(ThyBlackMan.com) “My mama whooped by butt and I turned out okay.” Many of us have heard our parents or other relatives say these very words. Some people believe that whippings are the answer to everything and others feel that it’s not even an option.
Thirty and forty years ago the opposition to spanking children was not widely discussed by blacks, but this view is changing. For years outsiders of our community have remarked that we whip our children more than other races. Outsiders have voiced their concern that this parenting choice is not a good one. However, people from our own community are beginning to speak out against spanking.
Blacks in the area of mental health are sharing their opposition on the subject matter.
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who has studied mental health issues and parenting in African-American communities, is a leading voice against corporal punishment. Poussaint feels that it’s an uphill battle.
“It’s culturally embedded in America that spanking is a legitimate and good way to discipline children. But the fact is, nearly all studies, except for a few, say it is not a good way of disciplining and can actually produce damage,” Poussaint said. “We have such damage in the black community, when you 
add to parents beating their kids; it’s sending the message that violence is an okay way to solve problems.”
As early as 1968, information on this very subject was published in a book entitled Black Rage. Two black San Francisco-based psychiatrists shook white America with their book Black Rage. Dr. William H. Grier and Dr. Price M. Cobbs wrote a grim and painful portrayal of the anger and frustration plaguing black people in the United States. Based on case histories of African American men and women who underwent psychotherapy during the early 1960s, it was one of the first books to examine the mental health of black Americans and quick to become a classic in the field of African American studies.
The book tells us that black folks learned to beat their children from slavery. In Black Rage it was noted that “Beating in child-rearing actually has its psychological roots in slavery and even yet black parents will feel that, just as they have suffered beatings as children, so it is right that their children be so treated. This kind of physical subjugation of the weak forges early in the mind of the child a link with the past and, as he learns the details of history, with slavery per se.”
I will admit that as a black parent I don’t whoop my child a lot and definitely not for every little thing and I know for a fact that my child is not disciplined in the full fashion of my grandmother. But I will spare the rod when necessary because sometimes it’s needed.
I began to wonder if I am the only African American parent that disciplines their child without endless spankings. Are African Americans still stuck in the mind set of slavery? This led me to conduct a very unscientific survey by posing the question to a Facebook group made up mainly of African Americans ranging from the age of 30 to 60 plus.
The results from my informal Facebook survey may be surprising to some and not so surprising to others. I discovered from my small group that many African American parents may not whip their kids as often as others would have us think. All African Americans are not using switches, extension cords, shoes, pots and pans or whatever is in reach. Some African Americans are actually choosing alternative methods as opposed to whipping their children at the drop of a hat.
A few commented that any type of whipping was a form of child abuse. While others believed that there was nothing wrong with whipping a child to discipline them. Members also shared their alternative methods for punishment. They ranged from no TV, games or outside activities to extra academic work. It was also noted that the punishment may vary from child to child. One person made a valid point that what works for one child may not work for another.
Even though study after study shows that physical punishment may be detrimental to a child’s development. Many parents black or white for that matter would disagree. Spanking is not always the answer, but in some cases it is looked at as a necessary evil.
Are disciplinary spankings really child abuse? Are they still necessary? In today’s society children have more freedom than ever. Some are given freedom to express their thoughts and feelings even when it means speaking to adults in a disrespectful manner. Is the lack of a good old fashion butt whooping the reason behind our troubled a youth?
I don’t totally agree with the thought that spankings are tied to slavery. Slavery may play a role somewhat in affecting our mindset in punishment. But blacks are not the only ones discipline their children by whippings. So that leaves me to ask the question. Why can’t the decision of whipping your child be more of a personal choice than a cultural or racial one?
I am sure this debate will continue on. But in the end when it is all said and done parents will have the right to raise their children in the way they see fit.
Staff Writer; Eleanie Campbell
For more writings by this sista feel free to visit; SoulXPosed2U.
