6 Answers

Probably is a racist statement or could be if intended to be so. James, who is Casper white,  picked a great deal of cotton during incarceration. Cotton picking is not a black only pastime.... I use the phrase without thought. Get your cotton picking hands off of whatever is mine.....

Oh of course it is! Don't you know that EVERYTHING is racist these days? If not racist, at the very least it is appalling, disgusting, abusive, thoughtless, provocative and on and on. Come on now. It's a very old expression and anyone who accuses an announcer of using it in an intentionally racist manner, is out of THEIR cotton picking mind! People need to stop searching so hard to find a "cause" so they can look like a hero in the news and on social media. It's getting sickening. Go out in the world and help someone who needs it. Then you can be a real hero according to your actions and not just with lip service!

Time to move on folkes,the guy was getting praised out of his boots and i bet he did not feel racially abused..we in Aussie do not have black cotton pickers.but we do have the saying "are you out of your cotton picking mind",does that make us racist??..we do have racism in Aussie,,i do think we have done okay,100 years after America started the civil war Aussie gave the right to vote to the Aboriginal..and we are only 250 years old..however being young should give us the advantage to look at the mistakes of older countries..which does not always hold true..>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<.. 

Im sure somebody willl say it is. Remember this ,  racism started back in Africa when blacks enslaved blacks. White people did not start slavery. You dont ever hear that do you. 

That's just an old saying . I remember hearing that in the 50s and 60s. It's not a racial slur. White people picked cotton too.........even the kids did.

We don't pick cotton over hear, but we do pick apples and peas. That used to be done by anyone who needed a few extra shillings, my mum and her sisters used to do it, so did us kids after school. Twenty years ago it was mainly done by Irish gypsies, now its mainly done by eastern Europeans. So I suppose if I call someone a pea picker or apple picker I must be racist.

country bumpkin

Exactly! Good answer, Dave.