Malone: Supported By Black Parents

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Allen Howard apparently spent the day with Sam Malone before filing his report "Belt whipping of son brings support, jeers".

People should know that Howard is Black and his wife, Janet Howard is a Republican who defeated Tyrone Yates and served for a term in the State Senate before being ousted by Mark Mallory. That's important to know because it raises a question of perspective from the journalist. Even though I support Malone's right to give his son a little spanking, I also think it is crucial that reporters refrain from slanting the news by putting their personal feelings into reports like this. I don't want to see white liberals and socialist writing negative stories about corporal punishment and I don't want to see Black reporters writing positive stories about it. I want balance.

With that background, I question the stories subtitle "Confident and hard-working, Sam Malone keeps to his rounds as domestic violence case plays out". Since when did the terms "confident" and "hard-working" become objective terms to be used in unbiased news reporting? The question isn't is Sam confident and hard-working (I'm sure he is), the question is why is that relevant to the story. I don't think it is and suspect the Enquirer realizes that they've gone way overboard in writing negative Malone stories and that's why they opted to do this fairly positive one.

The essence of the story seems to be that a sampling of Black people shows that the spanking Sam gave his son is supported by most Black people and opposed by a few.

The attitude of Jabari Blackmond probably represents the views of most Black parents.

"I don't think you can have a manual on parenting. You have to do what works for you and your children," said barber Jabari Blackmond, 34, a single father of three. "I don't have to whip my children, but I would if I had to. Watching Sam's relationship with his son in here, I know Sam loves his son and did not intend to hurt him."

I certainly hope I don't have to whip my son when he is 14 years-old, but I will if he needs it. Most Black people aren't about to try to stick their noses in another family's business. We aren't going to tell Sam how to raise his son. We respect his right as a parent to decide what type of discipline to give his son. Unfortunately, paternalistic white socialist think they know better than Black parents how we should raise our children.

But there are some people who disagree. Just take a look at the one person quoted in the story who had something negative to say about Sam.

Not everyone is supportive. While with the businessmen, one young man began shouting at Malone: "This is our territory. Get out of here. You beat up your son! How many children have you molested?"

Malone ignored the shouts. "I try to reach everybody, but sometimes, you can't get to all of them."

The only person Allen Howard found to disagree with Sam Malone is young, believes Bond Hill is his "territory" (whatever that means), and believes that Sam is a child molester! These aren't the comments of a rational person, they sound like the ramblings of a gang banger who probably needs a good whipping himself and is afraid that a law and order person will put an end to the destructive illegal activity plaguing the city's Black communities. With opposition like that, Sam Malone will probably be this year's top vote-getter.

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