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


  • Torture Survivor Jackie Wilson Exonerated in Pandemic Murder Trial
    Flint Taylor
    Torture Survivor Jackie Wilson Exonerated in Pandemic Murder Trial
    18 Nov 2020
    Wilson’s 40-year ordeal has ended, but his attorneys hope to make Chicago prosecutors pay for their crimes.
  • Letters of Life from Slow Death Row
    David Gilbert
    Letters of Life from Slow Death Row
    18 Nov 2020
    Tiyo Attallah Salah-El’s exemplary life (without parole) is testament to the human spirit and the cause of abolition.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 16, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 16, 2020
    16 Nov 2020
    BLM National Leadership Focused on Money and Careers
  •  The Mulatta in White Brazilian and US Imaginations
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The Mulatta in White Brazilian and US Imaginations
    16 Nov 2020
    “The mixed Black figure, the mulatta” is “a central focus of containing and managing Blackness and upholding whiteness” in both Brazil and the United States, said Jasmine Mitchell,
  •  Black Is Back Coalition: “Black Power Matters”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Is Back Coalition: “Black Power Matters”
    16 Nov 2020
    “The struggle has to be more than simply a declaration of our significance as human beings, as in the term ‘Black Lives Matter,’” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Bac
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us