TNT's Charles Barkley defending Adrian Peterson's whipping of his four year old son to a bloody mess on CBS this morning as a way of child rearing in the South.
September 14, 2014

I was watching the pregame NFL shows this morning to see how they handled the Adrian Peterson child abuse story. What I didn't expect to see was an appearance by TNT's Charles Barkley, who responded to Boomer Esiason's condemnation of Peterson by saying you'd have to arrest every southern black in America because they all "whoop" their children the same way.

Charles Barkley famously said not to use him as role models, but he sure had a lot to say when it came to Adrian Peterson whipping his young son bloody, fourteen times. To his credit, Jim Rome refused to give him an inch on what child abuse is and fired back at the former NBA star over his 1964 ideas of child rearing.

Rome: Can you hit a child?

Barkley: I’m from the South,I understand Boomer's rage and anger, but I think, we have to accept that we were born, he's a white guy and I'm a black guy. I don't know where he's from, I'm from the south, whooping, we do it all the time. Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances.

Rome: It doesn't matter where you're from, right is right and wrong is wrong..

Barkley: Nooo...I don't believe that. We spank kids in the South

Hey Charles, Peterson did not sdpank his child, he beat him bloody, so bloody in fact that a doctor reported him for child abuse.

Barkley: Every black parent in my neighborhood in the South would be in trouble or in jail under those circumstances.

Rome: I don't want to tell anybody how to raise their kids and I don;t really want anyone telling me how to raise mine, but let's make a distinction between child rearing and child abuse.

Barkley: That's very..

Rome: That's child abuse. There's no fine line here.

I think there's a fine line. I've had many welts on my leg.

Welts like that?

I'm sorry that Charles was abused also as a child as many did back in those days.

Barkley: I don’t even like the term … ‘beating your child.’ We call it spanking or whooping our children.

Rome: If I see open wounds and bruises throughout a body that is a beating.

Barkley: Sure. I got spanked, me and my two brothers.

Rome: Then Chuck, not now. 1964 is one thing, 2014 is another.

Barkley: And that's fair.

This was a very disturbing segment as I believe there will be many idiot pundits going on TV next week and defending the corporal punishment of children.

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