And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Today more than 70 of americans think that spanking is acceptable. That number is higher among africanamericans. Stacey patton has a new book about americas relationship with Corporal Punishment, and she says its time to recognize that spanking is abuse that hurts kids. For those watching right now saying whooping already saved americas black children. What do you say. Look at mass incarceration. Violence in cities like chicago and baltimore, and youll find your answer to that assumption that beating kids, whooping, spanking, treating their bodies with violence saved us from any of these structural realities. What is the sign tiffist difference between what you just ran and whooping. We have science that says whooping, spanking, hitting and pain, science that shows hitting children causes structural damage to their brains. It sparks bio chemical responses that can put them at risk for a lower iq. Also problems like diabetes, cancer, some see this now, some will see it online saying i didnt appreciate my mother and father spanking me as a child, but im not in that category. I have a good job, i raised a family, im not in that category. Those are people who are victims of unrecognized trama. Theyre successful despite having someone assault their bodies as children. The people in prison, that may have met an early death, that what could have saved them is that someone had hit them more a a child. I hear lots of people say i was hit and i turned out fine. To me that is a sign of brain damage. When you harm the architecture of the brain, while it is developing, it harms memory. A lot of people cant accurately recall the fear, betrayal, and pain they felt because someone was presenting violence to them in the context of love. They have grown up to hold on to the adult justification for why they were assaulted and now averting violence. Anyone spanked as a child. No matter how successful, well adjusted, how happy they might be, were all in denial . If you grow up to think that violence against you is responsible for your success, there is something deeply wrong. What if you think it is discipline. Discipline is to teach. And when you hit them you say that aggression is the way to communicate. That is how you get someone to do what you want them to do and it is appropriate. How did black people, pardon the phrase, fall in love with Corporal Punishment . A lot of people think that hitting a child, whoopings, whatever semantics you want to talk in is a black thing. Hitting them is the whitest and worst thing you could do to a child. You go back 2,000 years of european history to see how europeans were destroying their own kids by hitting them, breaking them. They were absolutely sadistic with their own kids. They didnt recognize that children were children until the 1600. Our ancestors saw the children as gods. They were reincarnated family members. This is a process of colonialism. And a again sigh dal violence that altars the way we saw our own kids and how we treat them. So the persons who were spanked as a child, who dont see it as violence, may be in denial, and the parents who did the spanking what . This is the white sprupremacistn them . I would not go that deep, but a lot of parents do what was done to them. A lot of them said how did we get here . How did we become a people to think this type of practice will lead to better people and communities. They dont know and a lot of folks dont know the science either. What are the options . What are the Better Options . The best practices . First, i think parents need to look at themselves. Think about their own childhood. Be honest about how they really felt as children on the receiving end of a bigger person being violent with them. We need to interrogate what our pastors are teaching us from behind the pulpit. We need to dont spare the rock that is not even in the bible, mind you. We need to interrogate everything that we have been taught about this. That is the first step. First reflection as a people. And then there is all types of stuff out there, positive parents, painless discipline. Ways that you can handle every day issues like keeping a child from keeping a hot stove so they dont get burned. You can go on my website sparethekids. Com. People say whooping may be far down on the list of things that caused children to be in harms way. There is racism, lack of funding for schools, dilapidated schools. Neighborhoods that are crime infested. You mentioned chicago. Chicago a place where cops run away, im not trying to demonize cops in chicago, the data is clear there are cops that will hear a call and they wont go to a neighborhood because they know what to expect when they get there. I can go on an on. Disparity in health care. The lit any of other things that cause plaque children to be at harm. What youre talking about are structural issues. Generational. You can go all of the way back to the plantation. These are all of the more reason we should not hit our kids. Because there are so many traps. For example, our communities are under hyper surveillance from Law Enforcement and child