To condemn Adrian Peterson without considering racial context ... [View all]

[1StrongBlackMan]

is a typically privileged position.

I have avoided comment on this topic for a number of reason, not the least of which, is to avoid injecting race into what, for many whites believe, would have no racial context. Child abuse is a horrific thing, we can all agree on that ... but take a moment to examine the African-American experience in America's, not to distant, past.

I am in my 50s, and recall my elders ... particularly, those with direct ties to the South and rural North ... having me "cut a switch" or hitting me with whatever was within arms reach; my crime? ... "Not mindin'."

As horrifying as child abuse is, Corporal punishment in the African-American community, particularly when applied to African-American young males, was not considered abuse; but rather, an act of love ... a necessary survival technique ... in an environment where one cross-eyed look, one act of defiance, could very well, and often did, result in that "untrained up" child or adult, becoming "strange fruit." This is the historical context that many ignore or fail to grasp ... and they do so (largely) because their life experience lacks this reference.

We all talk about "The Talk", that African-Americans readily relate to ... we have all, either got it or given it, or depending on one's age, both. When we discuss it, our white brethren/sistren are aghast that it happens, or that it is even called for; but among the African-American community, it is what it is ... and to NOT give "The Talk" is, arguably, an act of neglect; you are knowingly sending one's child into the world ill-equipped to negotiate the world on the terms that the world is brought to them.

Likewise, with the use of "whoopings" ... To the generations that endured their sons being lynched in trees, and if lucky, of prisons, for the grievous and unpardonable act of open displays of defiance towards white folks, to NOT use whatever methods to "break that boy's attitude", would be to knowingly put that child at risk.

Is that right? Hell, no ... But neither was "Michael Brown."

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