“This will hurt me more than it will hurt you.” “Stop crying before I give you something to cry about” These are common stages used in young adult literature to portray the parenting skills of people of color. Why do authors portray people of color as tending to continue the cycle of abusing their children through corporal punishment in young adult literature? Why do modern authors highlight corporal abuse of black children when in “real life” the school killers young adults have to deal with have, up until now, not been black? White mass shooters represent 65%, while black mass shooters represent only 19%. The reasons why families of color tend to use corporal punishment, why corporal punishment in black communities is so rooted in the roots of history, and the effects of corporal punishment all trace back to slavery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The goal for parents of color should be to protect, love, and care for their children. However, due to the dangers facing people of color in society, parents tend to take extreme measures to ensure the protection of their children. Corporal punishment is deeply rooted in black tradition due to society's legitimate fear for the safety of their children. Black parents tend to use corporal punishment to keep their children from “going bad” (turning to gangs, drugs, pregnancy, etc.). This type of strict parenting is shown in the story The Man Who Was Almost a Man by Richard Wright when the main character, Dave's father asks him about his job and when Dave doesn't automatically answer his father asks him if he can't hear and because he doesn't listen. Dave then responds by saying that he plows harder than anyone else there, and instead of encouraging him his father responds by saying that he should focus on what he is doing. Dave responds by saying "Yessuh" as if he were talking to a master. In the conversation with his father we can see that Dave's father is strict when it comes to his performance in society. Dave, knowing what would happen if he misbehaved, complies. We see this again in this story when Dave is caught killing his boss Mule but refuses to tell the truth due to the consequences that will follow with his father. That night Dave lay in his bed and thought about the beatings he would receive and remembered past beatings and his back was shaking. Dave angrily says that all he did was work and that he was treated like a mule being beaten. Here we can see that Dave's father uses corporal punishment as a solution to his wrong actions. However, instead of rehabilitating him and making him more obedient, he becomes more resentful and angrier. In black culture, we tend to use corporal punishment as a tactic to get our children off the streets, away from gangs, away from prisons, and from the sight of the police. The reasoning for the continuation of corporal punishment was to prepare black children to deal with the prejudices they will face day in and day out that could potentially lead to their death. If a child had made one wrong move in that era, he or she would have risked being killed. However, this leads to negative outcomes, such as academic underachievement, resentment, anger, and reliance. In a study by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, it is stated that African American children make up 38% of the foster care population whilethey constitute only 16% of the general child population. These percentages are dangerous because Black children make up only a small percentage of the general population, yet Black children have a high percentage in the foster population. The foster care system is known as a conduit to juvenile detention for children of color. So if most black children are placed in foster care systems; they are more likely to end up at a young age. Another reason why black parents tend to use corporal punishment to correct a child's misdeeds is because that's how they were raised. Corporal punishment has been so normalized in the black community that if a parent does not use corporal punishment they are seen as weak, incapable of controlling their children, and set up for failure. Now, why is this so deeply ingrained in our culture? To understand why corporal punishment is so deeply ingrained in culture, we must understand the historical roots of corporal punishment. In an article from the American Psychological Association, Stacey Patton explains that the practice of corporal punishment was adopted from African Americans by white slave masters. Europeans had a history of using corporal punishment on their children that lasted more than a thousand years before arriving in the New World and colonizing Africa. Patton continues to explain that before colonization, West African societies did not use corporal punishment, but rather held their children in higher regard. In West African societies, they believed that children were reincarnated gods or ancestors from the afterlife. Beating a child was not allowed because they believed it would frighten their souls. However, due to colonization, slavery and genocidal violence, parenting skills have become tougher. Another reason why this practice was adopted was because the captured prisoners were young (between 15 and 20 years old). Because they were so young and mixed with the violent repression of West African culture, their practices and culture (such as educational practices, languages, and religion) faded. Patton explains that after the emancipation of slaves in 1865, the structure of racial customs and ritual whippings became the new type of Southern labor system. These labor systems depended on black child laborers, so whites encouraged corporal punishment to ensure they were served for the same reason they were served at liberty. In the book Black Rage by Dr. Willaim H. Gier and Dr. Prince M. Cobbs Recall tells us that blacks learned to use corporal punishment on their children from slavery. The book explains that corporal punishment has psychological roots in slavery. Even though this is known, black parents tend to continue using corporal punishment because it was once inflicted on them. Because it was once done to them, they may believe it is right to continue that form of discipline, but they are blind to seeing that they are continuing the cycle of oppression and abuse implemented by white slave masters. Not only does corporal punishment affect the child physically, but it also affects him mentally for years to come. In the novel Push by Sapphire, the main character, Claireece Precious Jones, is a 16-year-old African-American girl living in Harlem. Precious suffers sexual, physical and mental abuse from her parents. Due to this constant abuse he developed multiple mental health problems and his school results were trampled upon. We can see how Precious struggles academically in the book when she says she couldn't let anyone know that page 122 looked like 152,.