Is it legal for a parent to apply corporal punishment to their children?

I heard of the rumor that being stern or strict goes over big with African American children. Do you think that this is true or not?

Is there any truth the statement that corporal punishment is prevalent in the African American families because of slavery times and the whippings that the African American people endured? Do you think that this was a learnedbehavior (or modeling) on how to control people?

Is this true that (corporal punishment) is a way of controlling children which is also used by whites and other groups of people and that it is most prevalent in the more underprivileged communities?

Do you think that African American children are of a different temperament than white children?

However, if you find a white child or any other ethnic culture that has been predominately raised around the African American culture their parents seem to follow suit with the African American culture. What do you think about this synopsis?

If there is any research findings that most African American children are resistant to Operant conditioning or that African American children temperament is different than white children or other ethnic groups or to any other assumptions mention in this posted question about African American parents being strict or using corporal punishment to make their children behave.