President Joe Biden has heralded his record on jobs as among the key achievements of his presidency, boasting low U.S. unemployment despite wide and ongoing economic pressures.
The White House recently said that unemployment was near a record low, with 187,000 jobs added in July.
However, according to a number of viral TikTok posts this week, the president may have gone too far, seemingly introducing a job program closely associated with America's darkest history.
The Claim
Multiple TikToks posted between August 14 and 17, 2023, included a screengrab of what looked like a news article with the headline "JOE BIDEN ANNOUNCES 'COTTON PICKING' JOBS PAYING $300/HOUR."
One TikTok by content creator teddy2stupid, posted on August 14, 2023, viewed 2.9 million times, included a copy of the headline in the background of their video.
During the clip teddy2stupid said: "I know what y'all thinking, I know what y'all thinking. Give me a second, I know what it is. We've been having a problem with the cotton picking and stuff and, you know, we don't take this too kindly but I ain't gonna lie. $300 an hour? Ain't gonna lie this is better than his job!"
The Facts
While the screengrabbed headline does not mention any particular population, cotton-picking as a type of labor is inextricably linked to slavery in the U.S. while derivations of the term find continued usage in racial slurs.
Assuming a 40-hour work week, with 48 weeks worked per year, a $300-per-hour job would land a gross salary of $576,000. Weighing the pain and history tied to hand-picking cotton against the wage Biden purportedly offered made the headline easy to play for laughs.
Although it seems that some of the content creators may have been in on the joke too, to be clear, the president is not offering $300 an hour to pick cotton.
The headline comes from the Instagram account Hoods News which, according to its description, provides "THE BEST MEMES AND FAKE NEWS POSTED DAILY."
Other fake headlines it has recently produced include "WNBA TO MAKE ALL GIRLS PLAY NAKED TO INCREASE THE VIEWERSHIP" and "2024 ELECTIONS TO BE DECIDED VIA A 1V1 ON MINECRAFT."
Moreover, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. cotton is "mechanically harvested using specialized equipment." The National Cotton Council of America adds that hand labor is no longer used in the U.S. either.
Even if Biden were to offer such a work program, it would almost certainly be dwarfed by the nearly 20 million bales of cotton machinery was able to harvest between August 2019 and July 2020.
In any case, the headline as shared on TikTok was intended as a joke.
The Ruling
Satire.
Joe Biden is not offering $300 an hour for cotton-picking jobs. The headline, screengrabbed and added to multiple TikToks, was produced by a "memes and fake news" Instagram account.
U.S. cotton is not produced by hand. Mechanized production creates nearly 20 million bales a year domestically.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
