This is a word a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. Spare the rod and spoil the child. That's how many people remember the Bible verse and how some parents justify spanking their children. And among many African Americans, there's also the persistent idea that beating a child can somehow save them from white violence. What's the cost for our families and for our children's health?

If beating black children were a prerequisite for success, then black people should be ruling this country right now.

Preventing child abuse, coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson. Stay with us.

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Welcome to a word of podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. April is national child abuse prevention month.

And our society's understanding of what does and does not meet the definition of abuse varies widely.

In many parts of the African American community, there are persistent cultural expectations that the only proper way to discipline a child involves hitting them.

It's a time to retire the idea that physical discipline is ever necessary and to embrace a wider definition of abuse.

Joining us to talk about is Dr. Stacey Patton. She is a writer, a child abuse survivor, and the author of the book Spare the Kids,

why whooping children won't save black America. Dr. Stacey Patton, welcome to a word.

Thanks so much for having me. Glad to be here, Jason.

How widespread is child abuse in the black community? What are some of the numbers behind it? Who were the primary perpetrators of child abuse in the black community?

It's a pretty widespread problem. Let's just start with the number one risk factor for physical injuries and fatalities. It's hitting children.

Whether we call it spanking, beating, popping, whooping, or whatever. So hitting a child always puts them at risk for either an injury or a fatality.

The data tells us from sources like child trends, which conducts the surveys of parental attitudes on things like corporal punishment,

tells us that the majority of American parents across race and ethnicity support hitting children or actually use it as a punishment practice.

Now there isn't a huge statistical difference between black folks and these other groups where just embrace the practice at slightly higher levels in terms of proportion, but the majority of American parents are hitting their kids.

Now when it comes to legal definitions of child abuse, it varies state by state. So you can hit a child one way in Mississippi and maybe even injure them.

But you try to do that same thing in Vermont and you might go to jail and there are also 19 states that still allow physical punishment of kids in public schools.

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