Wait A Cotton Picking Minute
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News commentator apologizes for racist remark
June 24, 2018: 3:54 PM ET 
Fox News is distancing itself from a racist remark made by one of its paid commentators on Sunday.
The commentator, David Bossie, was arguing on "Fox & Friends" with Democratic strategist Joel Payne, who is black. He told Payne, "you're out of your cotton-picking mind."
Payne was stunned by the remark. He told Bossie he had "some relatives who picked cotton, and I'm not going to sit back and let you attack me on TV like that."
Bossie, a veteran conservative activist, was a deputy campaign manager on the Trump campaign. He also served as a deputy director of Trump's transition team. He joined Fox News in February 2017.
Fox declined to comment on whether Bossie would be suspended in the wake of the on-air controversy.
But in a statement, a Fox News spokesperson said "David Bossie's comments today were deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate. His remarks do not reflect the sentiments of Fox News and we do not in any way condone them."
Payne, appearing on MSNBC later in the day, said he had a "terse" exchange with Bossie immediately after the Fox News panel. He expressed "some regret," Payne said.
Four and a half hours after the TV segment, Bossie tweeted an apology.
"During a heated segment on 'Fox & Friends' today, I should have chosen my words more carefully and never used the offensive phrase that I did," he wrote. "I apologize to Joel Payne, Fox News and its viewers."
Payne said during his MSNBC interview that he accepted the apology in Bossie's tweet, but said his comments have prompted "frustration" among minorities.
"My namesake is my great-grandfather, who was a sharecropper," he said. "I took that very personally."
"Our family and people like us have worked very hard to come up over the years. And so, to have someone kind of reduce our experience and try to make light of that experience — which I imagine Mr. Bossie was doing — that was offensive and that was unacceptable to me," Payne said.
The banner on screen during the Fox News segment said "PUNDITS CALL TRUMP SUPPORTERS RACIST, NAZIS." The segment was supposed to be all about heated rhetoric.
After the "cotton picking" comment, Bossie again said to Payne, "You're out of your mind."
"Let's end it on a civil note," host Ed Henry said.
He moved on, but came back after a break to "address what just happened."
"I want to make clear Fox News and this show, myself, we don't agree with that particular phrase," Henry said. "It was obviously offensive, and these debates get fiery. That's unfortunate."
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This seems kind of silly, but who the heck says "cotton picking mind" anymore in 2018 ?
What is a cotton picking mind anyway, if not a lazy unfocused slave or sharecropper? It's pretty offensive no matter what race it is intended towards.
when I was young we were told to use cotton picking instead of a cuss word
...minorities and women weren't allowed to vote. We get it, you're really really old. Thankfully much progress has been made since you were born.
Now just a cotton picking minute here, I ain't that old!
So now Bugs Bunny must be purged!
He'd have been beaten and left to die on a barbed wire fence if the religious bigots had their way, he dressed up as a female bunny far too often for the homophobic half wits.
What Does Wait a Cotton Picking Minute Mean?
Home » Phrase and Idiom Dictionary » What Does Wait a Cotton Picking Minute Mean?
Wait a Cotton Picking Minute Meaning
Definition: Wait a gosh darn minute!
Origin of Cotton Picking Minute
Cotton-picking in this expression is a euphemism for a swear word, and it adds emphasis. People sometimes use this term in other cases, like keep your cotton-picking hands off of that . They use it when they want to use stronger language, but don’t want to use swear words. It usually stands in for the word damn.
Another use of cotton is keep your cotton picking hands off of me .
These phrases make more sense if you know a little about harvesting cotton. Picking cotton is a harsh, difficult task that leaves someone’s hands rough and calloused. Before the cotton gin or other mechanized approaches, this was done completely by hand, which left the workers hand extremely rough.
And it’s not a surprise that this expression originated in the Southern United States, where the cotton industry was, and still is, a major industry. In 19th-century America, cotton was picked by African-American slaves, so the phrase cotton picking minute has some racial overtones.
It’s unclear, however, if the adjective use in other phrases like cotton picking hands has the same overtones. Early sources show the phrase being used to refer to anyone who picked cotton, not just black slaves. It was a reference the difficulty of the job, not the worker.
While the phrase is benign in most instances, still proceed with caution when using it.
Examples of Cotton Picking Minute
Cassie: Hey! There’s a party at Brad’s house tonight. Let’s go together!
Rebecca: I’d like to go, but this house is just too dirty. I really think it should be clean before we go out.
Cassie: Yeah, thanks for offering to clean it. Have fun cleaning the house! I’ll see you after I get back from the party!
Rebecca: Now wait a cotton picking minute! I’ve tried to be polite and subtle about this, but you are just too dense to understand.
Cassie: What are you talking about?
Rebecca: I’ve been hinting to you for days that I’d like you to clean up your mess that you left in the kitchen, and now you’re just going to go out and enjoy yourself and leave me to clean up after you!
Cassie: I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it was such a big deal. We’ll clean it together and then go to the party together.
Rebecca: Thank you. That’s all that I wanted.
Antonio: No offense, but your team is terrible!
Igor: Wait a cotton picking minute! I won’t stand to hear you say such awful things about my team! Anyway, my team is much better than yours!
More Examples
This excerpt is about one politician using this expression while talking about another politician. Some people called the expression offensive.
This is a Twitter quote in the article. The person is expressing shock about a confusing story line on a soap opera.
Summary
The expression what a cotton picking minute means Hold on for a damn moment! It shows anger or other strong feelings, and cotton picking is a substitute for stronger curse words. It may have racist connotations for some.
White people picked cotton too.
Wow.. very interesting .. cotton picking was a job only done by blacks, is now being defined as a racist term, and can be taken personally? Who knew!