I don't know Paris Jackson, never met anyone in the Jackson family and, unlike the press and it seems millions of twitter people, I don't follow the tweets of anyone in the Jackson family. Like the Kardashians, I don't care about them, not so much because I hate them or can't stand them but I have enough drama in my own life so I don't feel the need to follow the drama of someone else's family.

While I'm not an expert on black families, I do come from one. While my parents did their share of spanking me, they never went as far as threatening to knock out my teeth if I didn't 'respect my elders.' That is not, as some have tried to portray it, black parenting, that is abuse. Let's be truthful about something else, if her name was Paris Murray, the child's tweets wouldn't be fodder for the tabloids because she would be a nobody. Maybe if the child had someone trusted to talk to she wouldn't find it necessary to send out tweets.

It's disturbing to read some of the comments attributed to Star Jones, Gladys Knight and others over the tweets sent by Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson's daughter. The tweets illustrate a family in distress and instead of trying to address that issue, those two 'stars' feel the child is at fault because the child aired the family business. Of course, what it has exposed is a family, who has millions, squabbling and acting rather callous about the estate of their famous sibling. But to Gladys Knight and Star Jones, the family isn't at fault. The girl who is telling this story should have her cellphone taken away, she should be 'checked,' or she should, by implication, have her teeth knocked out. All of this vicious reprimand is excused by both by saying 'that how we were brought up.'

I guess my question would be this; how can you respect an elder when they respond by calling you a bitch and slapping you? That is what allegedly happened when Janet Jackson confronted Paris. While Paris is 14 and Janet is considerably older, I don't care how much of a family you are; confronting a 14 year old about tweeting by calling her a name and slapping her isn't the way to diffuse a situation. That is not the black family I grew up with.