Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Birmingham On The Hudson
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Aug 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

“Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes”

 

Birmingham On The Hudson

by Raymond Nat Turner

Jazz Ballad Chorus

Headed for CUNY with dreams and hope

'Til gettin' swept up in Rope-and-Grope

Tuggin' down his testes on the street

Body-slammed, cursed and browbeat 

Meeting N-Y's finest's fists and feets

Given blurred vision of hoods and sheets

Bruised, bloodied victim of violent scam--

The Hudson banks on Birmingham

The Hudson banks on Birmingham.... 

Hip Hop Feel

Bull Kelly cut fire hoses and cattle prods

For Glockmiesters runnin' in death squads

Protecting and serving corporate masters

The privilege and supremacy of alabasters 

Guarding Merrill-Lynch and Killer Coke

Fighting crime's mirrors and smoke

Drivin' out the poor from dusk to dark

Like smashing Spring in Zucotti Park

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

In this Age Of Metastasized Cash-ism

Wall Street's Kleptocratic Stash-ism

Mayor Bilbo's businesses blooming brisk

His real estate-driven Stop-and-Frisk

American-styled apartheid pass law

Bilbo's Gestapo's a blue cat's-paw

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes

Putting our lives and health at risk

Run these cons through Stop-and-Frisk

Provocateurs and pundits in cahoots

Will look hip in orange jumpsuits!

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Police Brutality, Racism and Poverty Underlines Youth Rebellion in France
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Police Brutality, Racism and Poverty Underlines Youth Rebellion in France
    05 Jul 2023
    Protests erupted in France after police killed a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan ancestry. Just as in the U.S. racism in France is the cause of police violence.
  • The United States Military, White Supremacy, and Affirmative Action
    Horace G. Campbell
    The United States Military, White Supremacy, and Affirmative Action
    05 Jul 2023
    The recent Supreme Court ruling which bans affirmative action as an admissions' criteria does not apply to the military academies. White elites are secure in their advantages while the military…
  • Tesla: The Cars That Racism Built? Black Workers Claim Lawsuits Have Not Stopped Discrimination
    Ethan Baron
    Tesla: The Cars That Racism Built? Black Workers Claim Lawsuits Have Not Stopped Discrimination
    05 Jul 2023
    Multi-billionaire Elon Musk claims to practice freedom of expression on his Twitter platform. But numerous complaints of anti-Black racism at his Tesla plant make a mockery of any claims of freedom…
  • US Legally Owes Nicaragua Reparations, But Still Refuses to Honor 1986 International Court of Justice Ruling
    Ben Norton
    US Legally Owes Nicaragua Reparations, But Still Refuses to Honor 1986 International Court of Justice Ruling
    05 Jul 2023
    37 years after a 1986 International Court of Justice ruling, the United States still refuses to pay Nicaragua the reparations it legally owes. Today, the Nicaraguan government is demanding that the…
  • Russo-Ukrainian War: The Wagner Uprising
    Big Serge
    Russo-Ukrainian War: The Wagner Uprising
    05 Jul 2023
    Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Private Military Company, openly denounced the Russian Ministry of Defense and declared a march on Moscow.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us