Since When is a 13 Year Old with Political Consciousness a Bad Thing?

Is there a such thing as dishearteningly inspirational? I read a blurb on The Root this evening that might fit the term. While discussing 13 year old prodigy Autum Ashante’s push to be reinstated at the University of Connecticut, writer Lynette Holloway stated that one possible reason the school rescinded her acceptance was because of a conservative backlash against the girl’s black nationalist poetry. I can’t verify if this is true or not but check out some lines from one of her poems as originally reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“Black land 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.”

What was disturbing about this blurb was when Holloway wrote, “Indeed, Ashante is a work in progress and deserves a chance. Life is nothing but a series of second chances. What better age to learn such an important lesson? What better place to offer such a lesson than an institution of higher learning?”

What does Ashante need a second chance for? Has it come to the point where we’re discouraging our children from having thoughts now? Not just is this a 13 year old prodigy, but she has political consciousness. Why in the world would we disparage that when so many adults aren’t as adept? (I think I just answered my own question).

We live in a country that even with a black President, still values white nationalism as evidenced by the celebration of Columbus Day or the overwhelming images of a white Jesus even though publications like Popular Mechanics have refuted that myth long ago.

How is it that nationalism is only wrong when we do it? That someone at a black magazine is telling a little girl she needs a second chance for something she didn’t do wrong in the first place is shameful. In the words of Malcolm X, “Who taught you to hate yourself?”

We should embrace a young prodigy who doesn’t shy away from race, but instead confronts it. If you’re still falling for the “colorblind society” okie doke, maybe you need a second chance.