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Anthony Butseev
English 115
Professor Lawson
19 November 2016
Argument Proposal Final
719

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Question: Why are white children perceived to be less disciplined and less respectful when it
comes to communicating with their adults as opposed to non-white children on the social media
platform? Is this true and does this have to do with corporal punishment?

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Support Claim: White children are perceived to be less disciplined and respectful ,on social
media, because of all the meme videos circulating showing the differences between how white
kids and nonwhite kids talk to their parents. The second search result that pops up on Google
when searching white kids vs black kids with parents is this video YouTube video: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3eO4PnGGH4. This video has slightly over 7.5 million views and
depicts 3 situations that parents encounter with their kids. Is shows the scenario of what would
happen in a white household and what would happen in an African American household. In
all three of the depicted scenarios, the white child talks back to his mother and is incredibly rude
but ends up getting what he wants. In the three scenarios with the non-white child, the kid
doesnt have the audacity to even say something slightly disrespectful to his mother, let alone

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raise his voice. In two of the situations in the African American household, the child ends up
getting hit (disciplined) by his mother and in all of them, he gets yelled at.
This is one of a plethora of videos circulating on social media that depict the same message,
which is that white children can do whatever they want and say whatever they want to their
parents (and other adults), unlike non-white children who have a fear of their parents because
they will get disciplined, most often depicted by corporal punishment.

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Opposing Claim: different parenting techniques. According to Dr. Flanagan, a clinical
psychologist, being able to say NO and disagree with something is something that is very
important in the devilment of children. Allowing a child to express something that they dont
believe is right makes them able to resist outside influence and helps them be a better decision
maker.Dr. Flanagan states it is important to say no,because the inability to say No the
inability to set personal boundaries is one of the most common, insidious causes of human
suffering.(Flanagan)
Parents feel like they know everything and try to force their kids not to make the mistakes they
did when they were growing up, but this doesnt allow the child to experience the real effects of
bad or incorrect decisions. Also disabling a child from expressing their opposition to topics
concerning an adults directions, prevents them from making their own decisions. If we never said
no, we would fall victim to other people and practically become their slaves.
Problems with these Claims: The issue about both of my claims and this topic, in general, is an
overhanging bias of racism prevalent in most situations depicting the statistics around. Also, a
personal bias might ensue because people have different experiences, while person A might see

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that their friend who was raised with super strict parents went crazy after 18 and their other
friend who was never disciplined is now doing very well, person B might have experienced
something completely opposite.
Another big issue is that often times social media tends to exaggerate the situation, for
example with the YouTube video, the final frames show a warning message saying that this video
is based solely on stereotypes.

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My Claim: I believe that the reason as to why white children are perceived to be less disciplined
than non-white children on social media is entirely due to the way that the kids see their friends
in a family setting. Non-white children are shocked to see that their white friends are able to talk
back to their parents without the fear of being punished (hit) which leads to the creation of the
perception that talking back to an adult means that they are rude and lack manners which are
reflected in social media posts.

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Doubts: People might claim that my information isnt accurate because I am generalizing a
group and/or stereotyping which it isn't at all, it is stating examples of differing situations and
how they show the perception of the people creating the social media posts.

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Bibliography"

1. MilaHairPlus. "White Parents vs Black Parents." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 "
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Nov. 2016."

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2. Flanagan, Kelly M. "The Reason Every Kid Should Talk Back to Their Parents." The " "
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Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.