Health

The Practice of Parents Posting Child Beatings Online Becoming More Common

Published

12 years ago

February 10, 2015

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
Special to the NNPA from the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

Back in the days when a Black child ran afoul of his or her parents or elders, the child might be asked to go retrieve a “switch”—a thin branch from a tree or a bush—in order for the adult disciplinarian to use to beat the child as punishment for a particular infraction.

“That’s some hell of a psychology, right, to make you go get a switch to beat your own ass with, right?” the legendary comic Richard Pryor observed once in his famous 1979 “Live in Concert.” These days, the “switch” may be largely a thing of the past, but it’s been replaced by a new form of punishment that is just as unnerving—if not more—than being asked to retrieve a tree branch that one knows will be used to inflict pain on one’s own hide. Instead of asking misbehaving children to retrieve a switch, a small but growing number of Black parents are retrieving video cameras in order to record themselves whipping their children, then posting videos of the whippings on social media websites, such as Facebook, to embarrass their children to get them to discontinue any non-desirous behavior.

In the cases of boys, the parents were often upset over their sons’ involvement in gangs or similar criminal activity. In the cases of girls, the parents were typically upset over their daughters being sexually promiscuous or representing themselves as being older than they actually were. Consider, for instance, the titles of the following videos, which can be found easily online:

“Father Slaps His Son For Trying To Be In A Gang ‘My Son Will Not Be In A Gang Who Ever Has A Problem Come See Me!’”
“Mama Don’t Play: Mother Whoops Her Daughter For Being A Thot!” (A “thot” is a contemporary slang term for a promiscuous girl.)
“Father Whoops On His 13-Year-Old Daughter Dressed Like Beyonce After Going Missing For 3 Days!”
“Father Gives His Nephew An Old School Azz Whoopin On Webcam For Acting Hard On Facebook”

The practice of posting videos of child beatings online is so disquieting for some Black scholars that some declined to comment for this article. And those who did speak did so hesitantly out of concern that highlighting cases in which Black children were purposefully beaten on camera might perpetuate false notions that Black parents are more violent than parents of other ethnicities when it comes to the disciplining of their children.

That’s a valid concern when you consider the fact that these videos—often just a few minutes or less—are generating millions of views online and thus saturating large segments of American society. All of the Black scholars contacted for this article condemned the practice of combining corporal punishment and social media as counterproductive. They also urged Black parents to try to find alternative means of disciplining their children.

“I oppose the practice,” said Dorothy E. Roberts, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think they’re humiliating their children and I don’t think it’s going to help,” Roberts said. “If anything it’s going to make the children resentful. I think that humiliating children can be as painful as the physical harm.”

Carletta N. Perry, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Leo University, said putting discipline methods on social media can increase negative attention-seeking behavior. “This is the opposite of what parents want,” Perry said. “They want their children to stop whatever negative behavior they are involved in, but sharing the discipline on social media is not the way. “Embarrassment may be one of the goals to stop the behavior, but, in fact, this type of behavior is an embarrassment to the family, the culture, and society,” Perry said.

It’s also legally perilous. In several cases parents were arrested for the beatings that were captured on videos and posted online. Both Roberts and Perry suggested that the practice of putting child beatings online appears to be indicative of parental frustration. They sought to make it clear that they did not want to bash the parents. They also sought to broaden the context in which the videotaped beatings took place. “I don’t just condemn these parents,” Roberts said. “I also condemn the situations that they and their children find themselves in.”

“As a psychologist, I have worked with parents who struggle to keep their children out of dangerous situations and in line on a day-to-day basis due to outside influences,” Perry said. “Unfortunately, I have also seen parents cry out for help to the police, to the courts, and to the community but many times their cry is unheard, unanswered and they feel alone in parenting during difficult situations.”

One important thing to understand about some of the cases in which Black parents beat their children and then post videos of the beating online is that some of the children’s misbehavior was perpetrated online. You might think of it as parents going to the playground where they were misbehaving and beating their children in public—only now the “playground” is the Internet.

Girls, for instance, may have been caught flirting with boys or older men online, and so their parents meted out the punishment in the same venue. Boys, on the other hand, may have bragged about gang involvement on their Facebook pages, and so their fathers or uncles post videos online of them beating the boys and forcing them to renounce their gang ties publicly.

