When 7 year old Autumn Ashante of New York City was honored by being asked to present her poem for Black History Month, it would seem at the surface that this was a deserving honor like the so many we use to encourage our children. Instead, the school district was giving a pulpit to a racist. After asking all blacks in the classroom to stand (and humiliating the non-blacks by insisting they sit), Ashante led them in the "Black Children's Anthem", a nice little propaganda piece brought to us courtesy of the Black Panthers. She then proceeded to recite her poem, the text of which I have included below:

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.

 

 

While there is little on this earth I would profess to truly "hate", racism would have to fall in that category. I don't like it when it comes from my own white culture, and I don't like it when it comes from other ethnic groups. I detest it even more when a young child is indoctrinated by their parents' ideology, as is clearly the case here.

If the verbiage were reversed, if the poem were a lengthy diatribe against blacks, the black community would be outraged. And rightly so. And there ARE many within the black community who ARE outraged. Unfortunately, Al Sharpton does not count himself among them, opting instead to praise this young hatemonger for spewing venom.

It's one thing to be a bigot. That's your right, and I will defend it, even if I don't defend your ideology. It's another thing to poison the minds of our young for your own political agenda, as Autumn Ashante's father has apparently done. Haven't we had enough killing and crime against one another based on race? Isn't it time to stop punishing the white community for the sins of our fathers?

I personally agree with Morgan Freeman's position that "Black History Month" is unnecessary because black history is American history, and it is something that should be part of every American history curriculum. However, if we are to continue to celebrate Black History Month, we should focus on the achievements of African Americans throughout history, NOT on the wrongs committed by the whites in some of those eras. Because the wrongs committed by the whites were HARDLY universal: what was the diabolical intent of those "white devils" who ran the Underground Railroad, risking the loss of their personal property in the process, especially in the border states. Where was the evil in those "white devils" that influenced public opinion against slavery to the point of building several political parties around the cause? There were certainly some atrocious acts committed against African Americans in the past. While those acts should not be forgotten, it is time for us to move forward. Just as it is wrong for the Jew to linger in Auschwitz, it is wrong for American blacks to linger on the plantations of the pre-Civil War south. And it is wrong to indoctrinate a whole new generation of Americans to the hate that almost destroyed us as a nation.