Last Tuesday I posted about an upcoming "Morning Buzz" segment in which Olivia, Elissia and I would discuss the Baltimore Mom's run-in with her son during the unrest over Freddy Gray's death.
I don't have tape available of our conversation, but between my early morning flippant posting and the actual conversation on-air, I had become more and more uncomfortable with the physicality of her attack by Toya Graham on her son, and said so. I suggested there was a fine line between discipline and child abuse.
Apparently Birmingham News columnist John Archibald had similar thoughts and expressed them in a column two days later. Now John's has written a second column to clarify, saying his first writing has missed the mark.
I'm not retracting my comments at all, and I now wonder what the public reaction would have been if it had been the young man's Father rather than his Mother who administered the public beating. Or if it had been a daughter instead of a son being hit.
I am obviously not a fan of corporal punishment. I think the lessson too often is that violence is an appropriate reaction to being wronged. And I wonder if the young man had been punished that way as he grew up?
I don't have tape available of our conversation, but between my early morning flippant posting and the actual conversation on-air, I had become more and more uncomfortable with the physicality of her attack by Toya Graham on her son, and said so. I suggested there was a fine line between discipline and child abuse.
Apparently Birmingham News columnist John Archibald had similar thoughts and expressed them in a column two days later. Now John's has written a second column to clarify, saying his first writing has missed the mark.
I'm not retracting my comments at all, and I now wonder what the public reaction would have been if it had been the young man's Father rather than his Mother who administered the public beating. Or if it had been a daughter instead of a son being hit.
I am obviously not a fan of corporal punishment. I think the lessson too often is that violence is an appropriate reaction to being wronged. And I wonder if the young man had been punished that way as he grew up?
my thoughts exactly, tim.
ReplyDeletei hated the overwhelming response of so many in media applauding her for hitting the kid. not even so much because it was violence, but because it seemed to detract from why this young man felt the need to throw bricks. the conversation stopped being about the "why?" of the "rioting" and was made to be about the "good for her" back-patting of "privately violent" poor white america.
it easily resolved the tensions white america had to have felt when faced with a race riot. it allowed a "we're just alike" unity around a shared shameful behavior, and stopped any discussion about the inarguable stress and anxiety a young african american feels in modern america.
thanks again. i'm glad montgomery has broadcasters like you.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments Jason, and for the compliment (-:
ReplyDeleteHave a good week!
Tim