Should spanking be a last resort or first line of defense?
Whup that Ass? To Spank or Not to Spank
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
Recently, journalist Roland Martin and writer and critic Toure engaged in a spirited exchange on Twitter about spanking. It was pleasing to see two Black man talking publicly about the travails of parenting. Spanking though, is a subject that often transcends simple discussions about parenting, leading into the realm of physical abuse. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t regularly conflicted about when to spank or not, or whether spanking is appropriate at all.
Cards on the table, my mother used to whup my ass. My mother was the proverbial yeller and beater and I can’t say that my mother’s disciplinary skills ever served as a deterrent to my behavior, which was more along the lines of “stupid shit” rather than innate evil. My father on the other hand only spanked me once to my recollection.
The most memorable occasions associated with my parents’ discipline were times when they didn’t spank, like when my father purposely slapped a wall about 6 inches from my head as a teen-ager or when my mother showed up at a touch football game when I was ten, belt in hand, looking for me. Knowing that I should have been the house before dark, I took an alternative route back to the apartment. The subsequent embarrassment I experienced at the constant retelling by my peers of the incident was enough of a future deterrent.
Black parents have long been conflicted about spanking, if only because of the violence that was so often directed at Black bodies during slavery and after. During the era of legal segregation, Black parents often had to aggressively discipline their children so that their children would never fail to remember the unspoken rules of survival in a racist society, particularly in the South. In other words, Black parents had to lovingly “beat that ass” to make sure their sons, for example, didn’t engage in dangerous acts, such as reckless eyeballing (looking at White folk directly in their eyes), that could get them killed. As such, spanking has become part of the fabric of some Black communities.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21
Whup that Ass? To Spank or Not to Spank
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
Recently, journalist Roland Martin and writer and critic Toure engaged in a spirited exchange on Twitter about spanking. It was pleasing to see two Black man talking publicly about the travails of parenting. Spanking though, is a subject that often transcends simple discussions about parenting, leading into the realm of physical abuse. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t regularly conflicted about when to spank or not, or whether spanking is appropriate at all.
Cards on the table, my mother used to whup my ass. My mother was the proverbial yeller and beater and I can’t say that my mother’s disciplinary skills ever served as a deterrent to my behavior, which was more along the lines of “stupid shit” rather than innate evil. My father on the other hand only spanked me once to my recollection.
The most memorable occasions associated with my parents’ discipline were times when they didn’t spank, like when my father purposely slapped a wall about 6 inches from my head as a teen-ager or when my mother showed up at a touch football game when I was ten, belt in hand, looking for me. Knowing that I should have been the house before dark, I took an alternative route back to the apartment. The subsequent embarrassment I experienced at the constant retelling by my peers of the incident was enough of a future deterrent.
Black parents have long been conflicted about spanking, if only because of the violence that was so often directed at Black bodies during slavery and after. During the era of legal segregation, Black parents often had to aggressively discipline their children so that their children would never fail to remember the unspoken rules of survival in a racist society, particularly in the South. In other words, Black parents had to lovingly “beat that ass” to make sure their sons, for example, didn’t engage in dangerous acts, such as reckless eyeballing (looking at White folk directly in their eyes), that could get them killed. As such, spanking has become part of the fabric of some Black communities.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21
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