Controversial Poem Puts 7-Year-Old On Hot Seat

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by ms_gwyn
also accept the TRUTH about history, acknowledge it ....

Worth quoting!

[Rain Man]

Again, no one has bothered to answer my question; though everyone has been dancing around it, so I'll ask it again:

What's the solution to this problem that we have been having?

[hijack]btw, Happy Birthday, Skee! Have a happy 27th. Oh, and I got a belated present for you that I'll give to you here on GC when I get back in town.[/hijack]

[preciousjeni]

RM - It's been posted. 100% acknowledgement of history and 100% change of the current social situation. But, in reality, such conditions are all but impossible.

So, even a move toward the solution would be considered for a time.

[starang21]

conyo, 17 pages in like 3 days????

hell, this didn't get as much attention on kazo.

recap pwease.

pwetty pwease?

[starang21]

Originally posted by AlphaFrog
I completely 100% agree that by all means, keep it in the forefront!

However, there are ways to go about things. Casuing controversity has a tendancy to not help the cause (whatever the cause may be). It's all about Postive PR! Like the story about the little girl who did the study on bacteria in ice vs. toilet water. I think that little girl showed how intelligent she was, and it was awesome PR to show that black children can achieve as well (OR better - that girl really impressed me) as white children.

this reads:

"you're sooooooooo articulate. what a credit to your race you are."

[jubilance1922]

Originally posted by starang21
this reads:

"you're sooooooooo articulate. what a credit to your race you are."

Look at you starting trouble...you want this thread to go another 17 pages don't you?

[UrbanizdSkillz]

White Nationalism Put U In Bondage

White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirate and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
Drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel, tricks and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look in our streets
The mis-education of she and Hegro — leaves you on your knee2grow
Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse
They took the gold, the wisdom and all of the storytellers
They took the black women, with the black man weak
Made to watch as they changed the paradigm
Of our village
They killed the blind, they killed the lazy, they went
So far as to kill the unborn baby
Yeah White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
They drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel laden feet, throw in the tricks alcohol and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look at our streets.

Written By Autumn Ashante'


I think that's the complete poem.

[Phasad1913]

Originally posted by Rain Man
Again, no one has bothered to answer my question; though everyone has been dancing around it, so I'll ask it again:

What's the solution to this problem that we have been having?

No one is "answering" you because no one cares about that bs you're trying to say. the thread was obviously started by someone who wanted to discuss this issue. Those of us who are opining are doing so because we want to. The mere fact that we have something that we would like to say about the issue is ENOUGH! We don't owe you an explanation for why we want to discuss this issue. If you don't want to hear our "whining" then peruse other threads. It's as simple as that. Continuing to call yourself chastising others for having viewpoints different from yours will get you clowned or ignored. I think most people on here are choosing to ignore you.

[rattlerbrat]

Well, I'm clowning, but...yeah.

[Honeykiss1974]

Originally posted by UrbanizdSkillz
White Nationalism Put U In Bondage

White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirate and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
Drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel, tricks and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look in our streets
The mis-education of she and Hegro — leaves you on your knee2grow
Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse
They took the gold, the wisdom and all of the storytellers
They took the black women, with the black man weak
Made to watch as they changed the paradigm
Of our village
They killed the blind, they killed the lazy, they went
So far as to kill the unborn baby
Yeah White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
They drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel laden feet, throw in the tricks alcohol and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look at our streets.

Written By Autumn Ashante'


I think that's the complete poem.

Whoa....and this is from a 7 year old - GO 'HEAD GIRL!

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by SKEEphistAKAte
and my personal favorite Malcolm X

YES!!!!!

Proceed.

[squirrely girl]

Originally posted by jubilance1922
Look at you starting trouble...you want this thread to go another 17 pages don't you?

isn't it great to have something to bring GC together?!

- marissa
ps - please keep on actually, this has been one of the more educational threads we've had in awhile, the diaglogue is much appreciated...

[AlphaFrog]

Originally posted by starang21
this reads:

"you're sooooooooo articulate. what a credit to your race you are."

I'm not going to say anything but this: Why do you insist on reading more into this then I'm actually saying?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally posted by SKEEphistAKAte
Change is what is needed, not some melting pot "bringing together of the races" crap that some of y'all are promoting. We don't need to be "brought together" with white people.

I agree that change is needed and we don't need to be a melting pot. I unfortunatly, don't have much of an ethnic identity, because my dad is 3/4 German and 1/4 Irish, and my mom is 1/8 this that and the other. My husband is 100% Zapoteca Mexican, and extremely proud of his heritage, and I'm looking forward to him teaching our daughter Mexican customs. I definatly don't want him to lose his identity as Mexican, and I want my daughter to have a cultural identity of being both Mexican and European. I think some of you are getting the idea that I think we should all be assimilated and be clones in different colors. I don't think that at all.

And I'm not trying to propose a fix-all soultion for all of black-people kind. I'm saying, as a white person, that poem does nothing to make me reconsider how I feel about other races, and it doesn't make me say to myself "Hey, I hope my daughter is that awesome at that age" like the other story I mentioned does.

I'm going to be completely honest and say I have trouble feeling some of the situations you mentioned, because I'm not black, or racist (I try VERY HARD not to be, no one's perfect). Someone mentioned, and I can't find the post again, being seated in the back of a restaurant. That's something I never would have noticed, because I am not black, and I myself would never have had the thought to seat a black person in the back of a restaurant when I was doing the waitress thing in college. Now that it has been mentioned, I will be more aware and watch for those type of things happening, because I think everyone needs to be aware of it. And I would like to say thank you to whoever pointed it out.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by AlphaFrog
I'm going to be completely honest and say I have trouble feeling some of the situations you mentioned, because I'm not black, or racist (I try VERY HARD not to be, no one's perfect). Someone mentioned, and I can't find the post again, being seated in the back of a restaurant. That's something I never would have noticed, because I am not black, and I myself would never have had the thought to seat a black person in the back of a restaurant when I was doing the waitress thing in college. Now that it has been mentioned, I will be more aware and watch for those type of things happening, because I think everyone needs to be aware of it. And I would like to say thank you to whoever pointed it out.

The ability to not be aware is an effect of white privilege. Look again at the poem. Are you aware of the things she's talking about? If you're opening your awareness, think again about your previous comments about this poem being racist. I'm not condemning...I'd like to know if anything about your view has changed after you've stated that you want to be more aware.

Awareness is only the first step. Acknowledgement will be the next. Then, Action must follow.

I've mentioned this before, but I think it's also appropriate here. Have you seen the commercial (I think it's a PSA) about the black woman and the white woman on an elevator? They're chatting when a young black man walks onto the elevator, listening to music through headphones and paying the women no mind. The white woman clutches her purse a little tighter.

When they exit the elevator, the black woman asks her why she did that. The white woman, at first, has no idea what she's talking about. So, the black woman says something like, "That thing with your bag" to which the white woman replies something like "Oh, it's a natural reaction." The black woman says, "Not to me it isn't."

That's action. Maybe the next time you are in the midst of "subtle" racism, you'll be able to make a point to ask, "Why?" Is that a reasonable hope?