Lauryn Hill penned a lengthy response on Facebook Thursday, addressing her daughter Selah Marley's graphic retelling of the "discipline" she received at the hands of her mother.
"Selah has every right to express herself, I encourage it, but she also got the discipline that black children get because we are held to a different standard," Hill wrote. "The discipline was seen through the lens of a young child who also had no place to reconcile me as mom, and me as a larger than life public figure. It took me a while to realize that my children, and probably everyone who knew me saw me in this duality. To me, I am just me. If I am guilty of anything it is disciplining in anger, not in disciplining."
Hill believes her feelings towards how the public treated her impacted her life as a mother. "My life has been about protecting my children from all kinds of danger, and that's only possible when you protect yourself from the danger as well," she wrote.
"We're both learning and healing, and each of my children has a similar story and journey. All of you in a rush to crucify someone, careful who you string up or nail up. You might have an extremely limited view of the actual reality," Hill said in response to the backlash she has received in wake of Selah's remarks. "We all hate abuse and exploitation, sometimes in an effort to fight against it we can easily become the abuser, the exploiter, and THIS is what we have to watch for. No one is exempt from needing to watch themselves in this way."
Selah described Hill as being "very angry" during her childhood, recalling instances where her mother would tell her to get a belt before re-enacting the moment when Hill would "hold our hands" together in the air "as she beat us." She said getting the belt was on "some slave shit," adding, "all Black parents were on that slave owner shit."
The aftermath from Selah's comments led to her publicly defending Hill, as well as her father, who she said in the same Instagram Live was largely absent from her life. She states that the open dialogue about her childhood trauma didn't mean people should "go bashing my parents — especially my father. I never said that I did not love them. I said their shortcomings created trauma that I now need to consciously and actively heal from."
