Young Woman Thinking --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Young Woman Thinking — Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Fyi, this post is not about spanking. Just note I do not believe in spanking but others do.

Once again there is another video of a grown man beating a young Black girl who is supposedly his daughter making the rounds on the internet. I want to know why are Black parents posting videos of them beating their Black teen daughters because they act like um, teenagers? Teenagers rebel and that is perfectly normal. If you can’t deal with it don’t have kids.

From Sharkeisha and fathers beating their daughters as if they were on the plantation to our naked bodies being displayed on the auction blocks and in rap videos, for some reason people feel like they have to a “World Star” moment. They have to record the beating of Black women and girls bodies online for public consumption and commentary.

I see it like this, if a parent has to post a video of them beating and/or abusing a child on Facebook, World Star or YouTube it is not about the child. It is about the parent. The parents are doing it for clicks. Plain and simple! Discipline is teaching, which requires thought and patience. It also requires that someone learn from their mistakes. Beating a child and putting it on social media is public humiliation.  It is not discipline. Humiliating your child online does not teach them a lesson. In fact, destroys a part of who they are. It strips them of their innocence, vulnerability and privacy. It makes them feel like their bodies are community property. The protection a parent should offer is gone. This one instance can cause a lifetime of humiliation for their daughters because every single thing you post on the net stays on the net.

What will it get the parents? If they are lucky, five minutes of fame, shares, clicks and likes for their deed. It will also get them an inmate number because they are going to jail. The world outside of your block sees this as abuse.

The viewers are no less different. Like the blood thirsty crowds in the Roman arena, from the stands they cheer on these acts of horrific violence. Some say “great parent.” Others have tried to justify it. I’ve seen many posters say the child will be grateful to their parent when they become older because the parent has posted their beating on the internet for everyone including potential employers to see. SMH! In some cases, people have boastfully proclaimed that they would have beat their daughters some more. I, for one am glad that they weren’t my parents. Those who disagree or seek to have dialog with their children are seen as being “white” or weak, forgetting that the lash was same way their ancestors were beaten to become slaves. These people don’t see these girls as girls or as our daughters but as circus animals or things who must be trained and whooped into submission and always for their own good.

Why does the public love it? The truth is they hate Black women because Black women make Black babies. They hate Blackness. It is as simple as that.

What these videos are doing is no different from the abusive dynamic Black women and girls deal with in both rap music and Black movies. Black woman’s body and her abuse is there for your entertainment and for the posters clicks, views, internet fame and ad revenue stream. The abuse of the Black woman’s body has become normalized and almost a rite of passage into the entertainment industry. Our  humiliation  rewards rappers, comedians, and internet posters with wealth and fame. I just want to know when did become OK to cheer on the abuse of Black women and girls?

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