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

What Would the Ancestors Say?
Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
14 Nov 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

Baptist, baritone strains:

"I've been to the mountaintop,

But this is not the mountaintop”

 

What Would the Ancestors Say?

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I know

I know

I know...

Harriet Tubman didn't slide

In and out of the slave south

Nineteen times, $40,000 reward

Hanging over her head like a

Scimitar, or Samurai sword;

Medgar didn't die in his driveway

Like a dog put down in the pound;

Malcolm didn't die on floor

Of the Audubon Ballroom;

King didn't die on chitlin' curcuit

Balcony of the Lorraine Motel;

Fred didn't die in his bed, under

Hooves of Chicago death squads

For tomfoolery---nappy-headed

Foolishness--- Negroz shrinking

To plantation Rip Van Winkles

Hung over on Ol' Massa's

Jim Jones Juice (January '09)

The eve of world revolution...

 

I know

I know

I know...

She would be leveling her pistol,

Leaving at least a half dozen dead

Negroz, after commanding "Forward,

Or die!"

 

I know

I know

I know...

He would be tongue-lashing

Negroz with his Harlem-tinged

Tough love: "You've been had,

You've been took, you've been

Hoodwinked, you've been bamboozled!"

 

I know

I know

I know...

He would be intoning in African,

Baptist, baritone strains:

"I've been to the mountaintop,

But this is not the mountaintop,

No, and I'm concerned that if you

Continue traversing this treacherous

Trail you're on, during the dark and

Difficult days ahead, not only will you

Not get to the mountaintop, you will

Find yourselves descending to depths

So low that it will require you taking an

Elevator up eighty-six floors; climbing

Forty flights of stairs to a sub cellar of

Sin, standing on a step ladder on your

Tiptoes, just to suck the Devil's dick---

 

No, I'm afraid I can't be your drum

Major on this one---

The drones must be stopped,

The satanic wars ceased, and

The barbaric killing of other peoples'

Babies ended---forever..."

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Black Women With Guns
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Women With Guns
    23 Sep 2019
    From Harriet Tubman to female members of the Black Panther Party, Black women have always played a role in armed resistance in the United States, said Jasmin Young, a doc
  • US Follows Anti-Black Model in Immigration
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    US Follows Anti-Black Model in Immigration
    23 Sep 2019
    The US has criminalized immigrants, just as it has used the criminal justice system to control and oppress African Americans, said Ben Ndugga Kabuye, of the Black Alliance for
  • Trump Sanctions Will Doom Dollar Supremacy
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Trump Sanctions Will Doom Dollar Supremacy
    23 Sep 2019
    President Trump’s massive use of sanctions as a weapon of US policy “has put the world’s financial, monetary and trading system into crisis,” said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro
  • Believe Absolutely Nothing the US Government and Media Say About…Anything
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Believe Absolutely Nothing the US Government and Media Say About…Anything
    19 Sep 2019
    In any alliance with corporate oppression and militarism, Black America squanders reservoirs of respect among the Earth’s peoples. We betray ourselves and become Black Gringos.
  • Freedom Rider: The Electability Canard
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Electability Canard
    18 Sep 2019
    Hapless Joe Biden has always failed in his presidential bids, but is hyped as supremely “electable” this time around because Democratic elites fear and loath Bernie Sanders.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us