A large number of readers of this week’s column are able to relate and remember when there was a period of time in our lives that corporal punishment was meted out by parents, teachers, and neighbors and often when parents were informed you were punished again.
Over the years I recollect that boys were punished by switches, belts, electric cords and razor straps and sometimes with a backhand.
As I write this column I can hear those oft times repeated phrases that if you don’t check your attitude or behavior the White man will [law authorities]. In our home daddy was lord and master and if he and mamma had a disagreement we never heard it. There was no democratic process in our home where any of my brothers or sister had a chance to voice their opinion—you just listened. My brothers and myself received our share of corporal punishment and also frequent verbal beatings, and to this day I don’t recall which was the worst.
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