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The Most Racist Field Trip Ever: Black Guy Recounts Being Taken On Cotton Picking Field Trip

School field trips come in all different shapes and sizes, but you don't expect black students to be taken on a racist field trip picking cotton, that's kinda racist, no matter how educational it's supposed to be. Isn't it? Yet the field trip actually happened and that unbelievable activity is exactly what this student hilariously recounts to his friends in what he describes as 'the most racist field trip ever' in the video above.

And it's hard to disagree with him. He got his mom to sign the permission slip and everything. Because when he was told by the teacher that they'd be going on a field trip for the day, he thought they'd just be going to lie in the sun and enjoy themselves. But no.

Instead a class of African-American third grade school kids get taken to a cotton field and told to go grab a sack and start picking cotton. Working all day long in the cotton fields in the stifling August heat, while singing songs too—in some kind of sick and twisted racist history lesson.

'The most racist field trip ever'? It's starting to sound like a real contender.

"Pick as much cotton as you want" they were told, the student recounts and adds "It's amazing they didn't put chains and shackles on their legs to make it feel more authentic."

And to round the day off perfectly, just to add insult to injury, they didn’t even let them keep the cotton they picked. You really have to wonder who was the brains behind this cultural experience for schoolchildren.

Oh man. The one good thing that came out of it? This guy's hilarious recollection of the trip —including his mom's reaction—to the amusement of his buddies. Check out the racist field trip video above.

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South Carolina fifth-graders told to pick cotton, sing slave song on field trip

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Students at a South Carolina elementary school were told to pick cotton and sing a slave song as part of a class field trip during Black History Month, according to a local television station.

Cellphone video provided to Fox 46 Charlotte shows fifth-graders from Ebenezer Avenue Elementary picking cotton while being instructed to sing, "I like it when you fill the sack. I like it when you don't talk back. Make money for me."

"I think it's making a mockery," Jessica Blanchard, whose 10-year-old son attended the field trip, told the station. "A mockery of slavery. A mockery of what our people went through."

The students were on a field trip to the Carroll School, which was built in 1929 for African-Americans and now serves as a teaching center for fifth-graders to learn about the effects of the Great Depression.

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The TV station reported that parents signed permission slips that mentioned cotton picking as part of a history lesson on the Great Depression.

A representative from the Rock Hill School District told ABC News the field trip was a "unique learning opportunity."

"As part of the fifth-grade curriculum, students study the Great Depression time period, and this field trip helps students make real-life connections to this era in American history," Mychal Frost, director of marketing and communications for the Rock Hill Schools, said in a statement obtained by the outlet.

The Rock Hill School district issued a second statement Friday saying that the songs sung were not intended "to sound like or in any way be a 'slave song' as it has been characterized," according to ABC News.

State Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, released a statement Thursday saying what happened on the trip was "insensitive and inaccurate."

"Something has gone terribly wrong when slavery is treated as a ‘game,’ when children leave a field trip with the impression that a mockery can be made of their ancestors’ oppression," King said. "When we portray a sugar-coated version of history, one of happily picking cotton and singing songs, then we miss an opportunity to teach the truth.”

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Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY

Follow Anna Lee on Twitter: @annazlee

Parents outraged after 5th graders in South Carolina pick cotton, sing songs on field trip

In one video students sang, "I like it when you don't talk back."

Parents in Rock Hill, S.C., say they are outraged after seeing a video of their fifth-grade students picking cotton while singing as part of a school district field trip that aired on a local news channel.

In the video, which first aired on a local FOX affiliate , students can be seen picking cotton while singing: "I like it when you pick like that. I like it when you fill your sack. "I like it when you don't talk back. Make money for me."

Nearby, one adult beat out a drum-like rhythm and another yelled, "I can't hear y'all," as the children picked cotton.

"When I saw the video my jaw dropped," Erica Poplus, whose daughter attended the field trip in September, told ABC News. "I immediately was frustrated, offended and was like, 'Wow, this is what my baby was doing?'"

According to Poplus, her 11-year-old daughter and her classmates spent roughly five to 10 minutes picking cotton.