protective forces. Why facility the flow of our childrens bodies through that system. A lot of people dont realize that 19 states allow corporate punishment in public schools. You have large numbers of africanamericans who are uninformed to have their children be paddled with wooden boards by children and administrators. That is generally the first step in the school to prison pipeline. So we give our children a set up for these traps when we hit them. Before they go to school, before they get in any trouble, when theyre two and three years old, were hitting them, setting the foundation and sewing the seeds for the types of aggressive behaviors that were going on in the streets. Those that say it is not the whooping, but a lack of two parents in the household, a lack of discipline, from having that Nuclear Family that once was the storyline in black america. I do hear that r a lot. The breaking up of black families but i have single participants in my book that have raised kids successfully without ever putting a hand on them. Living in a poor environment is not an excuse for butting vputt violence on your childrens body. Where is the line between the structural constraints and corporate punishment. I make a broad argument that White Supremacy is about destroying black humanity. No argue thement there. The greatest, most diabolical trick of it all, is to cease and destroy black children but to get parents and other loved ones to participate in that dehumanization process. So we cant separate the structural from how we treat black children. What was foundational to the success of White Supremacy has been the destruction of black childhood. For those parents just offended, saying i didnt whoop my child to dehumanize them, i did it because i love them and i want them to be respected as their life went on, not to be dehumanized by structural challenges and racism they would change. It was born from love, not an attempt to dehumanize them. That is also part of the trick, getting them to participate in dehumanization process and call it love and protecti protection. There was a kind of elusive black parenting created out of that experience. They left the beating of black and enslaved children to the parents for a number of reasons. What it gaved enslaved parents was a sense of power. It is better for me to do this than the overseer or Law Enforcement. It is generational echos. It gave them a sense of this is one thing i have control over in my life. When youre a people who lack real significant political and economic power in your life, when theyre all these structural issues, what happens is you end up reaching out to the most vulnerable among you. Taking out all of that frustration and pain on to people that cant fight back rather than striking back against the system and the big forces that you naked instead. The book is called spare the kids. Why whooping kids wont save black american written by dr. Stacy patton. Up next, actress Felicity Huffman, stay with us. I am always pleased to welcome our friend Felicity Huffman back to our program. She is starring in american crime. Here is a scene from the Season Finale of american crime. I have to figure out ho to keep things going. You need money . I need to come home. All that talk about trying to find yourself, t to breathe, ta a stand, that just goes away . What is it going to be like when youre back . It is going to be like it was, i will be there for you. Youre going to be a housewife, the same thing that set you off before, and the minute you feel disrespected you leave again. That is tense. Yeah. Very tense. Yeah, it is intense to watch the show. It is not light entertainment, but it is entertaining. It is beautiful, it is brilliant, but it is intense to watch. Does it feel that way onset . It is an intense set. Everyone is very dedicated and very professional. Some have years behind them. But it is very quiet and very on purpose. Not a lot of hey, lets hang out and play. Everyone is focused. How does that impact your work on screen when you are going under take a role that is purposeful purposeful in the social conversation . Yeah. I think as an actor, your job is always to find what it is in that story, in that persons Character Story that you can endorse. In Something Like this, this episode, this season, deals with slavery and forced labor. Modern day slavery. And that is about not having agency in the world, and my character, that is true of her, too. She has been a good housewife for 20 to 25 years. And there is no need in the marriage. She doesnt have a bank account. She cant sign for a car loan. She has no way to make money. I think she discovers that she is also helpless and she cannot help others because of her own ineffectu ineffectual. John ridley was here last week, talking about how great you are. Im glad to have you back. Was he wearing a gray sweatshirt. He was, pretty much, the same john ridley. Not getting dressed up except for the academy awards. Other than that, thats john. But the conversation was brilliant. We got so much response to him, because he has this way in conversation of almost being poetic. He almost talks