Gone With the Wind. At least they didn't name it Tara Plantation.

[NitaX]

Dec 10, 2014 23:37:57 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

I really am sorry. I am just trying to learn and that's why I asked. I can see it was very short sighted of me to react and think how could anybody be offended by cotton. I really can see now how it would be offensive. And I do get that I am more fortunate than I can really comprehend because I was born into an upper middle class white family. I want to be able to see beyond that. I really am trying. And I really am sorry.

Well, you get points for asking. And we - Black Folks of CEP - are more than willing to explain why our worldview is a million times different than yours. Like HBC mentioned, I can't drive past the cotton fields a few miles from my house and NOT think about how my great-great-great-great grandparents worked those fields. I don't get to think OH WOW Pretty! Lets go and take family photos. I'd feel like the spirit of my ancestors would be angry that I made light of their peril. 

It's a very, very different reality. Sometimes, I often wonder what would it be like if black folks weren't so adept at making white folks feel "safe" because we can navigate two realities so well. I really feel like the biggest error American society makes is to simply ignore atrocities as if they never happened. We're good at reminding everyone else of their faults, but we don't recognize our own. So, when these discussions take place - white folks are baffled and black folks are like FOR REAL THOUGH? Who do you think picked all that glorious cotton? It for dayum sure wasn't the cotton boll weeivels.

[NitaX]

Dec 10, 2014 23:57:42 GMT -5 Kattey said:

This thread was eye opening for me. I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought yesterday. This is why I love CEP, you guys explain so many things that I wouldn't otherwise consider outside my bubble.

There is a cotton field smack dab in the middle of the town I live in. Maybe 10 acres? I mean smack fucking dab between some apartments, Toyota dealer, bank, funeral home...and this isn't a super tiny town, it's a military town, so a pretty decent size.

Aaaaannnnddd, the subdivision maybe two miles from my house, Tara Estates, all named after characters from Gone With the Wind. At least they didn't name it Tara Plantation.

Let me tell you. I went to a baby shower say like 10 years ago at some dayum place called Bedford Plantation or Estates in an outlying suburb. I parked my car and called my friend and was like "WTF IS THIS PLACE? IT'S NAMED AFTER THE FUCKING KLAN LEADER." I seriously had to calm myself down and then go to a baby shower where I was one of two black people. And while the mom-to-be is a lovely person, I just had to smile and play nice to her family. Never has any of her family save her dad been nice to me. It's like black people are foreign to them or some ish. 

I will put an aside here that I actually like GWTW. I shouldn't, but Rhett giving Scarlett back all her shit 20 fold gives me great glee.

[CallingAllAngels]

Dec 11, 2014 3:07:15 GMT -5 @mx said:

This post also reminded me that it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized how racist one of my mom's favorite scolds was.

Whenever we got up in her business in the kitchen or otherwise touching stuff we shouldn't she'd say "take your cotton-pickin' fingers out of there." When I first realized where it came from my face was .

My MIL used to say, "are you out of your cotton-pick in' mind?" One day I told her I was pretty sure that was racist. The thought had never occurred to her.

[NitaX]

Dec 11, 2014 8:39:34 GMT -5 @mrsbecky said:

I am not sure I would have recognized raw cotton to make the connection with slavery but had someone said to me "that's cotton" I think I would have recognized it as offensive. Maybe. I'm pretty sheltered though and like epphd said this board teaches me a lot and opens my eyes to a lot.

I think @helenabonhamcarter mentioned it but the fact that this display was at brooks brothers makes the whole thing worse. BB is geared towards the upper class and projects an image of old school class and "even if you work, it's probably not because you need to." So I can see how seeing the cotton display there would just add an extra layer of offensiveness. (Is that a word)

I have a BB story. YEARS ago, I was fresh out of grad school and starting to build a professional wardrobe. I go into BB with my friend and start looking around for some good blouses for the new govt job. The sales clerk proceeds to tell me how much the blouse is and eyes me like I should know better and can't afford it. I hadn't even gotten to asking about the price. My friend and I were busy gushing over the color. We both looked at that lady like she lost her marbles. I purchased the shirt, but it was also the first and last BB purchase I ever made.