Roberts questioned the premise of whether the practice of parents putting child beatings online is actually confined to Black parents and urged a reporter to search for cases in which parents of other ethnicities had done the same thing. While it’s difficult to collect and assess all cases of videotaped child beatings, a recent unscientific web search turned up one apparent distinction between cases of White parents and Black parents where videos surfaced of them beating their children online.

That is, in several cases where White parents had been videotaped beating their children, the video recordings were unintentional or surreptitious. That is to say, the White parents had simply been caught beating their children on video. Black parents, on the other hand, had put the videotaped beatings online on purpose. And sometimes they defiantly expressed blatant disregard for the legal repercussions or ramifications of doing so.

For instance, a Flint, Michigan mother who—along with her mother—made a video of them beating her 11-year-old son for claiming to be a “gangster” and not doing his school work actually looked into the videocamera and defiantly and daringly said: “Please call CPS (child protective services) if you want to. Watch this ass-whooping this ‘gangster’ gonna get.” The boy is made to apologize to his mother, asked about his grades in school and made to tell the people on Facebook: “it’s not cool to be a gangster.”

Illustrating how corporal punishment has been a longstanding institution within the family, the boy’s grandmother tells the boy she would “do just like my mama …. Walk and then come back and whoop your ass some more if I feel like it, you understand?” Perry—without speaking directly to the aforementioned case—said it’s important to “speak life into your children and tell them who they are, where they come from and where they are capable of going in their bright future.”

“And, always speak with love in your heart and never in angry moments,” Perry said. “Remember to pause before you speak because your actions and your words are the lessons they will remember.”

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Black History

Five Hospitals Said No! Who Will Help Annette Henry Recover?

Annette Henry, a 67-year-old Oakland woman, is struggling to access essential medical care after a devastating stroke left her with a rare neuropathic pain syndrome. Despite medical documentation confirming her need for inpatient rehabilitation, five different Bay Area hospitals have denied her admission, often citing her inability to meet rigid therapy thresholds. Her family’s efforts to seek intervention from state and federal lawmakers have yielded no results, leaving Henry at home without a clear path to recovery. To see how these systemic failures are impacting her health, read more.

Published

2 hours ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

By Tanya Dennis

A tangle of red tape and contradictions between health providers and Medicare rules have impeded an Oakland woman’s ability to recover from a stroke she had last year.

Her family – who are her caretakers – have reached out to various professionals and state and federal lawmakers for help to no avail.

At 67, Annette Henry needs inpatient stroke rehabilitation after a devastating stroke in May 2025. Since then, multiple Bay Area hospitals have denied it. She was accepted into a rehabilitation facility in June 2025 but discharged prematurely in July, in essentially the same condition.

Three hospitals where she was a patient pushed skilled nursing over inpatient rehabilitation. Two more declined referrals.

Now at home, Henry is caught in a system that measures her need for treatment against the limitations treatment should address.

Medical professionals have documented her need for a higher level of care.

In August 2025, a Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) overturned Henry’s discharge from an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF).

The QIO’s independent physician reviewer found she had not received the “intensive therapy program outlined on admission,” according to the Aug. 30, 2025, determination letter. Yet the decision did not secure her readmission or guarantee continued rehabilitation.

Henry has central post-stroke pain, a rare neuropathic pain syndrome that can make movement and touch intensely painful. Her pain specialist recommended inpatient rehabilitation alongside pain management.

Nevertheless, facilities have cited her inability to tolerate three hours of daily therapy as a reason to deny inpatient rehabilitation.

That practice raises questions about Medicare coverage policy. In Hooper v. Sullivan, No. H-80-99 (D. Conn. 1989), the court recorded the parties’ agreement that denials based on numerical utilization screens, diagnostic screens, treatment norms, the “three-hour rule,” or other “rules of thumb” were not appropriate.

CMS subsequently cited Hooper in its Aug. 7, 2009, final rule (74 Fed. Reg. 39762, 39794). The policy is also addressed in the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 1, Section 110, and CMS’s June 1 Review Choice Demonstration for IRF Services: Operational Guide.

These authorities underscore the need for individualized assessments rather than rigid numerical thresholds.

