CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ A family farm in south Charlotte is denying accusations that a tour guide was being racist in referencing "cotton pickers" while addressing school children from Thomasboro Academy, a public school on the city's west side.
Thomasboro Academy school volunteer Kathy Capps said the teachers who accompanied the mostly minority group of students were "upset" by the remark, which she said was made at the Hall Family Farm, reported WSOC.
Capps told the station that the guide started the tour by telling students: "You're not here to pick cotton today. You're not here to pick fruit. You were here to pick pumpkins." Capps called the comment "demoralizing and hurtful" in a Facebook post.
Kevin Hall, owner of the Hall Family Farm, responded to the accusations with a lengthy Facebook post that says the guide used an "extremely poor choice of words" during the Oct. 3 tour, but it was not intentional.
He added in the post that tours typically begin with the same attempt at humor: "Today I'm happy that you aren't cotton pickers or nose pickers. You are pumpkin pickers!"
"Our guides have made the same introduction, sometimes with the same word choice, sometimes with different words, to tens of thousands of students for the past 11 years," Hall said in his post.
"We have not had a single incident like this in any of those thousands of field trips by preschools, daycare centers, private schools, CMS schools, Union County schools, Lancaster County schools, or York County schools."
Hall said an administrator at the school called the farm the next day and "an immediate accusation of racism was made," according to his post.
Tracy Russ, chief communications officer for CMS, confirmed in an email to the Charlotte Observer that the school trip took place and "concerns about events during the trip have been communicated."
"CMS takes matters like this seriously and we are still looking into it ... and will respond based on findings," Russ added in the email.
In a Oct. 15 interview with TV station WCCB, Capps reiterated her criticism of the farm and was quoted saying: "I don't want this farm to be patronized. I don't want our dollars going there."
The female tour guide accused of making the remark has been with the farm since it opened in 2008, Hall said on Facebook. He added that she has been made aware of the accusation and he wrote that she called the school to apologize.
"Our employees are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, Caucasian and African American and Asian American," said Hall in his post, adding that he is Asian-American.
"We all work together to provide a wholesome, family-centric farm experience."
