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


  • DOCUMENT: An Act for the Abolition of Slavery [and for Compensating White Slaveowners], 1833
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: An Act for the Abolition of Slavery [and for Compensating White Slaveowners], 1833
    30 Mar 2022
    The recent visit of members of the British “royal family” to Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas drew attention to longstanding issues and unsettled accounts concerning slavery, colonialism, and i
  • Madeleine Albright is Dead, but Intersectional Imperialism is Alive and Well
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Madeleine Albright is Dead, but Intersectional Imperialism is Alive and Well
    30 Mar 2022
    The late Madeleine Albright was the first female Secretary of State. Her actions in office repeated the U.S. imperative to interfere in the affairs of other countries and resulted in the deaths of…
  • Papa Cop
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Papa Cop
    30 Mar 2022
                                                           …
  • New McCarthyism Silences the Black and Other Radical Left
    Erica Caines
    New McCarthyism Silences the Black and Other Radical Left
    30 Mar 2022
    Socialists, anti-imperialists, anti-war activists, Black radicals, and other independent alternative voices who challenge mainstream media and its political culture are being explicitly targeted by…
  • BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Samantha N. Sheppard
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Samantha N. Sheppard
    30 Mar 2022
    This week, we interview Samantha N. Sheppard. Samantha N. Sheppard is an associate professor of cinema and media studies in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. She is…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us