Brandy
It is, or was at least, quite common for African-American children to be physically disciplined. I do feel that on average African-American parents are stricter than white parents when dealing with their offspring. One thing that should be considered is that African-American parents in the past had limited material goods, so punishing a child by withholding things, like no TV, phone, etc., wasn’t feasible. Also African-American parents in past times spent a lot of time away from the home, so punishments had to be swift and effective. What child in their right mind would heed a parent’s punishment if that child knew the parent could not enforce it! That brings me to my next point: African-American parents have had to be strict on their children because there was a time when their youth would have been lynched and/or beaten for just the slightest trangression. And finally, parental dealings are also culturally based. Respect of adults and especially elders is very important and not something to be taken lightly. Let me also add that I am the product of a home that incorpated spankings into discipline, and I am not prone to violence, maladjusted or confused about the love that my parents had for me. I do plan to use spankings to discipline my children in the future.