Photo By Matt Borgerding

(L-R) State Rep. Catherine Barrett, State Sen. Mark Mallory and William Mallory Sr. at the Gaines High School and Peter H. Clark Historic Marker ceremony.

As soon as Cincinnati City Councilman Sam Malone's May 14 arrest for domestic violence hit the news, liberal and conservative bloggers alike started demanding his immediate resignation and denouncing Malone's "discipline" as excessive. All bloggers, that is, but reliably ornery Nate Livingston Jr., whose first reaction was to call Malone's arrest a "socialist attack on Black families" on his blog (blackcincinnati.blogspot.com).

In a later blog post, he wrote that he hopes the incident becomes part of a "much-needed national debate about parental rights and responsibilities, especially as they relate to Black families."

Does that mean there are cultural differences at play here? Livingston says he thought so -- "I can't think of any black person I know whose family didn't give out whoopings when they were needed," he says -- but has been impressed by the number of white parents who've stood up for Malone's right to discipline his child as he sees fit.

(Many of Malone's supporters simmered down after The Cincinnati Post reported that he'd been arrested in 1991 for assaulting his mother.)

By contrast, few elected officials have commented publicly about corporal punishment in general, much less Malone's specific case. It speaks to political expediency but also a reluctance to meddle in private family dynamics.

"I have a family of four children, all boys, ranging from (ages) 9 to 3, and I view this as a very private matter," says Councilman Christopher Smitherman. "We are praying for (Malone) and also praying for his son."

As for a cultural divide on the issue of corporal discipline, "I really can't speak to that," Smitherman says.

"I don't think there are cultural differences that feed into corporal punishment," says Marian Spencer, a lifelong civil rights activist and the first African-American woman elected to Cincinnati City Council. She says using corporal punishment is learned behavior: "What children see, they're very apt to imitate."

But that's exactly what could lend credence to a controversial theory called "post traumatic slave syndrome" developed by Portland State University professor Joy DeGruy-Leary. The idea, in part and simply put, is that, if you're a slave, beating some submission into your son is better than watching him die standing up to the master.

Livingston calls that theory "garbage." Parents were disciplining their children long before the American Holocaust that is slavery, he says.

Spencer thinks parents who apply corporal punishment are usually acting out their own fears for their children's safety. In fact, it seems that most people who recall getting spanked or worse remember that it was harshest when their parents were most frightened for them.

Spencer recalls using a switch on her own children just once. They were dangling their legs in the street while tossing spoons under the wheels of passing cars for flattening. "I told them before I did it, 'I didn't switch you because I thought it would make a difference. I switched you because you put yourself in harm's way. Your legs could have been run over by automobiles as you sat on the curb.' I said, 'I want you to learn how to protect yourself.' Later I figured I could have done better."

These days she likens corporal punishment to capital punishment. Both are an admission of failure to use other means, she says.

Small Signs of Progress
In 1850, Peter Clark became the first African-American teacher hired by Cincinnati Public Schools. Ohio had authorized public schools for African Americans just a year earlier. Later Clark became the school district's first black principal, first of Western District Colored School and then in 1866 of Gaines High School, one of Ohio's first high schools for African Americans.

On May 21, the First Unitarian Church honored both Clark and Gaines High by erecting a historical marker at the corner of Court and John streets in the West End. Ensembles from Allen Temple A.M.E. and First Unitarian Church, both of which Clark had attended so many years ago, feted the occasion, while students from Clark Montessori High School reenacted significant events from Clark's life.

According to the marker's text, "In 1883, Clark helped elect a Democratic governor who demanded and secured repeal of some of Ohio's notorious 'black codes,' fulfilling promises ignored by both parties for 15 years." Three years later the newly-elected Cincinnati Board of Education fired Clark "on political grounds," the marker says. Gaines High closed in 1890.

Democrats in the Ohio Senate have started crowing about rumors that the doubled tax on beer might be dropped from Gov. Bob Taft's proposed budget (see "Pay Up, Ye Sinners," issue of May 4-10).

"Ohio cannot endure another blow to its economy and working families," says feisty Senate Democratic Leader C.J. Prentiss (D-Cleveland). "Democrats have advocated all along that doubling the beer tax would cripple one of our key industries in Ohio. Senate Democrats are glad that the Republicans are starting to look at our plan."

But rumors also suggest that to make up the difference smokers might have to cough up even more for a pack of cigarettes.

Meanwhile, a bill introduced by State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. (R-Mount Lookout) to ban nearly all abortions in Ohio has yet to be assigned to a House committee (see "Brinkman v. Roe," issue of May 11-17), a good sign for pro-choicers. Track the progress of House Bill 228 on the Ohio General Assembly's Web site (www.legislature.state.oh.us).

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