NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley: If whipping's illegal, "every black parent in the south
is going to be in jail."
Oprah Winfrey has also spoken out about (and against) how common this is among the black community, and points to academics who say it is a vestige of slavery.
So, is it racist to say -- if this is true, it's a real problem? And what needs to happen for it to change? Because it's NOT good for the children.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/15/barkley-every-black-parent-in-the-south-whips-their-kids/
NEW YORK (CBS Houston/AP) — NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley claims that black parents in the South “whip” their children.
Barkley defended Adrian Peterson after the Minnesota Vikings running back was charged with child abuse, stating that black parents who live in the South spank their children.
“Whipping – we do that all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances,” Barkley admitted to CBS’ “NFL Today” on Sunday.
Barkley said that there is a “fine line” between spanking a child and child abuse.
“I’ve had many welts on my legs. I’ve gotten beat with switches – and I don’t even like the term,” Barkley stated. “When the media talks about it, ‘beating a child,’ … we called it ‘spanking’ or ‘whipping’ our kids.”
SNIP
http://thegrio.com/2014/09/15/adrian-peterson-child-abuse-slavery/
As a black father with a four-year old son, I cannot imagine ever beating my beautiful child. I cannot and will not treat my son like a slave.
The switch is a longstanding African-American institution, both feared and revered. Everyone in the black community either has heard of or experienced firsthand the grandma who ordered the child to go fetch the tree branch, the switch that would be used in his or her own beating. They said it was necessary to keep children on the straight and narrow, out of trouble and respectful of their elders.
But what if the explanation for the switch is far more troubling? Sometimes, people act based on what they know. And in the case of the black community and the black family, we cannot disregard our very real connection to slavery times and the internalizing and perpetuation of our trauma.
We all cringe with horror, perhaps even cry, when we view depictions of brutality in films such as 12 Years a Slave. It feels far too familiar, too close to home. If we recoil at the sight of slaves being beaten, then why would we subject our own children to the same treatment? The purpose of whippings, floggings and other forms of abuse under slavery was clear — to subjugate and control black people with arbitrary cruelty, beat them down not just physically but also spiritually and psychically, and reinforce the master’s control over them.
SNIP
= new reply since forum marked as read
