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


  • Jackson Water Crisis: A legacy of environmental racism? and Justice for Jackson: Help Us Fix Jackson's Water System
    Chi Chi Izundu, Mohamed Madi, Chelsea Bailey , Cooperation Jackson
    Jackson Water Crisis: A legacy of environmental racism? and Justice for Jackson: Help Us Fix Jackson's Water System
    07 Sep 2022
    The city of Jackson is suffering from years of neglect by the state of Mississippi. Residents of the majority Black city need a new water system, but a legacy of racism and antipathy towards their…
  • Laundering Black Rage
    Too Black
    Laundering Black Rage
    07 Sep 2022
    Rage is a natural human emotion that is denied to Black people. Black rage is dangerous and is washed away, laundered, as if it were an ill-gotten gain. Too Black explains in the first part of a two-…
  • accra reparation
    Mark P. Fancher
    Reparations by Appeal to Conscience or by Demands from a Position of Strength?
    07 Sep 2022
    The pursuit of justice and reparations for African people has been constant. The question of whether to pursue appeals for concessions or active struggles for power, has not been resolved.
  • Fact Find Mission to Donbass Part 3
    John Parker
    Fact Find Mission to Donbass Part 3
    07 Sep 2022
    John Parker is the Socialist Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. This is Part 3 of his report on his fact-finding trip observing …
  • At Least One Person Dead After a New Day of Anti-Government Protests in Haiti
    Peoples Dispatch
    At Least One Person Dead After a New Day of Anti-Government Protests in Haiti
    07 Sep 2022
    Haitians have been mobilizing against the Ariel Henry administration’s inability to combat crime, inflation and poverty. All of these ills are a direct result of Haiti's status as a puppet of the U.S…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us