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


  • British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    14 Jan 2020
    Although Britain never experienced a civil rights movement on its own soil, such movements did take place “in its colonies...in anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles,” said Adam E
  • Dems Won’t Impeach Trump for Crimes They Favor
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Dems Won’t Impeach Trump for Crimes They Favor
    14 Jan 2020
    Donald Trump is guilty of many impeachable acts, but the Ukraine scandal “pales into insignificance compared to everything else Trump has done,” said University of Illinois professor of internation
  • Trump is a Criminal, But the Democrats Belong to the Same Mafiia
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Trump is a Criminal, But the Democrats Belong to the Same Mafia
    09 Jan 2020
    The Republicans and Democrats are united under the American imperial banner, and only differ on details of strategy to maintain Washington’s global domination.
  • Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism
    08 Jan 2020
    Black Americans, as perpetual targets of US lies and attacks, should be the first to reject Washington’s rationales for war with Iran.
  • Sheep-Dogging on Steroids: The New Democratic Party Anti-War Activists
    Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor
    Sheep-Dogging on Steroids: The New Democratic Party Anti-War Activists
    08 Jan 2020
    The rhetoric of the Democratic “progressives” only gives cover to the ongoing criminality of the U.S. state and its commitment to permanent war – with congressional approval.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us