Spanking?

[Athene]

Forgive me if I’m pointing out the obvious here, but imma try and play mediator.

I think we’re witnessing a culture clash here: Boru is Irish, and in Ireland , all corporal punishment is illegal. So, it’s easy to understand why he’d be so strongly against it.

By contrast, Athena is black, specifically African-American, and while  corporal punishment by African-American parents is a depressingly complicated subject (rooted in, among other things, layers of internalized oppression) that I, as a honky, am probably not equipped to talk about), but in spite of my racial handicap, it makes sense to me to hypothesize that, in the behavioral sink that is America, with that cultural baggage in mind, she’s probably seen enough use of spanking as a sort of Godzilla Threshold that it’s become normal. So it also makes sense to me why she  would think that.

You can argue about which perspective is more valid till the cows come home (and I personally lean more towards Boru’s perspective, as I said earlier), but I don’t think this discussion is going to get anywhere until we try and think about why you hold those beliefs.

Please, don't attempt to explain where I'm coming from in regards to my own mind, because you're totally off in regards to me. I can't speak for Boru, of course.

I've made it clear multiple times that I don't advocate spanking. 
My position is not a result of "internalized oppression" and "reliving Black racial trauma". 

It's one of recognizing that child-rearing is much more complex than many people realize, and understanding that rushing to label any and every parent who's ever spanked a child as a child abuser could stand to be at direct odds with what's actually in child's best interest if they have good parents who don't normally resort to spanking and clearly value disciplining children using non-corporal means.

Maybe you should go find another argument to mediate, Rev, because I'm not interested in your offer. I know you meant well, but it was wildly presumptuous and rather insulting for you suggest that I need YOU to assist me in my journey in learning to understand myself and my own Blackness, and that my every thought and opinion in this thread has it's roots slavery just because you read some goddamn article. 

I know exactly why I think what I think. Trust and believe, I'm self-aware as fuck.