Black Panther poem reading touches off concerns at high school in Minnesota

East Ridge High School Principal Aaron Harper found himself fielding some complaints Thursday after a controversial poem meant to honor Black History Month was read aloud over the school’s public address system.

Mike Longaecker
Woodbury Bulletin
2/15/2013

East Ridge High School Principal Aaron Harper found himself fielding some complaints Thursday after a controversial poem meant to honor Black History Month was read aloud over the school’s public address system.

“The Black Child’s Pledge,” written in 1968 by Shirley Williams and published in the controversial Black Panther group’s newspaper, was read during East Ridge’s morning announcements as an ongoing activity honoring Black History Month.

Not long after the poem was read, Twitter comments began bubbling up from Woodbury community members, including Kelly Fenton, whose son attends East Ridge.

“There are lot better examples and things that can be recited than something from a Black Panther,” said Fenton, who is also the Minnesota Republican Party’s vice chairwoman.

The Black Panther Party supported militant action in support of progress for the “black power” movement of the 1960s.

Fenton wondered why nonviolent black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks weren’t honored instead during the announcements.

“It was a lack of judgment,” she said.

The poem touches on tolerance, while also calling on young blacks to mobilize…

The article continues at the Woodbury Bulletin.

Woodbury KSTP has a video report: Black History Month Poem Upsets Woodbury Students, Parents

H/T  M.V. of MN who wrote, “This is the class Jump site for the teacher who recited the Black Panther Pledge…she is teaching classism, racism, and marxism/communism.”

The link above will lead you to Ms. Tishanna Brown’s lesson plans, and other assignments.

Read also, What if? by a parent in Minnesota:

I do not believe in censorship.  I believe so strongly in the First Amendment that I refuse to censor even the most inane and/or offensive comments people post on my FaceBook page, which sometimes causes irritation among my friends on FB, but I tell them this: “If I believe that it is acceptable to censor you or anyone else, what is stopping you from censoring me? To condone, advocate or passively stand by while others’ rights are taken away is foolish – what is to stop those people from trying to take away my rights if I allow them to take away others’ rights?”  If something is offensive, don’t read it, turn the channel, turn off the media, switch to a different website.  But don’t sit there and complain that someone is offending your sensibilities because you were too dumb to put the paper down or turn off the TV/radio.

However, there are times when caution needs to be taken when it comes to Freedom of Speech, as in the case of the teacher and principal (who claims to not have known what was planned for announcements that day) of East Ridge High School when they decided to broadcast a presentation commemorating the Black Panther Party to the entire school.  It was not Freedom of Speech, it was Propaganda and Indoctrination.   The students were captive listeners in that situation.  The students in school that morning could not avoid hearing the announcements.  They could avoid actively listening to the announcements, but could not leave, turn off the broadcast, etc. during the announcements…

Read the whole thing.

Update: Some of the parents told us they were going to get in touch with The Blaze. Celebrating Black History with the Black Panthers?

“Good Morning, East Ridge! I’m _____________. ‘Power to the People’ and ‘Black is Beautiful’ are two of the slogans associated with todays “Black History Month” person, or should I say, “People” of the day.  Today we commemorate Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, co-Founders of The Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

In October of 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. In the most part to address the rampant police brutality faced by many black communities around the country.  The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. Government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs such as free lunch and medical programs. The party, consisting mostly of men and women under the age of 25, was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation” (SIC)

Interestingly enough, the language in the above paragraph is STRIKINGLY SIMILAR to (read:plagiarized from) a Marxist website…

Read the whole thing.

Comments are closed.

Categories