The central contradiction is stark: the pain and disability that make rehabilitation necessary have been cited as reasons to deny it. UCSF Stanyan’s April 7 discharge summary for Henry states that acute rehabilitation unit (ARU) placement was declined for “inability to tolerate three hours of therapy daily.” Without appropriate treatment, Henry risks further decline.

Her records document complications associated with prolonged immobility.

Orthopedics documented flexion contractures of the small and ring fingers on March 19.

Chest imaging on April 1 showed bibasilar dependent atelectasis, a condition involving reduced inflation of the lower portions of both lungs. These concerns can be examined through her medical records and photographs.

“What does a ‘not reasonable’ discharge look like?” her family asks. For them, it looks like an appeal decision recognizing a problem without ensuring a remedy: repeated referrals, denials and a patient still without the rehabilitation her treating professionals have recommended.

The family has sought help from the California Department of Public Health and the federal Office for Civil Rights to no avail. They contacted U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon in June 2025, while Henry was in rehabilitation; Senator Alex Padilla in May 2026; and Senator Adam Schiff in September 2026.

DeCuir says the family received no meaningful assistance and was redirected to the QIO or advised working with a social worker after Henry had already been discharged.

The consequences extend beyond rehabilitation. The family reports that Henry has struggled to attend in-person specialist or any appointments and needs in-person evaluation and treatment for complications, recommended evaluations, health screenings and preventive care.

Her mobility limitations have become barriers to broader medical care. Every office tells her their office is not set up to accommodate her. This has happened with specialty care, out-patient services, screenings and physical therapy.

Henry is a Black woman on Medicare, and her family believes her experience raises concerns about unequal access to intensive rehabilitation. Research has documented disparities in discharge to inpatient rehabilitation rather than skilled nursing, underscoring the importance of individualized review.

CMS, state regulators and healthcare providers should examine Henry’s records, assess her needs on their clinical merits and explain how the applicable coverage standards were applied, and whether they are being enforced.

Rehabilitation is not a reward for patients who can already tolerate treatment. It is care intended to help people recover function. Henry’s case asks whether a system designed to support recovery can leave a patient without a path to it.

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Business

SEIU Local 1000 and State of California Will Continue to Negotiate New Labor Contract

Thousands of California state employees represented by SEIU Local 1000 recently staged a one-day walkout to protest stalled contract negotiations with Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration. The union, which represents approximately 100,000 public workers, is demanding a 20% wage increase over three years and an end to mandatory four-day in-person work requirements. While the initial strike has concluded, union leadership warns that further demonstrations are likely if the state continues to reject their demands for better pay and telework flexibility. Negotiations are expected to continue as both sides seek a resolution. Read more.

Published

3 hours ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

California state workers staged a one-day strike Oct. 21 to protest alleged unfair labor practices and stalled contract negotiations over wages, remote work requirements and health care costs. The workers' previous contract expired June 30. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

After the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000 labor contract expired June 30 and talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration stalled, the union stepped up its efforts to secure a new agreement, saying its demands had gone unheeded.

On Oct. 21, thousands of state employees represented by SEIU Local 1000 staged a one-day walkout to protest alleged unfair labor practices during negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.

Although the strike has ended, SEIU Local 1000 President Anica Walls said further demonstrations or an expanded strike are highly likely if contract negotiations remain stalled. The union represents approximately 100,000 public employees statewide.

“We are out here because our jobs matter,” Wells said. “If they continue to refuse to bargain with us in good faith, we are prepared to escalate.”

Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles) expressed support for SEIU Local 1000’s labor action in an Instagram post, emphasizing the importance of fair treatment for workers.

“I stand in complete solidarity with SEIU Local 1000,” Smallwood-Cuevas stated. “More than 100,000 state workers they represent are on strike today fighting for good-faith bargaining, fair treatment, and a contract that reflects the value of the essential public services they provide every day—all things that should be a given for the workers our state relies on the most.”

Smallwood-Cuevas, a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) added, “When California’s workers hold the line, the whole nation pays attention.”

According to union representatives, SEIU Local 1000 is seeking a contract that addresses rising living costs and provides greater workplace flexibility. The union is demanding a 20% wage increase over three years and an end to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s requirement that state employees work in person four days a week.

The union is also seeking increased state contributions toward employee health care benefits to reduce workers’ out-of-pocket costs.

On Sept. 18, Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1729, authored by Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose), which sought to expand telework opportunities for state employees.

