Do you think t.js punishment was worse than a beating?

At school the next week, everyone shuns TJ, who still will no take the blame (for saying Mama changed the textbooks in front of Kaleb Wallace). TJ tells Stacey that it doesn't matter because he has better friends now who treat him like a man and who are white.I think the shunning is better than a beating. The social isolation hurts TJ more.