like he riteswr. I want to run and write down what he said because there is eight one liners that are so great. I know, when john comes up, i like to hit record on my phone. He is a genius. He is smart and thoughtful. He talks like he already wrote down the answer. Which leads me to ask, after three years of working with him, very intense subjects that you tackle every season, what has been your take away from that . What are you learning about the world, about life, about yourself. I dont want to color the question too much. It seems to me if youre doing work that is that real and so real, you know year after year. There must be changing you in some sort of way. Isnt that great . I think it is impacting me in a lot of ways. The interconnectivity of us. And the cascade of our actions. And that were not alone. Everything we do affects everyone else. A lot of times were unconscious about it. Forced labor, i didnt realize picking up tomato, what went into that tomato, and what it takes. And the other thing that i took away from it is i really admire thoughtful, deep, tough true stories that you want to take it. And i think that takes courage. And finally, something that i think john ridley does brilliantly is the story behind the story. There is a crime or something explosive. We read about it and we say oh, well, that happened. No it didnt just happen, now the story begins. The cascade affect of how it affects all of those lives. That i didnt know about, and even this season when i look at those camps that we shot at our recreated, i think oh my god, is this what it is like . The brilliant of story telling. So the shots of them walking across the desert. I thought oh my god, is that what it is like . Speaking of story telling, what has been your feeling . Your take away three years later, for your story versus how others are done. Have you come to like that the way this particular show is shot . John keeps a lot of stuff from us. It sort of explodes out from there, but the threads of it all. And this season i kept saying how are all of the stories interconnected. What can i have in common with li lily taylor or tim. And i think maybe there is no coming together, maybe not body of all of the tentacles. He doesnt let you know it is going. And it wasnt until the last episode as an actor, it is kind of fan as it ting because im not playing the end of the scene at the beginning or the end of the season at the beginning. This was more about this as opposed to this, it was more that. Im not john ridley would not have explained it like that. He would have a brilliant paragraph but it works, we get it. Youre laughing at me. Didnt we all get the same point . Yeah, we all got it. I was going to say though, im not an actor and you are. But that could be a bit worrisome to me to not know where it is going. It is worrisome, and thank god i trust john ridley so implicitly. I come on saying what do i know . What happened last, and they would have to explain to me because i didnt get to read the scenes, but it does make you stay on your toes. You do say i hope this is correct and i dont have to change courses. I just saw felicity on the cover of a gorgeous magazine. Yeah, do you like to . Yes, i love it. Yeah, it was hot. Do you enyou those photo shoots . Theyre testify if iing, no you just say im not worthy, im not worth whyy, and the photograph is saying fantastic, lovely, and youre like i bet you hate this, im so sorry. How is your how is your wonderful husband doing . He is fantastic. He has a little break. He directed three movies in four years. It just about killed him, and finally the family was like can you take a break because youre super grumpy. And now he has a break, and he is relaxes and he goes back to season eight of shame less. Yeah, it is just Getting Better and better. She doing the honeydo list. We all know what that is. Yeah. Not that you should not be this fortunate. But you must feel like blessed, fortunate, but you just stay busy. Thank you god. And on great shows. I feel very blessed and graceful. I walk through my day thinking it could not get any better than this. I am in love, and i love our girls, and im loving teenage years. I dont know how. But i could not be luckier. You should give your website out, were going to get a bunch of phone calls from parent whos will want advice. It is called what the flicka dotcom. I needed help. And she can answer questions for you because anyone that is parenting teens and loving it, that is our show for tonight, thank you for watching, as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavissmil tavissmiltavissmile tavissmiley pbs. Org. Looking at the 20th anniversary of the l. A. Uprising. That is next time, well see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you, thank you. Today on americas test kitchen bridget and julia make a showstopping baked alaska, dan dives in to baked alaska thermodynamics, adam reviews ice cream machines with julia, and lisa tests offset spatulas. Its all coming up on americas test kitchen. Americas test kitchen is brought to you by the following Fisher Paykel. Since 1934, Fisher Paykel has been designing