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#BaltimoreRiots Teen Thanks Mom, while American U Prof calls her Mammie

#BaltimoreRiots Teen Thanks Mom, while American U Prof calls her Mammie

“I understand how much my mother really cares about me. I just got to try to do better.”

This is a follow up to our post, Mom Sets #BaltimoreRiots Son Straight.

The two sat down for an interview with ABC News:

The teenage boy publicly shamed when his mom smacked him around at the Baltimore riots this week said he knows she “really cares about me.”

A video shows Michael Singleton being dragged from the protests and whacked by his mother, Toya Graham, after she saw him on television and recognized a key piece of clothing.

“What caught my eye was his sweatpants,” she told ABC News. “Even though he had on all black, I knew those sweatpants he had on, they had a stripe on the side of it and then his eye contact met mine. And I knew that was my son.”

Though he was visibly annoyed and tried brushing off his mom in the video that has now gone viral, the 16-year-old recognizes that she was just looking out for him.

“I’m like, ‘Oh man! What is my momma doing down here?'” Michael told ABC News, laughing while thinking back to the moment his mom nabbed him Monday afternoon.

“All my friends know my mother. Every time they see her they’re like, ‘Toya coming.’ Oh, yeah she’s coming. Everybody better get straight,” he said.

He added: “I understand how much my mother really cares about me. I just got to try to do better.”


ABC Breaking US News | US News Videos

A good ending to what could have been a tragic event.

But not to Stacey Patton, “senior enterprise reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education” and adjunct professor of American history at American University, who saw racial profiling in all the praise heaped on Mom, Why is America celebrating the beating of a black child?:

It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.

“He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”

In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.

In a nutshell, so much of what is wrong with academia and the left-wing narrative.

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Comments

Someone get that boy in church and with a mentor.

DevilsPrinciple | April 30, 2015 at 12:01 pm

Left wingers are mentally unstable. To criticize a Mother for doing her job is absolutely nutty.

Stacey Patton says “In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.”

Fact Check, Stacey. Baltimore’s Mayor is Black. 10 of the 15 Baltimore’s city council is Black. Baltimore’s police commissioner is Black.

The church senior center torched by your ‘white supremacy resistors’ was meant to house and feed black seniors.

    topcat69 in reply to Aucturian. | April 30, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    You left out the bit about the police force being majority black.
    If it were not for the fact that there are so many top notch conservative blacks and so many bottom notch liberal whites I would start to question whether blacks are competent to rule themselves. It appears instead to be a liberal / conservative thing instead of black / white.

      topcat69 in reply to topcat69. | April 30, 2015 at 1:54 pm

      Whoops. I forgot to mention the most important thing of all. They are all Democrats – the mayor and the entire city council.

I R A Darth Aggie | April 30, 2015 at 12:22 pm

If my momma (91) caught me committing some tomfoolery she’d probably give me a good tongue lashing. Mostly because she can’t lift her arms up high enough to pop me in the face.

But she might use her cane…

“In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.”

Wholly crap…!!! Get that idiot AWAY from any influence on students ANYWHERE outside of Cuba!

Black mothers are SUPPOSED to push their teenaged sons out the door to fight police?!?!

Our system is DESIGNED to…and DOES…protect “their children”. In the process, some of the violent “children” like Mike Brown get killed. The net effect is STILL more black kids growing up.

If you wanted to design a system “to kill their children”, it would look a lot like Chicago on any weekend.

hopefully this young man has a chance.
I’m not one callign her a hero as the 6 kids with no dads there and (iirc) one of those 6 being pregnant is just against everything I believe in.
however it is very obvious she cares deeply for him and is trying and for that she deserves accolades.
he has a chance of a good life, I hope he takes it.

“I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray.”

An ambiguous statement.

Was she pulling him off the street because she didn’t want him to be a criminal thug? Or was she doing it to keep him from being killed by police?

The first reason is admirable. The second reason is understandable, but less admirable by itself. I would guess she was doing it for both reasons.

Josh Earnest, of course, went with the second.

