With all the media attention on the woman who angrily swatted her four year old daughter on camera in an Indiana parking lot, I have been wondering about the low-level child abuse I see occasionally on buses or Minneapolis city streets (Nicollet or Hennepin, downtown). A typical incident might involve the presumed parent grabbing and jerking a small child's arm, maybe slapping him or her, and using angry, verbal threats. The child's observed disobedience might be daudling on the sidewalk or being exuberant and noisy, and the parent usually seems in a general bad mood.
I hate to see it, and avert my eyes. I wish someone would explain to the parent how they may be damaging the child's spirit, and how--selfishly speaking--we are all going to have to live with that child's anger when he or she grows up. I say nothing because it is low level violence; I don't know the full context, and the world is a hostile, dangerous place. I rarely chide litterbugs either. And tell my wife not to engage reckless drivers. (Heard of road rage?) Anyway, let's be frank about the racial component to this. When I observe the behavior it is typically a single black woman doing it, maybe less than 25 years of age, maybe younger. I find it interesting that in the nationally televised incident it was an apparently white woman who did it, and who was having her child taken and put in foster care (temporarily). I am not saying we are being unfair to the white woman. Rather, I sense a kind of racism (of low expectations) when we hold a white mother to a certain standard but do little or nothing about similar behavior of a black mother. Makes me think that public opinion (and maybe "the system") is more concerned about protecting white children than black children. Anyway, that's my impression. What do other people think? Alan Shilepsky Downtown Minneapolis _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
