By Walter L. Hilliard III
Funny! White America and its media suddenly loves and agrees with corporal punishment because they saw a Black mother, Toya Graham, slapping her son, Michael, upside the head on national TV after she came across him throwing rocks at the police during an escalating protest by out-of-school students– students who were angry about the Freddie Gray brutality incident in Baltimore. I would have thought they would see the incident as an example of Black-on-Black crime?
Black parents cannot afford to, figuratively and literally, allow their kids to move through childhood and their teenage years without the threat of physical discipline because White supremacy has created and sustains a system that will kill Black people, and especially Black men, anyplace, anytime– with no consequences. White supremacy causes great stress on Black people, a dangerous level of non-stop stress that follows them to school and work and back home, everyday of their lives. And Black kids are different from White kids, generally speaking, because of the high level stress and their behavior can be more defiant under many circumstances. So Black people have to live their lives like a man hanging onto a rock on the edge of a cliff, and he’s clawing and fighting for his life. Thus, there’s no time to talk things out. There’s no money to pay for a psychologist.
When NFL superstar Adrian Peterson, a Black man, was beating his son with a switch, White America was outraged and a debate about whippings was a national topic. Why? Because he’s a Black man, and a rich Black man at that. So the Peterson case was an opportunity for White America to continue villifying Black men like Ray Rice and other Black athletes. No, no one excuses their behavior if they did something wrong, but White America and the media has no moral authority to judge Black people about anything until they clean up their Racism House. And if you notice, the common theme running through mainstream America’s outrage always seems to be directed at a Black man, even if it’s a Black boy getting smacked on the head by his mom.
Unfortunately, Ms. Graham has been making the rounds as a hero on CBS, CNN, and other networks, making comments that cater to White sentiments, telling everyone she told Michael to take his mask off if he’s going to throw rocks at the police. She was doing a ghetto version of an Uncle Tom, which is more attributable to one being less educated (but not less intelligent) and being overly influenced by her street-survival mode instincts in the face of “all these White people” showing up with cameras and shoving a microphone in her face. The media is touting her, lil’ ol’ her from the hood, as a hero. Thus, she would never get into any kind of Black radical mode. But she’s well aware of what’s going on with young Black men and the police. I’m sure she was angry because she was overcome with fear for her son being shot by the police, she said as much.
On the other had, Michael wasn’t too apologetic about throwing rocks at the police. He said he mother told him the police hadn’t done anything to him (no? really?) and that — after Cooper asked him — he only regretted what he did a “little bit.” Cooper then asked him why? And he said because some of his friends aren’t here, present, because of the police. In fact, he said some of his friends had been “killed by the police” and he needed to go down there to protest to “show his respects.”
And during an interview about Ms. Graham, brain surgeon Dr. Ben Carson, taking advantage of the racial dynamics operating in Baltimore (as a conservative Uncle Tom), said he wished there were more Black moms like her. who even admitted he had run ins with the Baltimore Police within the same statement (obviously, he realized he was beginning to sound like then said he never had an unpleasant experience, even though he lived there all his life. But Carson also was evasive and said he had other commitments he wasn’t going to Break when CNN’s Erin Burnett asked him if he was going to Baltimore. Yeah, right! Suurrrrrre, he loves Black Baltimore . . . please!!!!
Hypocrites!
