Woman complains Hobby Lobby’s raw cotton decor is racially insensitive

A Hobby Lobby shopper complained on Facebook about stalks of raw cotton being sold at the craft store, calling it “wrong on so many levels.”

Daniell Rider, who according to her Facebook profile is from Killeen, Tex., called on Hobby Lobby to remove the decor.

“There is nothing decorative about raw cotton, a commodity which was gained at the expense of African-American slaves,” Rider wrote along with the photo she posted to Hobby Lobby’s Facebook page.

There are almost 200,000 comments on the post, many of them expressing dismay that Ryder is offended by fake cotton plants. Some of the commenters said that they or their families also picked cotton, but are not African American.

“My Dad is from a family of white sharecroppers in the 1930s and 40s and they ALSO picked cotton ...” one commenter wrote.

“My great grandparents picked cotton all their life and they were poor white farmers! There's nothing racist about cotton!” another wrote.

There was no visible response from Hobby Lobby to the post as of Monday night.

This story was originally published September 18, 2017 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Woman complains Hobby Lobby’s raw cotton decor is racially insensitive."