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


  • I Celebrate Red Roses of Resistance
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    I Celebrate Red Roses of Resistance
    30 Oct 2019
    San Francisco singer sitting in a Manhattan restaurant, ringlets trickling down ‘round Angelic paper bag brown face, like sweat gathering on her glass of white wine.
  • Celebrating 13 Years of BAR’s Contribution to the Struggle for Peace, Justice, and Liberation
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Celebrating 13 Years of BAR’s Contribution to the Struggle for Peace, Justice, and Liberation
    30 Oct 2019
    BAR will never stop linking the conditions of apartheid America with the imperialist wars waged against the people of Libya, Syria, or anywhere else.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    30 Oct 2019
    This week readers wrote about the Obama administration's role in Syria, a recent citizens’ delegation to Russia, and BAR’s 13th anniversary celebration.  We share your letters for “
  • BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    Eziaku Nwokocha
    BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    30 Oct 2019
    Open and constructive dialogue is critical in shaping well-rounded students, including the study of transnational feminism and visual and material culture.
  • BAR Book Forum: Derrick White’s “Blood, Sweat, and Tears”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Derrick White’s “Blood, Sweat, and Tears”
    30 Oct 2019
    The inequitable power relations, in terms of race, in college sports is a byproduct of weakening of HBCU sports through desegregation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us