Toya Graham became the unofficial “Mom of the Year” when she caught her son rioting during the conflict in Baltimore back in April earlier this year. Mayhem erupted in Baltimore after the funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who died from injuries sustained during an arrest. Cameras were rolling as Toya slapped her son and tried to take him away from the disturbance, and that video footage went viral and gained mixed opinions about the manner.
Since the video went viral, the conversation about the state of Black motherhood was the topic of discussion in America. The video shows Toya smacking her son against his head after seeing him on the news as one of many participating in the riots following the death of Freddie Gray. Her rage and …show more content…
We can speculate back and forth how black moms raise instead of parent their children. In my opinion both raising and parenting have pros and cons. It seems that even though racism has declined considerably in the U.S. in the past 60 years, African American moms raise their children to believe that people, especially from other races are out to “get them”. In my opinion the approach taken to teach those kids to deal with all the “incoming” from society might be done the wrong way because they believe that “keeping it real” applies to all situations and that violence is the solution. As children grow with these programmed ideas in their head, they attempt to apply that philosophy with the rest of society, only to create conflict with law and authority. Being raised and protected by large families has its flaws as well because they foster a culture of crime by covering and hiding the crimes committed by relatives with a “snitches get stitches” attitude. These large families can also be counterproductive to a young undecided individual in the sense that if he or she tries to improve or has aspirations of improvement the rest of the family would drag him or her back to the trail of poverty and crime. Some clear examples are the cities of Detroit, Michigan and Baltimore, Maryland where progress has decayed and corruption and crime has
Since the video went viral, the conversation about the state of Black motherhood was the topic of discussion in America. The video shows Toya smacking her son against his head after seeing him on the news as one of many participating in the riots following the death of Freddie Gray. Her rage and …show more content…
We can speculate back and forth how black moms raise instead of parent their children. In my opinion both raising and parenting have pros and cons. It seems that even though racism has declined considerably in the U.S. in the past 60 years, African American moms raise their children to believe that people, especially from other races are out to “get them”. In my opinion the approach taken to teach those kids to deal with all the “incoming” from society might be done the wrong way because they believe that “keeping it real” applies to all situations and that violence is the solution. As children grow with these programmed ideas in their head, they attempt to apply that philosophy with the rest of society, only to create conflict with law and authority. Being raised and protected by large families has its flaws as well because they foster a culture of crime by covering and hiding the crimes committed by relatives with a “snitches get stitches” attitude. These large families can also be counterproductive to a young undecided individual in the sense that if he or she tries to improve or has aspirations of improvement the rest of the family would drag him or her back to the trail of poverty and crime. Some clear examples are the cities of Detroit, Michigan and Baltimore, Maryland where progress has decayed and corruption and crime has