The black childhood varies from experience to experience, however, there are some motifs associated with them as a whole. Whoopings or beatings are a common means of discipline in the black childhood. These whoopings are usually with belts, but other items such as switches off trees, extension cords, shoes, etc. have been used. This form of discipline is undeniably linked to slavery, but are often practiced in pledging in the form of paddling. An Anonymous source in Kevin Foster's study reminisced on a time when he swung the paddle at pledges who messed up on information regarding the history of the organization (2008, 10). Whoopings in the black community are very normalized. We attribute them to the reason we turned out to be good, polished people, but we also acknowledge it as tradition or a necessity to the black childhood. The way we talk about the black childhood experience and discipline is similar to the ways people view the tactics in pledging and the continuation of such processes: "It happened to me , and I came out fine."
In relation to gangs and the connection to pledging, Ruffins notes, "'These beatings look a lot like the 'blood in, blood out' rituals of the gangs, Johnson says, noting that the nationwide rise in gang popularity, which began in the late eighties and early nineties, coincides with the formal ban on pledging. Once pledging was banned, gang rituals filled the cultural vacuum, becoming part of the now secret rite of passage" (1998, 7).
During WWII, black people began to get involved in the military. Some tactics and modes of thinking were taken from the bootcamps and training of which officers had to endure. Some similarities between the two include being lined up, intense physical workouts, and dressing alike. A thought as to why these unique experiences in the black community intertwined was the idea of process of elimination discussed previously, in which bootcamp prepared potential officers for servicing war, and simultaneously weeded out individuals not fit for the military (Ruffins, 1998, 8). Pledging was thought to be similar in that way, especially during the peak of segregation, discrimination, and racism. The process was supposed to bring forth the best possible fighters at a time such as then, and train them for life as black people in America. In the military, "you have to be tough enough to withstand the pain of war, or the torture of being interrogated by the enemy," but in America, you have to be tough enough to withstand the pain of racism, or the torture of white people, of which pledging's goal was to accomplish (Ruffins, 1998, 7).