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Name: TMan

Comment: EUR, do you have a copy of the poem you could post? Thanks.

Name: ChakaTee

Comment: You know - if I had not read this the other day, I would not understand EUR's report. TMan, I'll see if I can find it and paste it. Leave it to EUR to be days late and omit valuable information.

Name: ChakaTee

Comment: I'm still looking for the actual poem, however, this is a little more detailed article. March 13, 2006 -- YOUNGSTER'S BLACK-POWER POEM RILES SCHOOL 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. It did not sit well with parents. In a telephone interview with The Post, Bolden said Autum has been "unofficially" banned from performing in a district school again and that school officials would review transcripts of future speakers.

Name: TRTR

Comment: Maybe this will encourage more Black parents to get on the ball and start educating themselves and their children better. The public and most private school systems are NOT geared toward teaching Black children about their African history. The bare minimum is taught (mostly just a little about slavery) and our kids are suffering because of it. As parents, we've got to do better in terms of educating ourselves and then educating our children. It's no surprise that the school administrators and many of the parents are %*$!ed off that just a little bit of the truth was exposed. This should tell us what we need to do.

Name: McNasty

Comment: I applaud this child 'out of the mouth of babes'! I especially applaud her because she is homeschooled and it appears a little more advanced than a normal 7 year old. I love intelligent children - we hear about so few.

Name: Industrypro

Comment: Big shout out to all the Autumn's of the world. www.autumnvibes.com

Name: Stephanie

Comment: Why does "freedom of speech" always work for white people but never for us? I bet her parents are very proud, I know I am and I don't even know the child. I remember my 19 year old did a story in 5th grade asking why we celebrate holidays of slave owners i.e. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. She asked the entire class and even the teacher if they knew of any white person with the last name Washington other than George.

Name: CNTDOITWOUTGOD

Comment: Here is a link to see the poem and the pledge in it's entirety....enjoy...I'm inspired!!! http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin.php3

Name: SilentJay

Comment: Thanks for the link. I read the poem and I have to say, if white people don't like it TOUGH! /so what/ nobody told white people that they had to understand every single solitary thing black people say and do/ please don't get me wrong/ if there are white people who get it that's good and if not oh well. As a fellow poet I know I've writtens stuff that is bound to upset SOME white people and SOME black folks simply because thier are culture and generation gaps and I don't give a damn how many of white people listen to hip hop and where baggy close with thier hats on backwards that doesn't make them culturaly aware of every aspect of the black experience. I've heard proffessors on 60 Minutes debate whether or not Columbus found a new world or set the wheels of genocide in motion. Well since we already know you can't discover land that already has people on it...well you figure it out.

Name: Closet_Nerd_Girl

Comment: I'm just floored that a 7 year-old came up with that in the first place. I have no issue with the poem. It is nothing but the truth, Ruth. But, I do have an issue with her telling white students to sit down during the black pledge. That just added fuel to the fire. If the roles were reversed, WE would be very upset if a white student came in, recited a "white power" poem, had a "white pledge" then told black students to sit down. She should have just did the poem, the pledge and let the chips fall where they may. Any white student with an iota of sense would have figured out that the message was not for them. At any rate, I hope that the black students, and the white ones, took the core meaning of the poem to heart and learned something.

Name: thechocolate10

Comment: i disagree and agree with some of the things lil ashanti said. When she goes off to college and comes in contact with African professors who will surely let her know she is AMERICAN of AFRICAN Descent. I learned the hard way. Thank goodness for my parents!!

Name: mcoreo

Comment: One, I do not believe a 7 year old worte this poem, I think she is a puppet for her father. Two, There is a great double standard here. She can talk about white people and tell the white people in the audience to sit while she reads the poem and the blacks to stand but if the reverse happened it would be a whole mess. Racism is racism whether you are black or white or whatever and it is a sad case that this girl is growing up being brainwashed like this and tought to act this way. She is not going to go far in life with these views.

Name: jazzfan

Comment: Whether she wrote the poem entirely on her own or not, I am glad some other parents are teaching their kids to question what is being taught in public schools. I had my own kids ask their teachers "how did Columbus 'discover' America if people were already here?" And exactly whose freedom is being celebrated on July 4?

Name: DCGG

Comment: Mcreo I soo agree with you!

Name: Sexee

Comment: Good morning, It's great that this young lady wrote a poem of the atrocities that have transpired over centuriesto our people. However, we need poems for Unity. If we are unified no one will be able to divide us. We need less talk and more ACTION.

Name: havanamoon

Comment: I agree that history should be taught accurately. But this is not it. It's not "the truth" at all for one thing. It's pretty slanted. And are all the other children listening to Autum able to understand the depth of the history involved, (I doubt if Autum understands or know it herself) or do they just get a message from an incident like this that all whites are bad or (at the very least) descended from bad people? I'm all for having the history books rewritten accurately, but not to incite hatred - to learn from and promote change.

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