Controversial Poem Puts 7-Year-Old On Hot Seat
 

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/60921.htm

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_072172005.html (shows video of Autum)

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...ols&id=3989316 (video footage as well)

Excerpt from NY Post article:

A 7-year-old prodigy unleashed a firestorm when she recited a poem she wrote comparing Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin to "pirates" and "vampires" who robbed blacks of their identities and human rights.
Hundreds of parents of Peekskill middle- and high-school students received a recorded phone message last week apologizing for little Autum Ashante's poem, titled "White Nationalism Put U in Bondage."

"Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse," the aspiring actress and poet wrote. "They took the gold, the wisdom and all the storytellers. They took the black women, with the black man weak. Made to watch as they changed the paradigm of our village.

"Yeah white nationalism is what put you in bondage. Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin."

Autum was invited to speak at the Westchester schools on Feb. 28 by Melvin Bolden, a music teacher at the middle school who advises the high school's Black Culture Club and is a member of the Peekskill City Council.

Autum, whose résumé includes several television appearances and performances at the Apollo Theater and the African Burial Ground in Manhattan, told The Post that her poem was meant to instill pride in black students and to encourage them to steer clear of violence.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with my poem. I was trying to tell them the straight-up truth," Autum said. "I'm trying to tell them not to fight because they're killing the brothers and sisters."

Autum, who is home-schooled in Mount Vernon and speaks several languages, prefaced her performance at the high school with a Black Panthers' pledge asking black youngsters to not harm one another.

What do you all think? Did she go too far?

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

No, I don't think she has gone to far. Her topic isn't something new. There are people that have said that for years and years. I think the "shock" comes from the fact that this is a 7 year old as opposed to an adult.

Exactly. Out of the mouths of babes :cool:

Hayle no she didn't go too far. She said what she had to say, that's all.

WHOA!!!!

She may be the first 7-year-old to be put on the FBI's list of interesting people. lol

I love this kid. I think I want to buy her a pony. :D

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can see Soror Nikki Giovanni calling her up like dayuuuuuuuuuum girl. :)

And a child shall lead them....

I'm saddened that, with little girls thinking like this, yet another generation will go by and we'll still no be any closer to closing the racism gap.

Ya know! LMAO!!!!

That's not true. All this little girl did was tell it like it is.

I'm saddened that with people, like you, trying to pretend this stuff doesn't exist, that racism will continue to fester.

Don't shoot the messenger. Call out the offenders of racism, not those who expose it.

The truth sometimes hurts, doesn't? Or is it more that you did not expect a 7 year old to be this aware of what has happened and is still going on, just clothed differently?

Right on.

TRUTH is an absolute defense!

Amen, Amen, Amen!!!!

@ BoomQuack: I'll gladly chip in on the pony. :)

I'm not saying pretend that it didn't happen. What I am saying, is that the more you throw history in the face of the "offenders", the more they DON'T want to get over it and let it fester. You can't SAY to someone "You're a racist, you're a biget, you're a horrible person" and expect them to respect you for it. People don't work like that - they get defensive and it gives them a reason to dislike you more. Instead of pounding on the past, and "calling people out", why not show people that you are above that and above blameing the past for current racism????

Alright! The pony fund is now in bizzness.

Any other contributors to The Pony Fund? :D

WHY is it that racism is the only offense, where people want the 'victims' to be the ones responsible for correcting the problem? :mad:

You'll never see anyone telling a rape victim this crap. :rolleyes:

Is there anywhere I can find this young lady's poem in it's entirety? I didn't have much luck with google.

Main Entry: en·abler

Function: noun
: one that enables another to achieve an end; especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior by providing excuses or by helping that individual avoid the consequences of such behavior

Racism is NOT the only offense. Why does a man who beats his wife continue to beat his wife?? Because she LETS it happen.

Please flame me and prove me right.

Let me make sure I understand your point here....

Are you saying that racism exists becasue people allow it to happen as in:
*Africans were captured and sold into slavery because they allowed it to happen
*Slaves remained slaves because they allowed it to happen
*Jim Crow laws existed such as literacy rules to vote happened because the people who could not vote because they could not pass the literacy tests that only they (read Black people) were required to take
*Black people went to substandard schools because they allowed it to happen

and on and on....

Are you and Bruno Wurgel friends?:confused:

I saw lines of it intermittently in one of the articles but not in its entirety, unfortunately. :(

No, you don't understand my point at all. I understand there are situations that there is no option. But that is not so much the case anymore (I did not say NOT EVER - because I'm not stupid enough to think there aren't things that still happen). There is oppertunity for everyone now if they want to find it.

But nobody will tell this wife to not talk about it or not call her husband on his actions. They'll simply tell her to leave and press charges. Guess what, we can't simply leave and press charges.

You were advocating that we not call it out and be "above bringing up the past." For the record, racism is not in THE PAST. It's very current. It's just rooted in the past.

