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

Ethnic cleansing called Katrina
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
27 Aug 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Hurricane Katrina victims

Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ta-tah-ta-tah-ta-ta-tum …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ta-tah-ta-tah-ta-ta-tum …

SOSs— frantic patterns pounded on
Pots and pans — Counterpoint
Shattering surreal quiet …
Tired hands trembled and cramped

White towels; white T-shirts; white sheets
Waved furiously. Invisible to the heart of
Dixie in confederate helicopters casually
Hovering above. Tired arms trembled and cramped

Tired voices, plaintive pleas for “HELP!” faded.
Slipped into soup of sewage. Oil-gas-gumbo-slop.
Spewing from tanks and pipelines like some toxic
Spittle, rising to their throats from a trumpet’s spit key

Katrina square-danced ‘round New Orleans.
Went easy on The Big Easy.
So, why was the city still swamped? Why’d
The London Avenue levee break in three places?

FEMA flew over and knew on Monday.
W’s War House knew by midnight. But
The People—salt of the earth— heard it through
The grapevine— or on TV— sometime Tuesday

Levee built 1 and 1/2 feet lower than specs.      A capitalist
Disaster wrapped in an accident; Concealing a ticking time
Bomb. Set decades ago. Add Big Oil’s hurricane highway. AKA, MIGO—
Mississippi Gulf Outlet — 12 gauge shotgun pointing at NOLA’s heart!

BOOM! Prayers of white nationalist worshippers answered. Prayers of
Hoods concealed beneath Mardi Gras masks answered! Prayers of those
Who preyed to their god; to their profits, “Do unto Lower 9th Ward N-
Words what white sheets behind spreadsheets wet dreamed for decades.”

They’d preyed for a chocolate city bleached beignet-white … Lower
9th Ward N-words out! By any means necessary. They’d preyed to rid
Themselves of low-wealth ones. Elderly, ill ones. The non-swimmers
Who didn’t own cars.

Their privatized Emergency Evacuation Plan was always: NOYO
(Nigras On Your Own) Sink or swim. Water-swollen homes— “Xs”
Spray-painted on their skins. Circled numbers. Circled 3 = 3 bloated
Black bodies pulled from bones of homes. Some pregnant. Some children.

White god was good— weaponizing water! Water raged. Rose rapidly
Ethnic cleansing Land of Louis; second line; trumpet tree roots. Made
Martyrs of Big Chiefs, Brass band-juju Jazz conjurers. Ancestors of Blues babies
Who’d drown in their own tears with yellowed photos and decomposing dreams …

Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ta-tah-ta-tah-ta-ta-tum …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ching-ching-ching-a-ling …
Ta-tah-ta-tah-ta-ta-tum …

© 2025. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

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


More Stories


  • Freedom Rider: Churchill, Columbus and Leopold Fall Down
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Churchill, Columbus and Leopold Fall Down
    17 Jun 2020
    Millions of white people glorify mass murderers because their sense of identity and place in society is deeply tied to white supremacy.
  • The Rebellion Against Police Repression Must Guard Against ALL Enemies, Whether Red, Blue, or Green
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Rebellion Against Police Repression Must Guard Against ALL Enemies, Whether Red, Blue, or Green
    17 Jun 2020
    The terrain of struggle will need to expand for the movement to avoid a Democratic Party-induced slumber.
  • The State (For Cam and B) and Mo’ Foul Play
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    The State (For Cam and B) and Mo’ Foul Play
    17 Jun 2020
    Papa’s proud of you, handsome  Grandsons, for hand-lettered signs, for taking to the streets during your generation’s 10 days that shook the world!
  • Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
    17 Jun 2020
    We must make clear that it is imperialism that degrades and destroys the earth, makes water a commodity, food a luxury, education an impossibility, and health care a distant dream.
  • Say Its Name: Genocide!
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Say Its Name: Genocide!
    17 Jun 2020
    Unless we identify genocide as the common underpinning to all of the brutality directed against Black people in the US, we are talking about the wrong thing.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us