YA-O-O-O-W-L!
OF WHUPPING, FATHERS, THE LESSON OF THE BULLS
WHUPPING
This yowl ain’t really about whupping. That’s another subject for another time. It’s about fatherhood, more particularly lack thereof and its effect on male youth, in particular urban black youth.
The latter—urban black youth—is, of course, a BIG topic. The Wolf ain’t gonna try to address this topic in one go. Rather, we’ll come at it piecemeal.
Yowling Wolf, BTW, is a big believer in piecemeal—coming at big things in smaller, manageable chunks and bits. Yowling Wolf believes that is how BIG problems can most effectively be tackled.
Whupping has been in the news in the person of yet another well-meaning black father pilloried and brought low by a righteous, presumably well-meaning (white) American press. So Wolf will yowl just a bit about whupping and corporal punishment.
Adrian Peterson, all-star NFL Minnesota Vikings running back, from every appearance a friendly, likeable fellow, in his own words “whupped” his four-year-old son by an out-of-wedlock mother, same as his prison inmate daddy regularly whupped him as a boy in Texas, to the point of bloody laceration with a “tree branch.”
The Wolf by no means condones small children, or any child, man, woman, or beast being struck to the point that blood is drawn, or even bruises or welts result. The Wolf has had such visited upon him, both as child and adult. Generally, not a good thing. However, as in most matters, there are exceptions.
(E.g., having a fist fight with another, unbeknownst to most, is a very intimate experience. Unless a total beat down, combatants emerge with much mutual respect. As kids you often become friends.!!)
By the same token, Yowling Wolf also finds fault with a white, liberal, American mantra of thou-shalt-never-lay-hand-(or any implement, including tree branches)-on-any-child-in-any-way-for-any-reason. And OMG!, heaven help you if you do, especially if you are …non-white. You are the lowest of the low. (An animal?) You shall be punished.
Yowling Wolf notes that this abhorrence of violence apparently does not extend to innocent victims of drone strikes (virtually all of them people of color), orchestrated by anonymous “pilots”—”soldiers!,” “warriors!”—sitting at desks watching computer screens many thousands of miles away (who then drive home for dinner with their families). (Authorized, yes, by a Nobel Peace Prize-winning, Black [African] American president who is regularly castigated for being too soft on America’s enemies. Yeah, things get complicated.)
Apparently violence is sometimes justified, even to the point of killing innocents. Continue reading