PHOTO: Parents of fifth-grade students are outraged after their children picked cotton and sang songs as part of a school district field trip in South Carolina.

Poplus said her daughter told her the children saw the cotton picking as a "game" and adults participating in the trip created a competition between the fifth graders on who could fill up their sack with the most cotton. Poplus also said that her daughter mentioned that her class was instructed to haul wheelbarrows around the school grounds "like a donkey."

(MORE: Virginia students instructed to play 'runaway slave game' in P.E. class)

During slavery, African American men, women and children were forced to work in cotton fields in grueling conditions as overseers stood by, whips at the ready, yelling to keep up the pace. The slaves often sang to keep up the rhythm and their spirits while they worked and were required by day's end to fill up large sacks.

After slavery ended, and during the Jim Crow era of segregation -- which continued through the Great Depression and beyond -- many black and some poor white sharecroppers in the South worked those same cotton fields for little pay.

The Rock Hill School District, in a statement, said that the district sent fifth graders on a field trip to a historical schoolhouse called the Carroll School, which is used as a place to help educate visitors about the impact of the Great Depression on African Americans.

The Carroll School is surrounded by cotton fields and, in a school district sponsored documentary, former students who attended during the Great Depression era fondly recalled a time when everyone worked together and helped each other when times were tough "like one big family."

The Rock Hill School District also calls the field trip a "unique learning opportunity."

However, for many of the African American parents ABC News spoke with, that "unique learning opportunity" also felt painfully inappropriate.

York County Councilman William "Bump" Roddey, whose son went on the field trip last year, said the singing while picking cotton really upset him and other parents because it seemed to make a "game" out of an experience deeply rooted in the painful history of slavery and Jim Crow in the South.

(MORE: Virginia blackface scandals a reminder of racist practice and its traumatic effect on African-Americans)

"Had I known that the picking cotton would be in conjunction with singing these songs, my wife and I would have probably never entertained him going on this field trip," Roddey said.

"When you see the video, you hear the songs being sung, you see the kids picking cotton, you can't now separate your mindset that this is a slave reenactment," he added.

Parents said they were asked to sign a permission slip permitting their children to attend the field trip which did mention that students would be picking cotton. However, parents ABC News spoke with said the form made no mention of singing songs while picking cotton.

ABC News has not reviewed the permission slip.

Poplus said she feels like she was misled by the Rock Hill School district about the field trip.

"I feel like if they were going to sing slave songs and they didn't feel like the parents would be offended that it would have been mentioned in the field trip permission slip," Poplus said. "So that right there shows the manipulation that they portrayed."

State Rep. John King said he saw the video as well and immediately felt outraged at what he called a "sugar-coated version of history."

"What happened on this field trip is insensible and inaccurate," King said. "This field trip treated slavery as a mockery and I am embarrassed for the state of South Carolina."

The Rock Hill School district in a second statement on Friday said that the songs sung were not intended "to sound like, or in any way be a 'slave song' as it has been characterized."

Both Roddey and Poplus said they believe the trip was racially insensitive.

"Had there not been a video I think that this would have happened on the field trip next year, even next month," Roddey said.

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Fifth graders were reportedly made to pick cotton and sing a slave song on a Black History Month field trip

Video footage shows fifth graders from Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School in Rock Hill, South Carolina, being instructed to sing a slave song and pick cotton.
The video was filmed while the students were on a field trip to the Carrol School, which was built in 1929 for African-American students during the Great Depression and now serves as a historical center.
Parents were left outraged after seeing the video, and the school said it is investigating the incident.

Fifth graders at a school in South Carolina were reportedly told to pick cotton and sing a slave song while on a field trip during Black History Month.

Cell phone footage obtained by Fox 46 Charlotte shows fifth graders from Ebenezer Avenue Elementary in Rock Hill, South Carolina, picking cotton in a field.

The students were on a field trip to the Carrol School, which was built in 1929 for African-American students during the Great Depression. It now serves as an African-American history teaching center.

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Parents in South Carolina are outraged after an elementary school class took in a field trip in which students were instructed to pick cotton while singing "slave songs."