    My gut reaction: I’ll take it. Her interests and society’s interests coincide. And by society’s interests, I mean the blacks who aren’t criminals and who don’t want to be the victims of criminals, too. Somehow a lot of liberals don’t find them very interesting or legitimate because they’re more worried about improving the lot of their children than fighting the system.

    Radegunda in reply to gibbie. | April 30, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    Probably both reasons apply. Her statements have suggested she believes it’s wrong to throw bricks at the police, period. She also said something along the lines of “I don’t want to live like that” — in context meaning, I think, that she doesn’t want to be contributing to a violent, lawless culture.

    Yes, her first concern is for the physical safety of her son, but she appears to have concern for his moral well-being too. (“Oh, yeah she’s coming. Everybody better get straight.”) And she may believe that the police are sometimes too heavy-handed, but she apparently also understands that her son can avoid that heavy hand by behaving himself in the first place.

    As JBourque points out, her interests and society’s interests coincide, and she seems to understand that. Would be better if she hadn’t had six children with no real father around, but it appears that she’s making an effort to lift them above the usual pathologies of fatherless, underclass households.

Connivin Caniff | April 30, 2015 at 1:12 pm

She is a natural boxer: speed, balance and power. And I think she has had a bit of experience, too.

He added: “I just got to try to do better.”

“I can’t promise I’ll try, but I’ll try to try.” –Bart Simpson

JackRussellTerrierist | April 30, 2015 at 3:20 pm

In one sense the slapdown of this knucklehead was appropriate, but in another sense it demonstrates that blacks immediately resort to violence to settle their differences. In this case, the kid was certainly old enough and sturdy enough to withstand mom’s slapdown, but I have seen this form of discipline visited on toddlers in the ‘hood over and over again. They are trained with violence and to be violent when they are in diapers. In this case, it was a big kid and it was well-deserved.

Apparently mom realizes she made a lot of mistakes in her younger days and her kids are her hope for something better for them. She clearly loves her son and doesn’t want him going down the wrong path. The chagrined look on his face suggests he got the message. 🙂 If more black parents cared as much about their kids as this mom does, things would be a lot better for all races trying to live together.

I was glad to see that mom straightened out her hair color for the interview. It was stripes of three or four different colors in the original video, looked awful. She could also have improved her presentation of herself as a role model mom by wearing something that covered her tattoos. Nevertheless, I hope she succeeds in washing the hood life off of herself and her kids. They will have good, healthy, productive lives if they listen to mom. I was glad to hear her say she knows her son makes mistakes, isn’t perfect, but he’s her only son and she doesn’t want him to come to harm.

The son has an advantage a lot of those other young people there do not – a mom who basically “gets it.”

I remember a few occasions of my older brother slinking in from the boat shed looking more than a little sore and sorry for himself, after having been caught in some sort of teenage tomfoolery. Once, when he and a bunch of his friends were caught on the beach under-aged drinking, he apparently told the sheriff’s deputy who picked them up that he’d rather spend the night in the county jail and make it home under his own steam the next morning, rather than be delivered home to face our Dad. He didn’t get his wish! Ha! On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that was the last time he ever got into that sort of trouble (or trouble of any sort, really).

Different children respond differently to different sorts of discipline. Sometimes grounding and shaming are enough; sometimes it takes a bit more. It should always be left up to parents, who are the ones who know their kids best, to make these decisions. Kudos to that Mom — at least she’s trying to teach her son a lesson. Let’s hope it sunk in a little bit.

Henry Hawkins | April 30, 2015 at 4:28 pm

I’m still more impressed by the moms of the majority of Baltimore teens who didn’t participate in the riots.

    Ragspierre in reply to Henry Hawkins. | April 30, 2015 at 5:02 pm

    You mean those “mammies” and Aunt Jamimas…???

    There might have even been quite a few of Uncle Toms at home.

      Henry Hawkins in reply to Ragspierre. | April 30, 2015 at 6:50 pm

      Naw, when I first saw video of the riot I was amazed at the relatively light bio-density of the crowds. It didn’t look a riot per se, but a half dozen groups of 50-60 rioters each roaming around.

