ABC’s ‘Black-ish’ says yes to spanking in latest episode

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ABC’s Black-ish is certain to ruffle some feathers with their upcoming episode centered on the hot-button topic of parents spanking their children.

Wednesday night’s episode of Black-ish features Laurence Fishburne’s character (Pops) standing firm in his belief of spanking a child no matter how old the child gets.

In a new clip provided to Entertainment Weekly, Pops walks in on his grandson, Andre, while he’s talking to his siblings about “the whooping window” and how at 13-years-old, he’s no longer at risk of getting spanked.

Pops immediately immediately informs Andre of his beliefs.

“You still have an ass though… that means you’re still in the window,” Pops says.

“What’s age got to do with it? I spanked your daddy when he came home in the summer from college. He was like, ‘oh I’m in college now… listen to how smart my mouth is.’ I was like [smack].”

Andre’s sister weighs in on the discussion, telling Pops that “no one spanks anymore.”

“Well look who’s sitting there all cocky thinking she’s safe because she’s a girl. Whoopin’ don’t care what you are,” Pops responds as he points to each of his grandchildren. “An ass, is an ass, is an ass, an ass,”

Last month, the Adrian Peterson case rebooted a national discussion around whether or not physical punishment from a parent is damaging to a child, a subject matter that doesn’t seem to be dying down.

Wednesday night’s spanking episode was actually slated to be the second episode for Black-ish, but ABC decided to switch the order up in light Peterson’s spanking case being so fresh in the news.

During an interview with Vulture, ahead of the season premiere of Black-ish (September 24), the show’s creator, Kenya Barris, expressed her frustration with the ABC deciding to switch the order of the season’s episodes.

“We’d love to air it as our second episode, and in a very responsible way, we understand ABC feels like it’s not the right time right now to air it, but as producers and writers, we’re like, ‘Oh, my God! Ahead of the curve!'” Barris said. “But that’s part of what I’m learning — it is a corporation and they are sensitive in a very responsible way, whereas I’m sort of like, I just want to get my thing out there! So, that’s something we’re working through because it’s one of our episodes that we’re happiest with.”

What do you think? Did Fishburne’s character get it right when it comes to his stance on spanking?

Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.