Is this racism or does it unify and empower a minority?

geela · #1 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 09:11 AM

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

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'I pledge allegiance to my black people'

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Posted: March 15, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Michelle Malkin

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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

One of the nation's fastest-rising poetry prodigies is a 7-year-old New York girl whose poisonous demagogic advocacy of black separatism makes Al Sharpton look like Mister Rogers.

Autum Ashante' of Mount Vernon, N.Y., has performed at HBO's Def Poetry Jam, the Cotton Club in Los Angeles, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the African Street Festival, Caroline's on Broadway, the Russell Simmons Phat Farm Fashion Show, Steve Harvey's "Big Time," a prestigious Grammy Foundation event, and at universities and other venues across the country. She recites her verses not only in English, but also in fluent Swahili and Arabic (she attended the Islamic Darul Arkam School in Mount Vernon).

Autum has appeared at a tribute to black nationalist Marcus Garvey, America-bashing 9-11 conspiracy-monger Amiri Baraka's annual family cookout and the extremist New Black Panther Party's Million Youth March. The city of New York honored her with a proclamation for inspiring "her peers, as well as adults, while also demonstrating the power of a father's love, the importance of education and the limitless boundaries of the human mind." New York City councilwoman Yvette Clark called her "one of the most precious young talents that this world has ever known."

Most recently, as New York Post education reporter David Andreatta reported this weekend, she was invited to perform at public middle and high schools in Peekskill, N.Y., for Black History Month.

Here, in full, is what precious little Autum – groomed by her single father, Batin Ashante, a Nation of Islam poet-activist – spewed:

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.

Autum's performance also included commanding white students to remain seated as she led black students in a recitation of the "Black Child's Pledge," by Black Panther Shirley Williams, which reads in part:

I pledge allegiance to my Black People.

I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.

I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.

... I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred.

I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my Black brothers and sisters ...

These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my People.

Complaints from shocked students and parents led to a tape-recorded apology sent to all parents apologizing for the performance. Autum's father condemned white district officials as "racist crackers." Autum defended her poem by explaining to the Westchester Journal News that white people are "devils and they should be gone. We should be away from them and still be in Africa."

And make note of this: The official who invited Autum to speak, Melvin Bolden, is a public school music teacher, Peekskill councilman and producer of her first spoken-word album.

Who is surprised? If you set aside a separate holiday for Black History Month in the public schools, if you set aside separate graduation ceremonies, college dorms, academic departments, recruiting programs, and government contracts and subcontracts by race, you send a message that hard-core racial separatism is not only acceptable – but desired.

Autum Ashante' is the natural offspring of militant multiculturalism and government-sanctioned identity politics. We reap what we sow.

What do you think?

Meribritt1 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 10:25 AM

Complaints from shocked students and parents led to a tape-recorded apology sent to all parents apologizing for the performance. Autum's father condemned white district officials as "racist crackers." Autum defended her poem by explaining to the Westchester Journal News that white people are "devils and they should be gone. We should be away from them and still be in Africa."

Nobody is stopping her from moving back to africa. Although I am sure she wouldn't last long.

As far as OP I really don't see the blacks as a minority anymore. I don't have any statstics, but I would think that their numbers are about the same to the whites. I wouldn't even consider the spanish a minority.
But yes this poem has alot of racial undertones.

BooBooKItty · #3 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 11:47 AM

I guess it would only be rasist if the poem was about white pride

ZackZaneMom · #4 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 12:20 PM

I agree, If a white child wrote something like this it would be racist. I think it is a shame that her father has raised her this way. We can't fault the child, because this is all she knows. If we are so bad, then they should pack their bags and move back to Africa.

Annette027 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 01:39 PM

Yes it's very racist. Imagine a white person belonging to a pro-white group reciting the same pledge only change black with white. There would be an uproar and everyone from Rev. Jesse Jackson to Al Sharpton would be crying foul!

I pledge allegiance to my WHITE People.

I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.

I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.

... I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred.

I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my WHITE brothers and sisters ...

