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

2nd Amend Meant
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
26 Apr 2023
🖨️ Print Article
2nd Amend Meant
WLRN.org (Photo: Christian K. Lee)

                                                                                                                                    2nd Amend Meant

                                                                                                                  “…shotgun—shoot ‘em for he run now!”

                                                                                                                                     â€”Junior Walker

I.

Redlined, ‘white’ enclave. Un-ceded Hopewell,

Kansa, Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, Otos tribal

Land. Receiving settler soundbites of misinformation,

disinformation, 1/2 truth, big lies attached to Fox-box

IV—the prisoner trembles fearfully in padded cell of

‘Whiteness.’

Maybe he fears ghosts of gunpowder done real

estate Deals?

Maybe his MAGA-mind hears dispossessed people

pleading with him and cracker comfort tribe STOP

the chop—the so-called “tomahawk chop”—‘whites’

Insist on doing at Kansas City “Chiefs” football

games?

II.

Post-Bacon Rebellion—

2nd Amend Meant—

Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,

sadist, torturer, overseer—slaver-wannabe

Infected with ‘whiteness’ could STOP you.

Question you about where you’re going…

About where you’ve been. Plantation/reservation

you’re coming from? Going to? Supposed to be on?

Blunderbuss, flintlock, musket, revolver trained on

temples—‘Whiteness’ questioned!

Questioned how dark skins got there. When they

got there. What was in their pockets? Never

questioning what makes ‘whiteness’ fear for…

sacrosanct Safety?

2nd Amend Meant—

Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,

sadist, torturer, overseer-slaver wannabe

Infected with ‘whiteness’ could STOP you.

Detain you! Arrest you! Flog you! Lynch you—

come up with cruel, creative ways to crucify

or castrate you!

2nd Amend Meant—

They could cooly flex index fingers should you

Flinch!

Object!

Make eye contact! Speak when not spoken to!

Breathe when you’re not permitted to breathe!

III.

Black at wrong address, the boy was there

to pick twin brothers up. He picked up two

Bullets instead.

Had his lithe, young, gifted

Chocolate, promise-filled, bass clarinet-playing

body perforated

He knocked for an answer regarding the twins.

.32 caliber

questions tore through glass, ripped in

to his furrowed brow like a hot pin ball:

Do Black Lives really Matter? If so, how

much?

The ball bounced into a neighbor’s yard

and drew gunfire. The car turned into a

driveway and drew gunfire. The woman

approached a wrong car and drew gunfire.

Volleys of shots are 2nd Amend Meant for:

“How may I help you?”





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.

Gun violence
Second Amendment

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


Related Stories

Cartoon comic about mass shottings
Danny Shaw
Murder Thy Neighbor A Recap of Mass Shootings in 2023: An Anti-Imperialist Perspective
20 December 2023
Mass shootings have become ubiquitous in the US, as part of a gun-obsessed culture that manufactures and exports violence around the world.
Javonte Alexander (left) and Basaime Spate (right), researchers at Center for Justice Innovation.
Shannon Chaffers
Driven By Fear: Why Some Brooklyn Youth Carry Guns
25 October 2023
Tropes about violent Black youth prevail but efforts to analyze the causes of firearm use are rarely seen.
Black People, Guns, and the Troubling Reaction to Ja Morant
Gus Griffin
Black People, Guns, and the Troubling Reaction to Ja Morant
21 June 2023
Ja Morant plays basketball in Tennessee, an "open carry" state with lose firearm regulations.
Why Americans Are Shot at the "Wrong House"
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Why Americans Are Shot at the "Wrong House"
26 April 2023
People in the U.S.
Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
21 April 2021
If the state reserves the right to commit mass murder no one should be surprised that the people follow suit.

More Stories


  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report October 2, 2026
    02 Oct 2026
    In this week’s segment we hear about the right-wing politics of the anti-migrant movement in South Africa, ANC failures, and upcoming elections in that country. But we begin with the first and only…
  • Chris Smalls
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Chris Smalls' "When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class"
    02 Oct 2026
    Chris Smalls discusses his memoir, "When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class," published by Penguin Random House. He is the first and only union leader to successfully…
  • South Africa anti-immigration march
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    South Africa's "March and March" Collaborates with Right Wing Afrikaners
    02 Oct 2026
    Our guest is Nairobi based political writer and strategist Clinton Nzala. He joins us to provide an update and an analysis of the South African anti-migrant March and March movement, which is…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Defending a Non-Existent International Law
    30 Sep 2026
    The Hague Group’s goal is to “. . . take coordinated legal and diplomatic measures against Israel’s violations of international law.” But international law was never a reality.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LETTER: “We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies,” Fidel Castro, 1990
    30 Sep 2026
    “I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries…can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against intervention and aggression.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us