We change our focus now to a 7-year-old girl already writing poetry. So, why are school officials apologizing for letting her read it out loud to other students? What is so darn controversial?
ZAHN: So, how much controversy can one little girl cause? Well, just wait until you meet Autum A. ASHANTE:. She's a very talented 7- year-old poet who set off a very heated debate over race, a topic many adults go out of their way to avoid.
This whole thing began last month at a black history school event. And, ever since then, Autum has been vilified for spreading hate, and praise for being wise beyond her years.
Jason Carroll set out to meet Autum and immediately ran head on into the very storm that has raged around her for weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AUTUM ASHANTE:, 7-YEAR-OLD POET: I am misunderstood by many, yes, even my own.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Most girls her age are still learning to read and write, but 7-year-old Autum A. ASHANTE: is recording her spoken word poetry C.D..
A. ASHANTE: I am the mighty black woman.
CARROLL: She has already performed at the Apollo Theater...
A. ASHANTE: I said, do not pollute our gardens, please.
CARROLL: ... and on Black Entertainment Television's Hurricane Katrina relief telethon.
A. ASHANTE: What have I done to be (INAUDIBLE)
CARROLL: Critics are calling her a child prodigy, praising her socially conscious poems, like the one about the controversial police shooting of a black immigrant in New York.
A. ASHANTE: They shot our brothers 41 times.
I like to be on stage. It's like my second home, or it's my house. It's my room.
CARROLL: Autum, it seemed, could do no wrong. So, why is she now defending herself from those who say she's a racist?
A. ASHANTE: That just doesn't make sense. I mean, I'm not a racist. And I'm very young to be a racist, wouldn't you say?
CARROLL: Autum has come under fire for her latest poem titled, "White Nationalism Put You in Bondage." She read it to students at a Peekskill, New York, middle school and high school.
A. ASHANTE: I was kind of upset when I found out that they don't like the poem, because I don't get why they were being offended. It's the truth.
CARROLL: The offense, Autum referring to Christopher Columbus, Charles Darwin and Captain Henry Morgan as vampires.
A. ASHANTE: Pirates and vampires, like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin, drank the blood of the sleep, trampled all over them with steel, tricks and deceit.
CARROLL (on camera): What did you mean by that, because -- because I would like to know, in terms of referring to them as vampires?
A. ASHANTE: Because they robbed, raped, and murdered our people.
CARROLL (voice-over): Autum's attempt at raising black awareness did not end with just a poem. It began when she told all the black students in the multicultural audience to stand while she read the black child's pledge, which was originally created by a member of the Black Panthers.
She told all the white students that it wasn't for them, that they should sit down. (voice-over): Alicia Putchee (ph), a junior at the high school, sat in the audience.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a little shocking, at first, a 7- year-old telling us to sit down. And, then, it just -- it was just -- it was kind of rude. It was a little rude. It was. It made me angry.
CARROLL: The school superintendent sent apologies, after students and parents complained. She explained that Autum's poem and the black child's pledge had not been pre-approved.
JUDITH JOHNSON, SUPERINTENDENT, PEEKSKILL, NEW YORK, SCHOOLS: We're stunned by the fact that this is continuing to represent a story in newspapers and on television. It's not a story for us anymore.
CARROLL: But Autum continues to be the subject of editorials and radio talk shows.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: You want to go to Africa? I will personally purchase your airfare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Several threatening blogs have surfaced, this one saying, "Someone will shut her little mouth, permanently."
Many of Autum's critics believe her father is behind her words.
BATIN ASHANTE, FATHER OF AUTUM ASHANTE: Put your answer there.
CARROLL: Autum, who is homeschooled, says she wrote the poem after being inspired by a documentary. She included the black pledge after hearing about a fight between blacks and Latinos at the school. But school officials say there was no fight.
(on camera): If a white student stood up and said that this is for white students only...
B. ASHANTE: Under the circumstance, if it was under the same circumstance...
CARROLL: Let me finish the question. Let me finish the question.
(voice-over): Her father, Batin, just off camera, interrupted several times...
B. ASHANTE: Don't speak on that one.
CARROLL: ... saying he was being a protective parent.
B. ASHANTE: And I'm an offshoot of a soccer parent. We just do poetry and theater. CARROLL: Ashante says he teaches his daughter, but does not tell her what to write.
(on camera): What do you teach Autum about tolerance?
B. ASHANTE: I don't -- we don't -- we -- tolerance is -- tolerance -- we are here with no power in America. We are tolerant.
CARROLL: Even people without power, though, can be intolerant.
B. ASHANTE: We're not intolerant. Of who? I -- I don't want you to take this story here and try to turn this thing into that she's being taught hate at home, because that's not what we're about here. We're spiritual beings.
CARROLL (voice-over): Though her subject matter is typically serious, not everything Autum recites is.
A. ASHANTE: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Hey, girls.
(LAUGHTER)
CARROLL: She is, at times, a typical 7-year-old girl, prone to giggle fits...
(LAUGHTER)
CARROLL: ... except when it comes to defending her true love of poetry and her poem on white nationalism.
A. ASHANTE: I'm going to continue saying that poem. Mostly, until I die, I'm going to keep saying that poem.
CARROLL: No matter how hard, she says, it is for some to hear it.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Peekskill, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: You might also be interested to know that the school has not banned Autum from future recitals, but the superintendent says, next time, it will certainly be a smaller group, so there at least can be a discussion of her poetry.
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