These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my People.

It's really sad that she is being brought up to hate white people.

Annette027 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 01:44 PM

This is funny:

"Autum's father condemned white district officials as "racist crackers."

He's calling the district officials CRACKERS and they are the racist ones!

PUHLEZE!

Kadydid · #7 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 03:42 PM

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...gion-apnewyork

NYC leaders support black girl who read white nationalism poem

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Associated Press Writer

March 14, 2006, 5:15 PM EST

NEW YORK -- Autum Ashante, a 7-year-old black girl who caused a stir at two Westchester schools by reciting a poem she wrote about white nationalism, received support from some New York City leaders on Tuesday.

First, she stood on the City Hall steps with Councilman Charles Barron, who denounced what he described as attacks and harassment since Autum spoke last month at a middle and high school. Barron said he planned to ask Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office to look into whether the girl's free speech rights were violated.

Later, she had an appearance scheduled with the Rev. Al Sharpton.

On Feb. 28, Autum delivered a poem titled "White Nationalism Put U In Bondage," in which Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin are likened to pirates and vampires. She also asked students to stand and recite the "Black Child's Pledge," an oath of responsibility and black pride.

When white students at the Peekskill High School assembly stood with black students, Autum told them to sit down, the school district's superintendent said. The Peekskill City School District then sent recorded messages to parents of its 3,000 students apologizing to anyone who was offended.

Barron said he couldn't understand why anyone would be offended. He characterized the girl as "brave" and "outspoken in telling the truth," and he defended her 162-word poem, praising it as evoking "peace, power and pride about her heritage."

"Someone decided to call parents and apologize," Barron, a former Black Panther, said at the news conference. "Some are talking about banning her from speaking in the school system. You don't have to agree with everything we say, but we have a right to say it. We are very, very proud of you, Autum."

Barron said he couldn't cite specific incidents of harassment of the girl since she read the poem.

Mel Bolden, a Peekskill high school music teacher and black culture club adviser, invited Autum to speak, a school official said. Judith Johnson, the Peekskill superintendent, said Autum isn't banned from speaking in the district again.

"Never, ever would we do something like that," Johnson said. "But telling white kids you can't recite the pledge and to sit down _ in a multicultural district you can't do that."

The school district is about 40 percent black, 30 percent Hispanic and the rest mostly white and Asian. Johnson said "outsiders have interjected race into a town where it's not an issue."

Juanita Scarlett, Spitzer's spokeswoman, said the attorney general doesn't investigate individual cases. "However, it is our understanding that the school district has not barred Autum Ashante from participating in further events," she said.

Autum is homeschooled with a curriculum by the Black Homeschoolers Association, said her father, Batin Ashante, of Mount Vernon. She also is an aspiring actress and soon-to-be poetry artist.

On the steps of City Hall, Autum recited the poem and pledge, drawing yelps of "Tell it!" and "Hallelujah!" from Barron's staff and others in the small crowd.

Then she took questions, cautioning a reporter to use the term "African" instead of "African-American."

Asked how she felt about some white students and parents being upset, she said, "I feel bad, but I know it was the right thing to do."

When asked how much help she received to write the poem, she replied, "My dad helped with spelling and pronunciation."

Autum said she is at work on another poem, "Two, Four, Six, Eight." Before she could explain what it is about, she was ushered away for her next public appearance.

sweet pickles · #8 (**permalink**) 03-15-2006, 04:33 PM

Of course it's racist, what's scary is the fact that these NYC "leaders" have no problem with it. Yikes.

"Autum's father condemned white district officials as "racist crackers.""

What a dumbass, that has to be one of the most idiotic things I've heard in a while. At least we know where these little girl is learning her hate. It reminds me of the Prussian Blue kids. Maybe she'll grow out of it?

Autum defended her poem by explaining to the Westchester Journal News that white people are "devils and they should be gone. We should be away from them and still be in Africa."

I too have to ask, why is she here? It's a free country, her family is free to leave. Like I said, maybe she'll grow out of this "phase".