Video obtained by Fox 46 shows fifth-graders from Ebenezer Avenue Elementary in Rock Hill picking cotton. In one video, the kids are being instructed to sing: "I like it when you fill the sack. I like it when you don't talk back. Make money for me."

"I'm livid right now," said Jessica Blanchard, the mother of one of the students. "I'm African-American and my ancestors picked cotton. Why would I want my son to pick cotton and think it's fun?"

Rock Hill School District said the activity at the Carroll School, which was built in 1929 by and for African-Americans, was meant to educate students on the Great Depression and wasn’t part of a lesson on slavery or Black History Month.

The district called the field trip a "unique learning opportunity" that promotes "understanding about our past" and "helps students make real-life connections." The school district said parents had signed permission slips that noted students would be picking cotton during the trip.

Blanchard felt the entire ordeal was "a mockery of what our people went through."

Wali Cathcart, 81, an instructor and former student at the Carroll School, said the cotton picking activity is meant to show what he and his parents had to do to survive during the Great Depression.

"This program is not about that (slavery)," he said. "This program here is centered around the Great Depression of the 1930s, so slavery is not the predominant issue."

Blanchard still feels the activity is inappropriate.

"I support the Carroll School. I support everything else about it," said Blanchard. "But I don't understand, at the end, why do you make it a point to pick cotton and sing those songs? I think it's misguided, and maybe ignorance on their part."

The chief academic and accountability officer for Rock Hill Schools, Dr. John Jones, called Blanchard and apologized. Jones promised changes would be made so future trips would not be offensive to anyone.

Rock Hill Schools released a statement to WCNC:

"The Carroll School field experience is a unique learning opportunity for all 5th grade students in Rock Hill Schools’ elementary schools," the statement said. "Students have been visiting the Carroll School for the past fifteen years as a part of studying the Great Depression in the school curriculum."

"He did not intend it to sound like, or in any way be a 'slave song' as it has been characterized," the statement continued. "The lyrics came from his experience as an African-American farmer picking cotton and making money for his family in the Great Depression time period."

South Carolina state Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, responded by calling the field trip "insensitive" and "terribly wrong."

Fox 46 reports the school had to be placed on lockdown Friday after the school received "threatening phone calls" regarding the controversial field trip.

Song students sang while picking cotton not intended to sound like ‘slave song,’ district says

Rock Hill Schools students picking cotton on a 2016 field trip

ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) - Fifth grade students in Rock Hill were asked to pick cotton while singing a decades-old song during a field trip last week, causing some to question the reasoning behind it.

“The song that is sung by the students as they participate in picking cotton, as it was done in the Great Depression time period, was originally written by an African-American instructor who currently works with students at the Carroll School. He did not intend it to sound like, or in any way be a “slave song” as it has been characterized," Rock Hill Schools said.

The school planned to take students to visit The Carroll School, which was built in 1929, while students were studying the 1930′s Great Depression. School officials the field trip was intended to help students make real-life connections to the era.

In response to the community, Rock Hill School issued a statement - saying the district has been visiting Carroll School for the past 15 years as part of studying the Great Depression.

"To understand what life would have been like for students at that school during the Great Depression Era, students will be participating in hands-on activities with sewing, planting a garden, picking cotton and food preservation,” the Rock Hill Schools permission slip stated.

Rock Hill Schools says as one of the only remaining Rosenwald Schools in operation, The Carroll School exists to promote understanding about history.

“The school district is currently working with the parent and The Carroll School instructors to review the farming activity and any associated songs sung during the activity to make sure that it is understood that in no way is the activity or any singing tied to slavery or singing “slave songs,” the school district said in a statement.

It’s unclear how many students were given permission by a parent to go on the field trip. A list of the Rock Hill elementary school(s) involved was not disclosed.

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Outrage After South Carolina Students Told To Pick Cotton, Sing 'Slave Songs' On Field Trip

Senior reporter, HuffPost

A school district in South Carolina has apologized after parents and community members expressed outrage over a field trip in which students were instructed to pick cotton while singing slave songs.

