The
alleged crisis about the statement made by Autum Ashante, a 7 year old
Westchester black girl, is not about her free speech rights. It is about
her right to impose her inaccurate reading of history on other children in
a closed public gathering--a captured audience. It should also be about a
parent corrupting an apparently bright, innocent child. Just imagine that
Batin Ashante, her father, was a white man, home schooling and guiding his
daughter with such palpably erroneous thoughts about black nationalism.
Would there be a question of free speech? Or would the question be white
racism—as it should be?
It is a puzzle
to me that after perusing much of the media discussion of this issue, that
none of them raised the question of the gross inaccuracy of the historical
reference to Columbus, Morgan and Darwin as white nationalists who put
black people in bondage. Assuming that Autum and her father are poets,
and that is a stretch of my imagination, there isn’t enough poetic license
to justify those historical inaccuracies. Whatever the sins of Columbus,
Morgan and Darwin, these sins were not directed at blacks. Columbus could
be criticized for his treatment of Native Americans, not Black Americans.
Morgan should be condemned for his piracy committed on treasure ships
owned by Spain, France, England, Portugal, Holland, etc. Darwin might be
challenged for his theory of evolution that is offensive to fundamentalist
Christians—white ones, black ones, latino ones, etc.
People
attending a Black history celebration event at a public school in
Westchester should be offended by a seven year old child being led and
allowed to invidiously segregate the audience. Again, imagine a white
nationalist and his daughter doing this in a similar audience.
Racism is
racism. Racism is not truth, and poetry is not the cure. Black leaders
must not exploit this incident as a cause celebre. They should recognize
it for what it is—a case of intellectual child abuse.
