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

What The Left Left At O’Hare
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jun 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

To fly the friendly skies of the National Security State, one must first be prepared to jettison all leftist baggage.

 

What The Left Left At O’Hare

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I recall, it was like TSA had groped,

Probed and lightened their load:

“You can’t carry independent politics aboard”

“Militant mass-action is forbidden aboard the aircraft”

“Proletarian Internationalism must be dumped out here”

“Revolutionary attitude toward the state is absolutely forbidden beyond the gate!”

“You are allowed to bring aboard:

2oz see-through plastic bottles of social-chauvinism

2 oz plastic bottles of reformism

2 oz plastic bottles of tokenism

Unlimited humanitarian interventions in see through plastic is allowed”

 

Happy campers boarding in ’08,

Gate 1%, O’Hare, via Ronald

Reagan, “the left” powered

Down principles, turned off

Theoretical devices, kept its

Seatbelts buckled low and tight—

Paid high prices for complimentary

Kool Aid, mini-bottles of beer and

Headphones for feature films like

0 Dark 30 looped eight years on

Their non-stop flight—

Making their descent

Three years left in the

Holding pattern, acting as

Floatation devices under one

Seat aboard… Air Force One…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 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


  • Erica Caines
    Bound by Imperialism: Trinidad’s Role in U.S. Agenda
    08 Jan 2025
    Trinidad is experiencing an unprecedented crime wave. The state has responded by militarizing the police and loosening restrictions on their actions. To understand these mechanisms, one must look at…
  • Janvieve Williams Comrie
    The Unrelenting Violence Against Black Youth in Latin America: a Focus on Ecuador
    08 Jan 2025
    The murder of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys is another tragic example of the long history of racism in Latin America. The utter disregard for the lives of Black youth and the refusal to seek justice for…
  • Arnold August
    Liberal Media and Personalities: The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall
    08 Jan 2025
    On Dec 11, 2024, it was reported that the post-election audiences for the leading liberal media, MSNBC and CNN, continued to drop: 46% and 33%, respectively. Some of MSNBC’s biggest stars, including…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    F Train Lynching: Papa Cop’s wink and nod
    08 Jan 2025
    "F Train Lynching: Papa Cop’s wink and nod" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Ali Abunimah
    Israel still can’t find any 7 October rape victims, prosecutor admits
    08 Jan 2025
    Well over a year after Al Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, an Israeli prosector admitted that there was no credible evidence that any sexual violence occurred. The narrative of rape had already been…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us