Please expound. I understand that you're making an analogy. But I don't see the correlation between this and racism.

The whole reverse psychology of "please flame me and prove me right" in order to silence people is laughable and sad.

Are you Black?

No. I am not black. But if someone posted a story about a little white girl who wrote a racist white poem, ya'll sure would be up in arms about it. Why can't I be offended when ya'll are giving high fives to a litte black girl who wrote a racisit poem??? (Or especially in the young man charged with rape thread when everyone just "KNEW" it was a white girl - why can't I be offended when you guys are racist like that - and that is very racist to assume that it was a white girl)

Just keep on living. *sigh* :(

Oh, ok, So because it is "not so much" the case anymore, we should just get over it, right? I mean if your husband used to beat you every day and now he beats you "not so much", that's ok? And if you own a store and someone who used to steal from you everyday and the government even said it was ok, now steals from you "not so much anymore" you should give them a pass, right?

Do I understand a little better now?

B_Q13 made a statement about how no one calls rape victims enablers and ONLY racism the enablers are to blame. I was just giving one instance of another situation where the enable is blamed.

And I'm not joking about the flaming. Go ahead. I might not get to respond to everyone's debate, because I'm at work, and I do need to get something done. But I like to debate issues.

I'm trying to understand how the poem is racist.

i got 5 on it!

Question: When has sweeping anything under the rug ever been helpful? :confused: See, this is the reason why we can't get past it because the thought process of "let's just sweep it under the rug" doesn't work - and it never has.

You know, the bible says that when we sin, we should seek forgiveness from God. But although God has forgiven us, that does not mean that we are absolved from the consequences of our sin. Quit turning a blind eye to the consequences of those sins that happened years ago.

I'm pretty appalled that some folks have the nerve to say "get over it". Boom Quack was right....no one would say that to a rape victim or abused wife, but yet its said to African Americans without a second thought.

@ Mulattogyrl: You also didn't know that its "racist" to talk about the past treatment of blacks? LOL

@ Alphafrog...I am NOT above blaming the past for current racism as it is the REASON for it!!! What are you suggesting Black people do? Does it look it like things are on a level playing field to you that we can now wipe everything under the rug... There is nowhere in this world where MY people are not subjected to vestiges of slavery NO WHERE...

Ironic...The JEWS are always discussing the hardships of the holocaust and "pound" it in the heads of their youth - NO ONE COMMENTS on that but when WE do it we need to be above that...Please do not be offended but you are extremely misguided. If you have a few white friends don't let the "bond" you have with them fool you into believing OUR situation is overly dramatize and WE are making a mountain out of molehill...

Last point...we should not really care how uncomfortable the TRUTH make someone feels.... ITS THE TRUTH...

We need to be more UNIFIED in our understanding of OUR HISTORY so that we don't get easily fooled when one or two "white folks" show us some kindness...;)

:( :( :(

If someone does find her poem in its entirety, please let me know as well. :) I did a Google search and although I can't find any of her work, she is a very accomplished young lady from what I've read on the 'net so far.

@ alphafrog...

I just got word that you ARE one of the "white folks". Now that I am armed with that fact...

Step outside your mental slavery and see the WORLD for what it is...

Do you figure that because we have an Oprah, rappers with money we "made it"...YOU ARE DELUSIONAL. Over 400 years of being underdogs and you think that 1 year or even 10 years would begin to reverse the debilitating effects...
:mad:

I'm not delusional, and I don't think you have it made. But this is not colonial America, or even pre-affirmative action America. You have oppertunities IF YOU WANT TO MAKE THEM FOR YOURSELF. Those of you who are on this board are mostly college educated or in process. YOU MADE YOUR OPPERTUNITY. I'm sure many of you came from families that didn't live in the best neighborhood and didn't get to go to the best schools and didn't have the money to go to college....but you still found a way to make it happen. Why do you who make it happen, let those who won't make it happen for themselves make excuses? - And I have heard those words come out of more then one black person's mouth (but because I'm white - I'm sure that makes me racist because I said it)

I for one am very impressed by this girl's knowledge of world events, history and her ability to link them together into poetry. Had she written about the horrors of the Holocaust I doubt anybody would be sending apologetic voicemails to hundreds of parents. Yet because it's about a touchy subject known as racism, all of a sudden its taboo??!!

Off topic but somewhat related-I spent my spring break at UWI at the Mona campus in Kingston. It was a cultural exchange between students at FSU and those in Jamaica. Not a day went by that we didn't hear a lecture about British imperialism and all the wrongs that came about from it. Yet not once did one of the students through FSU (who is from Nottingham in England, came to FSU to study) get upset about her country being bashed because-hey, it's true.

The truth hurts but we cannot erase history. All we can do is acknowledge it and learn from our past so that we are not doomed to repeat it.