Video first obtained by Fox 46 last week shows fifth-graders from Rock Hill school district picking cotton at a historical schoolhouse during Black History Month as a nearby adult directs them to sing along: “I like it when you pick like that. I like it when you fill your sack. I like it when you don’t talk back. Make money for me.”

Jessica Blanchard, whose 10-year-old son Jamari attended the field trip, told Fox 46 that she was “livid” over the video, which was taken by a teacher and sent to parents of fifth-graders at Ebenezer Avenue Elementary in Rock Hill.

“I’m African-American and my ancestors picked cotton,” she said. “Why would I want my son to pick cotton and think it’s fun?”

Jamari told Fox 46 that the students thought the cotton-picking activity at the Carroll School, a school built in 1929 by and for African-Americans, was a fun game. He said instructors did not explain the history of slavery and how African-American men, women and children were forced to harvest the cotton fields.

“They thought it was funny,” Jamari said of his classmates. “Whoever picked the least amount of cotton had to hold a big sack called ‘Big Mama.’”

Rock Hill School District said the activity at the Carroll School was meant to educate students on the Great Depression and wasn’t part of a lesson on slavery or Black History Month. The school district also alleged parents had signed permission slips that noted students would be picking cotton during the trip.

But some parents, including Blanchard, said they would never have allowed their children to participate had they known they would be singing “slave songs” at the time.

“When I saw the video my jaw dropped,” Erica Poplus, whose 11-year-old daughter attended the field trip in September, told ABC News . “I immediately was frustrated, offended and was like, ‘Wow, this is what my baby was doing?’”

She added: “I feel like if they were going to sing slave songs and they didn’t feel like the parents would be offended that it would have been mentioned in the field trip permission slip.”

Blanchard said John Jones, the school district’s chief academic and accountability officer, called to personally apologize and vowed to take action so the field trip’s activities would no longer offend anyone in the future. A representative for the school district did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

“I support the Carroll School,” Blanchard told Fox 46. “But I don’t understand, at the end, why do you make it a point to pick cotton and sing those songs? I think it’s misguided, and maybe ignorance on their part.”

A Virginia school district came under fire last week after elementary school students were instructed to participate in a Black History Month activity in gym class, which involved escaping through an obstacle course meant to represent the Underground Railroad.

Loudoun County Public Schools said the district will undergo bias training after receiving several complaints from parents who accused the school of having children pretend to be runaway slaves, including a small group of black students.

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If there are cotton fields in your region, this is the time of year when farmers are about ready to harvest. Since cotton is a very important money crop in Texas, now is a great time to call your student’s attention to several aspects of the agricultural industry.

As you drive past fields, watch the bolls swell, pop open, and turn brown. If you are fortunate enough to see harvesting in progress, pull over (if it’s safe) and watch a while!
If you live in an area where irrigation is necessary, talk about how those systems work, the expense of setting them up, and the ingenuity it took to make the deserts bloom!
If you know someone who raises cotton, see if they would allow your family to stand in a safe area and watch as they harvest. We did this one year, and I was amazed to see the bulk of cotton collected on each run. I visualized the amount harvested from one small field and multiplied it by the vast acerage in Texas…and I could hardly wrap my mind around it.
For another surprisingly wonderful field trip, try calling a cotton gin in your area. We found one that was most accomodating and very proud to show us all that is done with cotton–the ginning process, how they save and sell the culled seeds for feed, why they usually do not sell the seed as seed, and how they compost the byproducts of the process to make a rich mulch.

If you already missed the harvest in your area, all is not lost. Pick up a few of the bolls that invariably fall off the trucks and drift along the highway. My father did this to keep us occupied in the car on the way to my grandmothers’ houses. For hours my sister and I would “do it the old-timey way”, picking out seeds and spinning yarn between our fingers. It was easy for me to understand how many hands were needed to do the work and why the South feared that the sudden abolition of slavery would bring economic ruin.

Side note–My father-in-law insists that picking cotton causes men’s hair to fall out. He grew up picking cotton like every boy in his community, and he says every cotton-pickin’ one of them is now bald! 🙂