Young, Gifted & Black

Autum Ashante is a thirteen year old girl who apparently is some sort of genius.  She knows at least three languages, Spanish, Arabic and Swahili.  She has an IQ of 149.  She is a seasoned performance poet among other things.  She also may have been accepted as a freshman at the University of Connecticut.

I say may have been because the University has denied it.  Or rescinded it.  Or something.  It is a convoluted story.  In June, the school confirmed she had been accepted.  However, recently the father claims the school called and told him that they felt she was not academically ready.  Maybe thirteen is too young for college these days.

Still none of this reflects poorly on a child with such incredible potential.  I have to admit that I had never heard of her and she had been in the news before when she was about seven years of age.   During a poetry performance at a school near her home (she was home schooled) she had recited the words:

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.

Not the average thoughts of a seven year old.  And naturally the right wing hated it.  Michelle Malkin (who I just don’t get) in particular wrote a Blog labeled “MEETTHE 7-YEAR-OLD RACIST POET” .  Way to go Michelle, always picking on the kids.

Personally I don’t have any problems with what the young lady wrote six years ago.  I don’t have a problem with Tom Sawyer being read in school either although I realize that others may.  In fact, unless the words she used were lies I don’t have any problem with it.  Okay maybe there are no vampires, but still.

That was six or seven years ago and now this called young lady, raised by a single father, can be considered quite gifted.  Whether or not this situation with the college works out or not, I believe she will have a very bright future.  We shall see.

Just remember there are many more gifted children out there.  We have got to tell those stories too.

Being About It

From an EnidNews.com story by Dave Ruthenberg on July 6, 2011:

Court Crandall had an idea. Crandall, a Hollywood screenwriter and advertising executive, wanted to help young people and boost the battered image of the city of Compton, a Los Angeles suburb.

His idea, a simple free-throw contest with the winner receiving $40,000 toward the cost of college, netted far more positive, feel-good publicity than any public relations campaign could have possibly mustered thanks to the generosity of Allan Guei.

Guei, a Compton student, won the free throw contest which attracted over 80 applicants who had to have a GPA of at least 3.00. The field was narrowed down to eight participants drawn at random. It’s not that Guei really turned out to be much of a marksman at the free throw line. The 5-foot-9 student only made five out of 10 attempts, but that was good enough to best the other seven nerve-rattled contestants during the event.

And it’s not like Guei lacked basketball ability. Despite his size, Guei, who lead his high school hoops team to the district finals, accepted an offer to attend Cal State Northridge on a full basketball scholarship shortly after the free throw contest.

Still, the 18-year-old student would later stun everybody, Crandall included, when he announced at graduation ceremonies he would forego the $40,000 and donate the winnings to the other seven contestants. And before anybody becomes too cynical, Guei, under NCAA rules, would have been allowed to keep most of his winnings.

You can read the rest here. 

So when some people say that young black men are a lost generation.  That they are victims of a culture and attitude that causes them to wreck havoc on themselves and those around them, I would suggest that they look up Allan Guei and note that he is the rule not the exception. 

Just because you choose to ignore their stories does not mean that they don’t exist.