Over the past week, Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings' all-world running back and one of the NFL's biggest stars, has become the face of corporal punishment in America. Peterson turned himself in to police over the weekend on charges of child abuse after he allegedly hit his son with a switch that left welts on his body.
Needless to say, people feel very differently about this subject. "I'm a black guy ... I'm from the South," Charles Barkley, the former NBA star, told a panel on CBS' NFL Today. "Whipping ā we do that all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances."
Meanwhile, a visibly emotional Chris Carter, who once starred for the Vikings, argued on ESPN's NFL Countdown that corporal discipline was outdated and wasn't solely the province of black folks. "This goes across all racial lines, ethnicities, religious backgrounds," Carter said. "People believe in disciplining their children. ... It's the 21st century. My mom was wrong. She did the best she could, but she was wrong about some of that stuff she taught me. And I promised my kids I won't teach that mess to them. You can't beat a kid to make them do what they wanna do."
[For more of this story, written by Gene Demby, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/codes...o-about-your-parents]
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