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 Argentinians Demand Inclusion in National Story
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Argentinians Demand Inclusion in National Story
    10 Nov 2020
    Argentina created a mythology of national whiteness that pretended the country’s Black population had long ago gone extinct, and ignored the presence of indigenous people.
  • A “Communalist” Future?
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    A “Communalist” Future?
    10 Nov 2020
    “Socialism is communalism in the modern form,” said activist and University of Illinois doctoral candidate Shay Akil McLean, citing Kwame Nkrumah.
  •  Biden to Oversee a Kinder, Gentler Repression
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden to Oversee a Kinder, Gentler Repression
    10 Nov 2020
    “The Democratic Party has used the language of law and order as much as the Republicans,” said Justin Lang, a doctoral candidate and activist at Brown University.
  • White Supremacy Lite Wins the Prize
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    White Supremacy Lite Wins the Prize
    10 Nov 2020
    The contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was about how best to preserve whiteness, said Dr Johnny Williams, professor of Sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticu
  • Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    05 Nov 2020
    Whoever wins the Electoral College, race-based politics will continue to allow the corporate rulers to ignore public demands for relief from the Race to the Bottom and endless war.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us