But it doesn’t stop there: Statistics gathered by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System consistently show
that black children are mistreated and killed by their family members at significantly higher rates than children of any other group.
And the latest trend is parents uploading videos to social media of them screaming at, shaming
and hitting their kids, for millions of people to view and “like.”
The truth is that white supremacy has done a masterful job of getting black people to continue its trauma work and call it “love.”
That is how, in some 19 states, mostly in the South, you can get so many black parents to sign opt-in forms giving public schoolteachers permission to paddle their kids with wooden boards, even though black students are five times more likely to be hit than white students for committing the same offenses.
In fact, there is no evidence that ritualistic physical punishment of children existed in pre-colonial West African cultures, where children were viewed as sacred
and purer than adults, and sometimes even as reincarnated ancestors or gods.
Between 2006 and 2015, more than 3,600 black children were killed as a result
of maltreatment, according to the Administration for Children and Families.
My adoptive mother, and generations of black parents like her, honestly believed that whupping children was a pillar of responsible black parenting.
Today, black parents are still about twice as likely as white and Latino families to use corporal punishment on their children.
