My dad picked cotton with a hand called "Manchild"

[Recursion]

Pulling this from another thread because it might deserve attention.

I'm from the Mississippi aristocracy, albeit one of the poorer wings of it. My grandparents raised cotton, indigo, and catfish until Katrina killed their downstream market and nudged them into retirement.

I'm 31. My dad, as a kid, picked cotton and stomped indigo in their fields and paddies. He worked with a hand called "Manchild".

He was called that because he was born before emancipation, and his mother didn't want to name him because she couldn't emotionally afford to become attached to him.

My dad is a Virginian now, and voted for Obama today. I just think that's worth saying.

[Forkboy]

1. I don't like either choice very much...

but K&R to this.

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. What was his other hand called?

:)

[Recursion]

3. Hardy har har

I was a hand most summers too (because life doesn't really suck enough until you pick cotton in Mississippi in August...). It's just what we're called.

[stillrockin]

7. you are BAD!

[griffi94]

4. yeah

and i swamped on a bending tractor with a mississippi hand named boy-dog...but he wasn't black..
just poor white trash.....and altho i haven't seen boy-dog in almost 20 years...i'll bet he didn't vote
because he could barely read....and figured people that swamped on bending tractors got fucked no matter
was in the white house

[MagickMuffin]

5. I wish you wouldn't refer to this MAN as "Poor White Trash"

Some times these terms can be so hurtful.

Why continue with the derogatory term?

[griffi94]

6. because

that's what he called himself...actually he didn't say poor....he said collins mississippi white trash
he wasn't ashamed of....why should you be....i've always been really proud of being oilfield trash

[Recursion]

8. Geez, I know Collins

Not too far from where I grew up. But, yeah, that's south enough to be out of the Delta and into roughneck land.

[griffi94]

9. they were rough necks

his whole family worked out there....his brother and his dad...and his wife...called she-dog...used to sell us sandwiches at noon.....they lived in an old school bus that they had converted into a camper...
i worked with a bunch of theose collins mississippi boys...them and bald knobbers...i can honestly say...i don't miss that at all...even tho it paid a lot

[MagickMuffin]

10. As I stated in my other post I just find it derogatory, I would love to see us move past these terms

I prefer to refer to people as people. You know the human race.

I kinda of find it disturbing that people would refer to themselves that way. I grew up in a community where people were referred to as white trash, trailer park trash, black trash, it implies to me that if you don't have a lot of money then you are worthless and have no rights.

[griffi94]

11. well that's not how

most of us who grew up with a label like that see it. i understand what you mean....
but i once worked in a crew with a black man that liked to be called n----r joe.
i told him i had trouble calling him that....and he told me to stfu that was what he had always been called and he wasn't changing for my delicate sensibilities. actually he didn't say sensibilities...
he said that's my name that's what everybody calls me...you do the same.... it's only offensive if you make it so......and while i agree with you that all people are people....as fucked up as it sounds...a lot of those folks are proud of it because nobody can take it from them....not trying to change yer mind...just pointing out how it worked out there.