My article is not a treatise on white parenting vs. black parenting in real life or a how-to-guide. I do not have to be a parent to tackle a subject that is based on my own experience and on observation. And it’s not an endorsement of child abuse. I think hitting a child in any way was child abuse back in the day, and while I have to acknowledge that spanking had some degree of effectiveness, I’m glad it is now considered physical assault. And nowhere do I suggest that cliches equal reality, though they tend to be based on patterns in reality. But it’s hard to argue against the fact that white and black families and parenting are depicted quite differently on TV. That is the crux of my article. As I concede early on, I don’t know anything about what goes on in real white families, never having been a member of one, but I hope the dynamics in white TV families (kids being ridiculously rude to their parents and getting away with it) don’t mirror the ones in real-life white families the way the dynamics in black TV families somewhat mirror the ones in real-life black families. (Interestingly, Snoop Dogg, who is nearly 50, said being admonished by his mother is what persuaded him to apologize to Gayle King for going off on her on social media.)

Please do not take my article as a personal attack on your parenting or the parenting of any of your friends. It is simply based on my own experience and patterns I’ve seen on TV over decades.