[orval]

I work in the wedding industry and have used cotton several times. In fact, I have some sitting in my office right now. It is a trendy, rustic, natural material to go along with the burlap, mason jar theme that has been popular.

[iammalcolmx]

Dec 10, 2014 23:37:57 GMT -5 teengirlsquad said:

I really am sorry. I am just trying to learn and that's why I asked. I can see it was very short sighted of me to react and think how could anybody be offended by cotton. I really can see now how it would be offensive. And I do get that I am more fortunate than I can really comprehend because I was born into an upper middle class white family. I want to be able to see beyond that. I really am trying. And I really am sorry.

You are good boo.

[Deleted]

Dec 11, 2014 9:47:04 GMT -5 orval said:

I work in the wedding industry and have used cotton several times. In fact, I have some sitting in my office right now. It is a trendy, rustic, natural material to go along with the burlap, mason jar theme that has been popular.

[00janelane00]

Ok, I'm going to try and jump into my first real discussion, here goes nothing!

Something doesn't sit right with me. Anecdote alert, since I've been a teenager I've been frequently mistaken as a sales associate while shopping (except in winter because of my heavy winter coat). What she says here, "Miss, can you start me a fitting room for me, please. Do you have this in a size 8? Can you tell me the price on this? Where is the bathroom?" totally hits home for me. And yes, it's always the over 50 white lady asking me this crap. I am not black. And I haven't had the privilege of boarding school but I have had the privilege of working retail for 6 years. But I have been told I have a friendly face so maybe that's why people feel that I'm approachable? I don't know other people's intentions but I assume that this demographic has a certain sense of entitlement and wouldn't hesitate to ask anyone for help whether it be to tie their shoe or fetch a different sized shirt.
So the writer feels uneasy being mistaken for a sales associate and then later on goes into Brooks Brothers and asks a sales associate to take down their cotton display. A I said I worked retail and I'm guessing this sales associate didn't put one thought into that display. Sales associates aren't paid to think about the display they artfully arrange, they are paid to serve customers and fold clothes. Yes there are shitty sales associates that will say and act snotty but that wasn't played out in the article. This is where the article bothers me. What was the writer trying to prove here? She knows more about black history than a sales associate at Brooks Brothers? Also, I would be surprised if that display was really taken down the next day, displays are usually dictated by corporate and all stores are supposed to have similar if not the same display.

[iammalcolmx]

Dec 11, 2014 9:59:56 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

Dec 10, 2014 18:39:34 GMT -5 redwino said:

I don't know if I would have been offended by the brooks brothers display. I'm having a hard time picturing what the display would look like and I now realize I've never seen raw cotton in real life. So I'm not saying that the display isn't offensive, I'm just not sure how I would react to it. This thread has actually stirred up some feelings I didn't know I had.

On the point of people getting married on plantations and taking pictures in cotton fields, I definitely feel some type a way. I just don't understand how people can give no thought to that type of thing. I have friends who live in a brand new neighborhood called Blah Blah Plantation. The first time I came to their house I mentioned the name and they said they hadn't thought about it. I'm sure they hadn't but it blows my mind that you don't hear the word plantation and not think, nah I'll keep looking.

A few months ago, there was a decent looking house for sale on Confederate Avenue (maybe Street, can't remember).  The sites that sends me alerts for two neighborhoods I like doesn't have the addresses, so I have to google to get them.  I was slightly interested until I found out.  As it turned out, I later learned that I don't even like the part of the neighborhood the street runs through, so it's good to know I'll never be tempted.  My husband would leave me before he'd live on a Confederate or Plantation anything lol.

I will say I'm more torn on getting married on antebellum plantations.  I would never (and per the above, there would be that whole husband not marrying me thing), but I'm not sure how I feel about it, mostly because I'm not sure how slaves would feel about it.  I don't know if I had been a slave and my descendants were using plantations, would I feel like, "Sellouts!" or would I feel like, "Yes! I built this!  Use it."  Not sure if I'd be ashamed or proud...but since I don't know, I personally would never.

You mean in Grant Park? What do you have against Grant Park?   For the record I wouldn't live on Confederate because it's too busy of a street.