Why is America celebrating the beating of a black child?

Washington Post ^ | 04/29/2015 | By Stacey Patton

[Rusty0604]

It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.

“He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”

In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.

The kind of violent discipline Graham unleashed on her son did not originate with her, ...or with the legions of black parents who equate pain with protection and love. The beatings originated with white supremacy, a history of cultural and physical violence that devalues black life at every turn. From slavery through Jim Crow, from the school-to-prison pipeline, the innocence and protection of black children has always been a dream deferred.

Praising Graham distracts from a hard truth: It doesn’t matter how black children behave – whether they throw rocks at the police, burn a CVS, join gangs, walk home from the store with candy in their pocket, listen to rap music in a car with friends, play with a toy gun in a park, or simply make eye contact with a police officer – they risk being killed and blamed for their own deaths because black youths are rarely viewed as innocent or worthy of protection.

[the OlLine Rebel]

There is SOOOOO much wrong with this, I don’t know how to start.

[freeangel]

We are celebrating because we see her keeping her child safe. For the same reason we do not say to a child, “please don’t play in the middle of the street” when we see a car heading for him. Every now and then, a swat simply emphasizes the need to open ones eyes and see the implications of what one is doing and the consequences that will be forthcoming if a behavior continues.

[TBP]

Stacey Patton comes across in this article as a virulent, hatemongering racist. I feel sorry for the young people whose minds she is poisoning at American University.