      I’ve only had experience with one riot, the Detroit riots of ’67, when I was a 12 yr old. We got evacuated and the burnout fires got within 3 blocks of our house. Per wiki: The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed.

      When I compare the Detroit ’67 riots, and the many many other riots happening every summer in the late 60s, this Baltimore riot seems a bit tame.

      Doing some rough math in my head, knowing that Baltimore’s pop is at least half a mil, I figured there are upwards of at least 50,000 high school aged kids there, of which it appears… 500? 1000? were participating in the riot. It raises boatloads of questions, such as: are 98% of Baltimore teenagers therefore indifferent to “injustice” and “police brutality”?

      My tongue is firmly in cheek. I strongly suspect this riot was worked up by professional agitators who swoop in whenever and wherever a questionable event occurs that serves their racial division agenda. They’re using Balt teens as cannon fodder and the mayor is using them to justify her stand down orders. But Baltimore teens rioting are a miniscule percentage of all Balt teens (28 high schools!). Most of those I see on the screen whenever a face is shown or revealed seem older. Then again, my 44 yr old business office neighbor seems like a kid to me, so what do I know?

        Ragspierre in reply to Henry Hawkins. | April 30, 2015 at 7:46 pm

        Yep. I agree. And, in the new, shiny era of “social media”, mobs of kids can beat the LEOs all the time in terms of mobility and comms.

        Plus, if you’ve got a kid watching the local coverage, you’ve got air assets spotting for you.

        gregjgrose in reply to Henry Hawkins. | April 30, 2015 at 8:02 pm

        >> I’ve only had experience with one riot, the Detroit riots of ’67, when I was a 12 yr old.

        An early offender, eh?

        But more to the point, I saw the commish or some sort defend the early police inaction with the “but they were just a bunch of 14-15-16 year olds, you didn’t expect us to crack down on some children, did you?!” line of thought.

        And mental-ninja that I am, trained here at LI, I immediately yelled at the TV, ‘you moron, you just admitted your force was out-matched by a bunch of stupid kids!’

https://twitter.com/johnnydollar01/status/593846913474015234/photo/1

I’d have beaten the dog shit out of “Rev.” Sharpton. Rat thar….

    Didn’t Obama once give his Democrat operatives the instructions, “punch back twice as hard”? I’m not one to advocate violence, but if that reporter had wanted…

    Carol Herman in reply to Ragspierre. | April 30, 2015 at 11:01 pm

    CNN would have removed the microphone from the hands of its “interviewer.” There was a camera rolling. And, this became the “moment” for television theater.

    The mayor is dumber than a box of rocks.

    Oh, next week their convention center lost the cardiologists who had scheduled their annual event there. So there’s more damage than “just” what the rioters did.

      NeoConScum in reply to Carol Herman. | May 1, 2015 at 7:19 am

      Yes indeed, Carol. And, our Tampa Bay Rays vs. Baltimore Orioles series due to start at Camden Yards today will, instead, be switched to our stadium in St.Petersburg, Florida, where the O’s will be the “Home Team” and our “visiting team” will be at bat first!!

Welfare supports this system. It’s been in place since Lyndon Johnson became president. Maybe, earlier. Instead of soup kitchens for the poor, we send them welfare checks! (And, we up the amount every time they birth a new kid.) You don’t expect this formula to give you trouble?

Other countries don’t have our problems, because in other countries you sweep the streets

NeoConScum | May 1, 2015 at 7:13 am

Michael: You, young man, have a Stand-Up Mom and a good shot at a good life because of her strength of character and guidance.

“White supremacy” apparently encompasses everything from good manners to lawful behavior to this leftist loon? Well, if that’s the definition we’re using, let’s have some more white supremacy in this nation!

Hamasistan.

The Chronicle of Higher Education always publishes stuff like that. To be a true authentic black man, one must, according to Stacey Patton, be a shahid, a martyr, a suicide bomber.

That this young man’s life comes second to cartoon images of what a mother and a child ought to be should tell you everything you need to know about the author and the Chronicle. The Post should be ashamed to reprint it.