Hobby Lobby’s ‘offensive’ decoration has gone bonkers viral — 33k Facebook reactions and counting – By Sarah Taylor (theblaze.com) / Sept 17 2017
Daniell Rider, a Hobby Lobby consumer, found a decoration at one of their stores so offensive, she shared the image on Facebook requesting that they remove the decor from their shelves.
What was it?
Rider on Thursday shared a photo of a shelf with glass bottles containing what appear to be replicas of raw cotton plants.
She captioned the photo, “This decor is WRONG on SO many levels. There is nothing decorative about raw cotton… A commodity which was gained at the expense of African-American slaves.”
“A little sensitivity goes a long way,” she added. “PLEASE REMOVE THIS ‘decor.’”
What kind of outcry occurred?
After Rider shared the post, it garnered viral attention on Facebook.
At the time of this writing, the post has been “liked” 33k times, has received 76k comments, and has been shared nearly 7k times.
The reaction was split — some commenters supported Rider’s outrage and wrote things like, “What do you expect from HL!!!? NEVER shop there!” while others couldn’t find the offense in the innocuous-looking decoration.
One commenter wrote, “Ummm… it’s cotton… wtf…its 2017… do you know some slaves in 2017 that picked this cotton and didn’t get paid for it. Just… stop.”
Does this story matter?
No.
But you reported on it.
Yes, we did. And here is why.
Our new directive as a company is to never waste your time as a reader and we are taking that seriously. The reason why we included this story is because we felt it was indicative of how blessed we are as a nation and people.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would put this pretty high up.
As you can guess, the vase “being offensive” is really something that only people who are in the most stable economic conditions could or would include in their day.
Perspective is what America is missing.
We know you certainly don’t need another story to outrage you or to show you how crazy things have gotten. You can find those stories on any news site.
But we feel that Americans do need stories that show us all how blessed we really are. Our problems are dreams for much of the world. It isn’t our “privilege” that is disturbing — it is our lack of gratitude and perspective.
For people to take their time to worry about a bunch of cotton in a vase — in a store in which 85% of Americans will not be shopping — should show us that most are not spending their time searching for ways to simply feed their families or find a roof over their head.
America is blessed. Even those who are the worst off.
America does have real issues right now, but what some Americans call “problems” would be blessings to much of the world.
What matters most.
Don’t get distracted by stories like this or discouraged by those who have enough wealth, health, and time that they can spend their time in worry about meaningless things like this.
Let’s spend our time helping those who are truly struggling instead of posting about a product in a store that honestly will never affect you or your life in anyway.
PB/TK – STOP! Just stop.. Everything cannot be racial or offensive.
