By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN
March 14, 2006 — A 7-year-old New York poet has fired up adults following a racially charged performance at a middle school.
Autum Ashante, who is home-schooled and lives with her father in Mount Vernon, was invited by a music teacher to present her poetry during a Black History Month program at Peekskill Middle School on Feb. 28. She has written her own poetry and performed in front of audiences since she was 4.
Before reciting a poem, Ashante asked only the black students in the audience to stand and recite with her the "Black Child's Pledge" by the Black Panther Party's Shirley Williams. It begins, "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."
Ashante then presented her poem "White Nationalism Put U In Bondage," which rails against Christopher Columbus, J.P. Morgan and Charles Darwin: "White nationalism is what put you in bondage. Pirate and vampires like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin."
"Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse," the poem states. "They took the gold, the wisdom and all of the storytellers. They took the black women, with the black man weak."
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1723616&page=1 theres the link
I think that she is a bright talent and she spoke the truth on things that people dont really want to hear like how Colombus was and also I think that a lot of people dont want to hear about The "Founding Fathers" like George Washington who could have end slaverly but chose not to I think she has a very good future and will hopefully change the world
Just telling the truth, nothing wrong with that! The pledge(from what I read) was on point. This should be instilled(sp?) in everyone's mind. Hopefully, she'll go a long way with this and more ppl will take a listen.
