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


  • The Birth of a Nation: Race and Power in Amerika
    Prince Kapone
    The Birth of a Nation: Race and Power in Amerika
    11 Dec 2019
    White supremacy is just as much a social reality as it is an ideology.
  • Freedom Rider: Abolish the Police
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Abolish the Police
    11 Dec 2019
    Trump’s attorney general threatened to withdraw police “protection” from Black communities – but, of course, no such thing exists.
  • The Capitalist Crisis Has Made the U.S. a Pariah State
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Capitalist Crisis Has Made the U.S. a Pariah State
    11 Dec 2019
    U.S. imperialism has nothing left to offer humanity but ecological destruction, endless war, and a decline in living standards domestically and globally.
  • Should UN Peacekeepers Leave the Democratic Republic of Congo?
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Should UN Peacekeepers Leave the Democratic Republic of Congo?
    11 Dec 2019
    There was no peace to keep in the Kivu and Ituri provinces when the UN force arrived nearly 20 years ago, and there’s been none since.
  • Black Friday Blues
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    Black Friday Blues
    11 Dec 2019
    Here come Black Friday, but I wanna a Green New Deal Here come Black Friday, but I wanna a Green New Deal With a whole lotta street heat just to keep it real…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us