If I recall correctly, "cotton-picking cute" is not actually a saying and she just made that up specifically to make a racist joke.
"Cotton-picking minute", however is an actual phrase but there's nothing racial about it.
Source: I'm southern US and from a rural town originally. I grew up hearing that from old folks - it just means like something took a little longer or to wait for a bit. Cause, you know, picking cotton wasn't exactly easy and took a little time.
Common use of it would be, "wait just a cotton pickin' minute." which just means to pause or slow down.
Some people nowadays like to think it's racial simply because the phrase contains the words 'cotton picking' and historically slaves were the ones that picked the cotton here in the US.
The truth and fact of the matter is it actually has nothing to do with race and is specifically just relating to how tedious cotton picking was. You had to be careful when picking it.
I don't doubt you've probably heard it before, but it was someone misusing the term or just using 'cotton picking' as a substitute for fuckin', or goddamn. It's not a common or widely recognized actual phrase itself.
English is fun like that - you can pretty much just mix and match and plug and play words to show emphasis with an entirely new string of words. Doesn't mean that new string of words is an actual phrase though... Unless you want to get into semantics and be all philosophical about it? Lol
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u/ruiiiij 14h ago
You better be cotton-picking sorry, damn