Is Mom In The Wrong For Beating 16-Year-Old Daughter On Facebook Live?

Nia Green mother Shanavia Miller — Nia Green's mother, Shanavia Miller/Facebook

One mother’s wish for the Facebook Live video – showing her beating her 16-year-old daughter -- to go viral has come true, though with mostly negative reaction from viewers.

In the video, originally posted to Nia Green’s Facebook page, the 16-year-old girl can be seen cowering in a corner as her mother punches and slaps her in the face.

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The mother, identified as Shanavia Miller on The Root, tells viewers that she’s beating her daughter, Nia Green, because she posted inappropriate pictures on Facebook of herself and a teen boy together in the house.

The pictures and the video have since been taken down from the Facebook page, but copies of the video are circulating throughout social media with the hashtag #NiaGreen.

“So, now, you wanna try me, right?” Miller says at the beginning of the video. She then strikes the girl with an object resembling a ruler. The girl replies, “no.”

“You wanna be a little thot on Facebook, right?” Miller continues. “Thot” is derogatory slang for whore.

The video is about five minutes in length.

“Wow, that was difficult to watch,” Yanni Brown, a certified relationship coach, said after watching the video. As the parent of a 17-year-old girl, Brown believes in whoopings as a form of discipline but does not agree with striking a child anywhere other than their bottom.

“You should never discipline your children when you’re angry. I also don’t believe that you should fight your children,” Brown says. “Coming up, we respected our parents and feared the discipline, but it was done with respect.”

Brown also disagrees with Miller broadcasting her child’s punishment on social media. Toward the end of the video, Miller looks into the camera and tells the viewers that she’s taking over her daughter’s Facebook page.

“You got me looking bad on here like I ain’t no good (expletive) parent. I do my best,” Miller says as she screams at the girl. “I’ma need y’all to send this viral. Please, share this ‘cause I’m not done. More to come.”

Brown says the issue at hand goes way beyond what was captured in the video.

“Before we get to the beat down phase, we have to know how and why these actions that our kids are participating in are OK,” Brown adds.

La’Keisha Sewell, an urban girls advocate and founder of the nonprofit, Girls Like Me, could not watch the video in its entirety.

“Watching the video of a ‘mother’ abusing her daughter has left me in agony,” Sewell says. “What I heard was a mother concerned about her own personal reputation and being ‘embarrassed’ by her daughter’s decisions, yet completely detached from her daughter’s need for guidance, redirection and love.”

The type of discipline seen in the video, according to Sewell, is steeped in retribution and humiliation.

"Mothers need a self-check to assess whether we are raising Black Girl Magic or if we are the culprits stealing the joy and self assurance from our daughters,” Sewell continues. “Shame and abuse are not what our daughters should associate nor confuse as a demonstration of our love.”

What is your take on the issue? Is Miller right or wrong?