this. ive been lurking on various friends walls, re: adrian peterson, discipline, and violence against children. a lot of what ive seen has used data to name spanking as physically and psychologically violent. cool. no arguments there. what has been unsettling for me, however, is that the data has also been used as a way to shame parents who spank as if theyre incorrigible abusers. from what ive seen, cultural context has been completely ignored or dismissed. if the goal is to end abuse of children, what sense does it make to wag our fingers at their caretakers? have we not learned that shame just pushes behavior in to the shadows? that ignoring the context of a behavior leads to ineffective interventions? this article, however, names spanking for what it is without shaming the parents and accounts for the cultural roots without excusing the inherent violence. the decision to spank or not spank is both very simple and complicated. to quote cooper-- But for so many black children, [misbehavior] will get you killed or locked up. For black children, finding disciplinary methods that instill a healthy sense of fear in a world that is exceptionally violent toward them is a hard balance to find. ... [But] violence in any form is not love. Let us make sure first to learn that lesson. And then if we do nothing else, let us teach it to our children.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 22:18:51 +0000