On a monolithic blackness – as I see it, as long as we continue to care what white people think about us, we’ll always be and feel inferior to them – as demonstrated by the lady Tami mentioned, who feels that the behavior of one black person, or a group of black people, is somehow a reflection on the entire race of people. I guess because whites are in the majority and in power (at least for now), and because there are so few, and not enough variety in the representations of us in all media, we care about how white people see us… unnecessarily, I think. And, amongst some of us, there’s this need to distance ourselves from those “unsavory others.”

On spanking your child – as Clay Davis on “The Wire” would say, sheeeeeit! Spank away, I say… if deserved. I don’t plan on having children, and I certainly have no experience raising children; but my parents didn’t hesitate to smack us around. And I’m talking belts and sticks… hardcore stuff! Last I checked, we (my siblings & I) turned out mostly OK. So, while it certainly wouldn’t always be my first option, if I were to father a child, to piggy-back what you said, it’ll still be one of many options! But, yeah, this notion that black people are less bashful with the spanking than white parents is a myth. Although I’m sure, like all myths, its roots can be traced to something very real. However, I’ve seen unruly black kids, just as I’ve seen unruly white kids. I wonder if it’s more of a “class” issue than of race…