'So there I was - a twenty-one year old black female university student walking down a suburban street with a gun, no shoes and murder on my mind. I was going to kill the past. I didn't know what else to do with it' Stacey Patton today is a vibrant and impressive young woman with a promising career in journalism. Yet her childhood was a battleground of bullying, abuse and mental torture. Abandoned by her birth mother, Stacey was placed in the New Jersey foster care system and was apparently lucky to be adopted by a hardworking, God-fearing African American couple. Yet something else was going on in this immaculately kept home - punishment in terrible ways, physical, emotional and sexual. Her mother was tyrannical and her father, either so in love with or in fear of his wife, turned a blind eye to the abuse she heaped on their love-starved little girl. Stacey survived by channelling her energy into her school work and her education raised her from the shackles of her unhappy home. Drawing parallels between her own childhood and the treatment of black slaves brought to America, Stacey Patton weaves the moving story of her own painful upbringing with the shameful slave history of America.

"Originally published as 'The Dozens: a history of rap's mama.'"--Title page verso.

After reliving the same day for months, eighteen-year-old Barrett reluctantly teams up with her nemesis Miles to escape the time loop, and soon finds herself falling for him, but what she does not know is what they will mean to each other if they finally make it to tomorrow.

A challenge to the cultural tradition of corporal punishment in Black homes—and its connections to racial violence in America—that encourages positive, nonviolent discipline for those rearing, teaching, and caring for children of color Why do so many African Americans have such a special attachment to whupping children? Studies show that nearly 80 percent of Black parents see spanking, popping, pinching, and beating as reasonable, effective ways to teach respect and to protect black children from the streets, incarceration, encounters with racism, or worse. However, the consequences of this widely accepted approach to child-rearing are far-reaching and seldom discussed. Dr. Stacey Patton’s extensive research suggests that corporal punishment is a crucial factor in explaining why Black folks are subject to disproportionately higher rates of school suspensions and expulsions, criminal prosecutions, improper mental health diagnoses, child abuse cases, and foster care placements, which too often funnel abused and traumatized children into the prison system. Weaving together race, religion, history, popular culture, science, policing, psychology, and personal testimonies, Dr. Patton connects what happens at home to what happens in the streets in a way that is thought-provoking, unforgettable, and deeply sobering.