Maybe the little Ashante girl would "understand" the hurt feelings if a white kid delivered a poem blaming blacks for today's (and yesterday's) problems, expounding only on the black past conquerers and cultural rapists, creating the impression that whites lived peaceful and just lives prior to contact with blacks, and commanding only the white kids to stand and pledge allegiance to each other.
Aren't these kids supposed to be learning grammar, math, literature, and history? And no, this was no history lesson. Teaching about what Columbus did is fine with me. But personalizing Columbus's outrages with the children in an American classroom in 2006 is ugly and unneccessarily unsettling, as is singling out one "race" as the cause of past and current problems, and other "races" as being more just and peaceful, ruined only by the bad actions of the single "bad" race.
This is really terrible, and I certainly don't want my children exposed to this nonsense. Let history teachers teach the full truth not only of Columbus, but also of the African, Arab, American, and Asian societies at that time. It was a savage and brutal world. The mythical African "villiages" that the Ashante girl describes... lack descriptions! Let's fill in the whole picture, and not personalize the horrors of European and African cultures with today's children in the US, where the awful cultural practices of the past are now banished to historical accounts (except for people still living in barbaric circumstances).
The Black Panther pledge made sense during its day, when blacks lacked full rights, and official governemnt entities used their powers to suppress blacks trying to realize those rights. The pledge now creates a conflict that otherwise does not exist.
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You didn't read the poem.
It doesn't say "white people". It says "white nationalism" which is another way of saying "white supremacy". This is what the poem rages against.
Read the poem.
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.
There is nothing false in the poem. At no point does it say "white people are the devil" or "you should hate or attack white people".
Black nationalism has always been and continues to be about uplifting black self-esteem and identity. It has always been about creating a mindset that would allow African-Americans to value themselves as a people because self-hatred was ingrained in us in the effort to keep us enslaved. This has only started to change over the last 30 years, but still hasn't changed enough.
You completely miss the point, Paul.
"This is really terrible, and I certainly don't want my children exposed to this nonsense. Let history teachers teach the full truth not only of Columbus, but also of the African, Arab, American, and Asian societies at that time. It was a savage and brutal world. The mythical African "villiages" that the Ashante girl describes... lack descriptions! Let's fill in the whole picture, and not personalize the horrors of European and African cultures with today's children in the US, where the awful cultural practices of the past are now banished to historical accounts (except for people still living in barbaric circumstances)."
History teachers should teach the full truth, but they don't.
There is no way that you can expect a 7 year-old's poem to include full descriptions of much of anything. It is advanced for her age as it is. Give her some credit. In 5 years she will be writing poems about how cute some boy looks in his jeans.
Again, there is enough bad information about African culture that is spread through Eurocentric world history books and Saturday morning cartoons. What is missing from all of these discussions is balance.
"The Black Panther pledge made sense during its day, when blacks lacked full rights, and official governemnt entities used their powers to suppress blacks trying to realize those rights. The pledge now creates a conflict that otherwise does not exist."
You didn't read the Black Panther pledge either. It expressly encourages children to "direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred." It promotes community love and self love, not hatred.
You are the person who likes to point out that blacks have more to fear from blacks than they do from whites. So why not work to get them to love each other, to understand the history behind the predicament they are in and to elminiate violence?
This is a positive poem from a bright little girl, and you are taking it negatively because you believe she has insulted you somehow. She never insulted you.
Your white guilt is making you defensive. You shouldn't feel guilty. You didn't do these things. However, you should do your best to make sure the truth is known, and that all people are treated fairly.
And of course you wouldn't want your kids to see something like this. You think it might cause them to hate you. Well, they won't. You didn't do this to them. Some other bad white dude did these things to some other people. As long as the children understand the concepts (though no one is bothering to explain it to them) these things can be positive for white and black kids alike.
Nadir: I do not have white guilt, or any other guilt. Your Irish ancestor who enslaved each other and blacks have left no guilt for me; and I am no less outraged by the appalling historical deeds of Colombus, Mohammad, King David, or Shaka Zulu.
When somebody delivers a speach like this I don't feel any more upset than I would if a white kid delivered a poem like this about blacks.
I concede your point that she only specifies the concept "white nationalism" and particular white people, rather than whites in general. Your pointing this out does somewhat temper my anger (again, I have no hypothetical special allegience to any racial group, though I admit to an emotional one to blacks, as that was my peer group during my formative years, a good portion of that time spent hating white people in general, but not because I felt guilty by their actions, but because they had attacked me savegly).
What I *do* personalize quite emotionally is racism and racial divisionism of any sort, as such experiances have been an integral and hurtful part of my life. I have come to disdain the very concept of race, and especially the concept of racial pride. Expressions of it repulse me. As for any of our "ancestors," I regard them as a mixed bag of ignorant brutes and brave visionaries who deserve study and only selective reverence, and not worship.
"As for any of our "ancestors," I regard them as a mixed bag of ignorant brutes and brave visionaries who deserve study and only selective reverence, and not worship."
On this point, I wholeheartedly agree.
Nadir: I'm not suggesting that her or any poem must contain complete details about everything. But her poem finds room only for details about only about one group of people, and only negative details, and then uses those details to divide her audience along racial lines.
Her poem certainly didn't depict her white and black ancestors as a mixed back of ignorant brutes and brave visionaries.
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