Essay 472

Freestyling with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The rhyming rascal (pictured above) who sparked controversy with her Black History Month poem (see Essay 471) continues to speak out. “I feel good about the response,” said the 7-year-old artist. “I know it was the right thing.” The schools felt differently, sending out recorded phone apologies to 3,000 parents last week. The child’s original performance included reciting a Black Panther oath, where she requested only Black and Hispanic students stand during the presentation. “We had kids who were really upset,” the school superintendent said. “We said [to parents], ‘If your child was upset, we apologize for that.’ There is nothing wrong with that.” Damn, whatever happened to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?”

• Feminists of Color United, a women’s activist group, plans to assemble a picket line to protest R. Kelly’s concert at the University of Texas. Hey, it won’t be the first time Kelly crosses the line with women.

• A coalition of anti-gay groups is planning to boycott Ford Motor Company for its continued advertising in gay media. “We cannot, and will not, sit by as Ford supports a social agenda aimed at the destruction of the family,” the groups wrote in a letter. Ford should produce a commercial featuring an Explorer riding through Brokeback Mountain.

• A judge in Ohio is close to ruling on the case involving a couple who kept their 11 adopted kids in cages. Wonder who will be in cages when this is all over.

• Michael Jackson has until today to deliver back pay to over 30 employees at his Neverland ranch. He owes about $400,000 in wages and fines, and failure to act may lead to a lawsuit. At this point, Jacko qualifies for his own mini-series on CourtTV.

• Pat Robertson was censored for calling Muslims “satanic” and “crazed fanatics… motivated by demonic powers.” The Christian Broadcasting Network removed the statements from its website “out of concerns they could be misinterpreted if taken out of context.” Nah, they’re all clearly the ravings of a crazed fanatic motivated by demonic powers.