Cherry picking is of course a matter of degree. But it is fallacious when you don’t see a fact that contradicts your position on a page you are citing that allegedly supports your position.

another one of your favorite fallacies is ignoring the difference between a defining characteristic and an outlier. I’m sure there are probably some white people, maybe even some Chinese people, who were picking cotton before the Civil War. But it was essentially thought of as work for black slaves, which is why the derogatory phrase “cotton-picking“ was originally racist.

The point of my article was that that original meaning was forgotten by many of the white people who used it, and was impossible to ignore by many of the Black people who heard it. It is the latter point that is most important. I despise the ridiculous enterprise of banning words that once had racist meanings, even though everyone has forgotten those meanings now. But it is obvious, and fully justifiable and understandable, that real live Black people were angered and offended by the expression way before any wokerati pointed out its meaning.