The bill would have required state agencies to offer telework options or provide written justifications for requiring employees to work in person. Supporters argued that telework could save taxpayers approximately $225 million annually by reducing office space and parking costs while lowering vehicle emissions and improving employee retention.

Newsom said the legislation would limit state departments’ flexibility to manage their workforces and evaluate telework exemptions individually. He has also emphasized the benefits of in-person collaboration.

“I want people to come back to work, reengage, rediscover, collaborate, coordinate, develop relationships, friendships, and fall in love,” Newsom said in July. “You get three-day weekends. Four years ago, that would’ve been a triumph. Now it’s a burden.”

Union organizers described the Oct. 21 walkout as a one-day unfair labor practice strike, rather than an indefinite work stoppage. The action was intended to demonstrate solidarity and increase pressure on the state during negotiations.

SEIU Local 1000 has been without a contract since its previous three-year agreement expired June 30. Negotiations are expected to resume.

Responding to the statewide walkout, the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) said it “remains focused on achieving a fair and responsible agreement with SEIU Local 1000 and continues to be available at the bargaining table.”

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Black History

Oakland Strong: Building Champions and Healthier Generations

Entrepreneur Mike Jenkins is revitalizing youth wellness in Oakland through Oakland Strong, a world-class strength-training facility in Jack London Square. After providing a decade of free training in Fruitvale, the program moved and rebranded while continuing to produce national and international weightlifting champions. Jenkins aims to counter community health challenges by teaching Olympic-style lifting and nutrition to children ages 8 to 18. As the program seeks new ways to sustain its free services, local partnerships are forming to support these elite young athletes. Read more.

Published

8 hours ago

November 3, 2026

Post News Group

By Tanya Dennis

Mike Jenkins is a serial entrepreneur with a vision to make a lasting impact in Oakland.

Raised in a military family in the Pinole area, Jenkins played basketball at Merritt College before continuing his athletic career at Sacramento State.

His lifelong interest in health and wellness led him to consider a troubling reality: as members of the Black community age, health challenges often increase. Jenkins believes investing in health is an investment in wealth, and he has made it his mission to give Oakland’s youth a stronger foundation for life.

Years ago, Jenkins invested in young people by building Speed Power Strength, a world-class strength-training facility in the Fruitvale neighborhood. For 10 years, the facility served hundreds of children, providing training entirely free of charge. Displaced by gentrification, the program eventually found a new home in Jack London Square.

That move inspired a new name: Oakland Strong, reflecting both the program’s mission and its pride in the city it represents.

“When we found the new home, I needed to put a spotlight on what we were doing– producing the strongest kids in Oakland – so I named our new location Oakland Strong,” Jenkins explained. “We are known nationally and internationally, so when we compete, our city’s name is on our chest.”

Through Olympic weightlifting, governed nationally by USA Weightlifting, the program has developed an extraordinary record. Its athletes have earned 10 national championships, a team national championship, and international titles. Today, two Oakland Strong athletes are Olympic hopefuls.

This past summer, Oakland had three athletes at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs at the same time. One was Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu. The other two were Oakland Strong’s Robert Whitlock and Rucker Johnson, there for a weightlifting camp for Olympic hopefuls.

Whitlock, an Oakland Technical High School student, began training at age 10. Now a three-time consecutive national champion, two-time Pan American champion, and Team USA representative, Whitlock also holds an American record while maintaining straight A’s in school.

“If Oakland can’t support these kinds of kids, then what are we doing?” Jenkins asks.

Oakland Strong continues offering free training in Jack London Square to young people ages 8-18. The program welcomes girls as well as boys, with approximately 12 kids currently participating with room for 20.

With limited city support for free youth programs, Jenkins must find other ways to sustain the work.

When Carlyle Chicken Wings opened nearby, he approached the owner with an idea connecting nutrition and community investment. Because Oakland Strong teaches healthy eating alongside athletic training, they developed the Oakland Strong Bowl, a protein-focused meal. Carlyle will contribute $2 from each bowl sold to support the program.

For Jenkins, the mission extends far beyond medals and records. He wants to create generational health by teaching young people habits they can carry into adulthood and share with their families.

The strongest legacy, he believes, is not simply producing champions, but building healthier generations who understand their worth, their potential, and the importance of investing in themselves.