The video seen around the world; a woman publicly disciplining her child after she caught her son hurling rocks at police.
The incident was caught by cameras live on TV station WMAR. The woman Gloria Darden, spots her son, dressed in all black with a face mask, and snatches him from the crowd.
She grabs him, slaps him on the head several times, and screams at him, asking “what the [expletive] is wrong with you?”
He at first tries to escape, but she chases him down, “You wanna be out here doing this dumb [expletive]? Get the [expletive] over here. Get over here now. Did you hear what I said?!”
The footage was met with cheers and jeers as everyone got their shot in. U.S. News and World Report along with other news organizations labeled her, “Mom of the Year”.
This was the slap heard across the nation, if not the world. Debate began slowly at first, “Last week they would have called Child Protective Services on her, today they’re cheering.” Others were even more critical, “if she had raised him right, he wouldn’t have been out there.”
Then there were the cultural analysts, “this is an example of the emasculation of the black male by women, how can this be condoned?”
The outpouring of support for Ms. Darden has been overwhelming, interviews with both her and her son on various news programs. The video of the incident has gone viral, with millions of people watching Darden slap her son about the head.
I asked several people how they would react to their son being in that situation, paying attention to older African-American women. “Yes, I would have done it!” That was my mother and that was all I needed to hear.
