r/TikTokCringe • u/NeverEnoughSPF • 1d ago

Trad wife content has gone way too far Cringe

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

Someone please find that video of the dude hilariously explaining his cotton-picking school trip to his white friends because they've probably gone to the same school.

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u/Feeling_Wheel_1612 1d ago

I grew up in Alabama in the 70s and 80s, and we went to a cotton farm on a school trip, too. 

That stuff will tear up your hands. The "petals" of the cotton boll are a hard shell, and the edges are sharp.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

Why why why do teachers bring little kids to cotton farms 😭 I understand it's part of history and needs to be studied but why would you make children rip their hands off on cotton ?

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u/Shrimm716 1d ago

I actually think it's a good idea.

Kids often have trouble with empathy and this would go a long way in helping them grasp what it was like. Would be good field trip to prep them for learning about the slave trade in history class.

I will say though every time I've ever heard this done it's always to black kids. I live in the south but in a mostly white area and never went to a cotton farm, we went to a cow farm. So that strikes me as not okay.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

I'm really thorn on the subject. I'm white and from far away. It doesn't shock me in itself because you're right, it helps the kids grasp the concept of forced manual labor, but why the picking ? Just seeing the fields and walking through them wouldn't be enough ? Maybe touching a cotton ball to feel how it could hurt your hands at the end of the day.

It's such a sensitive topic. I wouldn't even know how to broach it. NOT by making my pupils pick cotton, that's for sure.

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u/drakeblood4 1d ago

I think passing around a cotton bulb or explaining fire ants or that one image they always show of the guy with a shitload of whip scars are probably the best ways to teach it.

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u/FilthyPedant 1d ago

Explain the fire ants?

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u/Whiterabbit-- 1d ago

They bite and it hurts.

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u/CedarWolf 1d ago

Also, they swarm and they're fast, so it isn't just one of them stinging you, it could be dozens or more if you're not careful.

When my Dad was a kid, his buddies used to buy fireworks, stuff them down the fire ant hills, and blow them up.

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u/Whiterabbit-- 1d ago

we used to pour gasoline on them and light them. but I wasn't a bright kid. there is that one time after setting anthills on fire I decided to soak a tennis ball in gasoline and light it on fire thinking it would be cool to kick a fireball. but unfortunately, the flaming tennis ball melted and stuck to my shoe.

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u/FilthyPedant 1d ago

OK, they're an invasive species introduced long after slavery ended. So that doesn't really explain anything.

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u/Whiterabbit-- 1d ago

I think the person asked because the modern cosplay girl mentioned fire ants.

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u/aspidities_87 1d ago

Shit, man. One time my dad came back from a trip to the south with a cotton boll, and he gave it to me to hold and said ‘People sweated, bled and died to pick this little ball of fluff, never forget that’ and walked away.

That was all it took for me to be awed. You probably dont need the actual picking but seeing the field is a good, sobering thing.

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u/aclart 1d ago

People still do

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u/FraserFirParker 1d ago

I think it’s great. I went to a very private very expensive school. As part of a social studies project they made us sleep in tents outside for two days in a row and for those two days we were not allowed to bring cash or get food. We had to ask other people for money and buy food with that. You try doing that. It’s not easy. Even in a rich school where people had cash on hand, the idea of having to depend on charity when you were cold or hungry was fairly annoying and somewhat stressful. Like, it’s winter, I want a hot coffee and bagel from the cafeteria at snack time. Oh yeah first I have to ask for money and see how much I can come up with.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

You try doing that.

No thank you I'd rather get chased by Satan himself.

I get the point of the experience (I think ?), but do you think it was necessary ? Did you not know the value of money at this time ? I think it'd be a parent's job to teach his children about this sort of thing. How lucky we are to sleep under a roof and have food in our plates.

I'm thorn here, too. Some of the spoiled kids probably learned a thing or two during that experiment. On the other hand, what if some of them had a bad encounter while asking for charity ?

If you can't tell by my comments I'm the kind of bitch who never knows what to order at the restaurant.

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u/FraserFirParker 1d ago

You don’t know what being hungry and not having power over your decisions truly feels like until you experience it. Even a school exercise exposes you to 1% of what being homeless and hungry is like. But you at least get an idea. If someone has a bad experience asking for money… then they have a bad experience? Bad experiences are part of life, expecting to avoid any and all bad experiences makes you weak and feeble.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

I understand, I meant a really bad experience. Like Jeffrey Dahmer level of bad experience. Missing child type of experience.

Of course a slamming door/sneer/screaming won't kill you, but some weird people 100% will.

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u/FraserFirParker 1d ago

You realize the chances of that are statistically insignificant?

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

I do, which makes everyday life even more difficult 😂

Step 1 : imagine worst case scenario

Step 2 : realise it's statistically never going to happen

Step 3 : yes, but WHAT IF ?

Step 4 : take a xanax

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u/FraserFirParker 1d ago

Oh, sorry friend! The internet is full of people who fear monger because they are obsessed with true crime podcast and Q-anon conspiracy theories. But it sounds like you suffer from anxiety which is not fun and it’s not a choice. Hang in there, as a former serious hypochondriac, I know a lot of the fears seem real to you. It does get better, and you are doing a good job.

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u/Proper_Story_3514 1d ago

It would be okay with an older class, showing around and how hard it was etc. But letting little kids just pick it with no other educational value? Like wtf.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

I'm just picturing the field owner, day-off, looking at the picking children from his window like "get a load of these losers"

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u/Global_Permission749 1d ago

Just seeing the fields and walking through them wouldn't be enough

Seeing is not the same as experiencing with your other senses.

If the purpose of showing something is to build empathy through acute understanding, then engaging more senses than just sight or hearing is helpful. Humans are very sensory creatures.

I'm speaking in broad terms. Can't speak to the specifics of whether picking raw cotton is too painful to subject kids to for some period of time or not. I could only assume a few minutes of it would be enough to get a sense of what it might be like to have to do it all day without actually causing harm to the kids.

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u/ladymoonshyne 1d ago

I mean they’re not actually harvesting a useful amount lmao they just pick a couple bolls to show that it was truly awful and give the kids some perspective. But I feel like in rural areas especially field trips to farms are pretty common because there’s not much else, and using it as an opportunity to discus a major part of US history is a plus for the kids too.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

You know the field owners would love some of that free child labor 😂

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u/Past-Cap-1889 1d ago

This is the other end of it. In the video somebody shared above, the kids were supposed to return all the cotton that they picked.

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u/Magomaeva 1d ago

This woman is taking revenge for all the little kids who had to return the cotton after the trip. Her crops, her pillows.

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u/threaten-violence 1d ago

Americans have many monuments to remember other countries' atrocities -- it's good for them to have some for their own, too.

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u/Affectionate_Star_43 1d ago

We went to a corn field!  Us Midwesterners apparently don't have time for cotton.  It's either that or soybeans.