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

Anthem of Banksters & War Profiteers
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
07 Sep 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Why does San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick choose to sit when the Star Spangled Banner is played before football games? Evidently he is one of many who know the real intention and import behind those bombs bursting in air...

Anthem of Banksters & War Profiteers…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

“I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
—Marine General Smedley Butler at his retirement, 1933

I.

No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,

No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,

Before bombers fly over stadiums schools and

social services were sacrificed for on altars of austerity;

No Ohlone or Navajo National Anthem,

No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,

No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,

Before rockets red glare/bombs bursting in air

Over Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bosnia, Libya,

Panama, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen…and

Others, soon to be announced…

II.

The bleeding baby with blown off arms and stumps for legs

Dies in a ‘surgically struck’ hospital while you drain kegs?

Commander’s quarterback, bloody band wrapping his wrist,

Running old red zone, war-profiteer plays from his kill list?

Are other peoples’ children ‘collateral damage expendable—

Like leftovers lost when your fridge became undependable?

Why’s the fight for ‘our freedom’ usually where there’s oil?

Why’s it where mineral wealth’s buried beneath foreign soil?

How about freedom fighting without tanks, planes and boats—

Freeing: Fitzgerald, Peltier, Gilbert, Bell, Jamal, Shoatz…?

Ain’t ‘Incarceration Nation’ Slave State, by its other name—

Ain’t it the darker side of a barbaric, brain-damaging game?

Black players: interception, sack, fumble, loss from N-word

Inches from lynching by the intoxicated mob, the racist herd—

Of Hitler-loving, hair-trigger thugs, masquerading as fans…

Always seconds away from true team colors of their klan’s!

Raymond Nat Turner Š 2016 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • Africa’s Response to the George Floyd Murder
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Africa’s Response to the George Floyd Murder
    10 Jun 2020
    Outrage towards the US emanated from the Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all condemning the killing.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    10 Jun 2020
    This week police brutality and racism in the United States and Brazil were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Elizabeth R. Baer’s “The Genocidal Gaze”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Elizabeth R. Baer’s “The Genocidal Gaze”
    10 Jun 2020
    In Southwest Africa the Germans devised the methodology which they would re-use in the Holocaust thirty years later.  
  • BAR Book Forum: Douglas Flowe’s “Uncontrollable Blackness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Douglas Flowe’s “Uncontrollable Blackness”
    10 Jun 2020
    Black men are besieged by an American crucible uniquely designed for them in the early twentieth century.
  • White Images, Black Reality: How to Talk to the Accidental Apologists for Monsters
    Earl Hazell
    White Images, Black Reality: How to Talk to the Accidental Apologists for Monsters
    10 Jun 2020
    The author offers some thoughts on how to deal with white people that seek to dominate Black political discussion on social media. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us