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

…In his head
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Mar 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Dr. King’s Dream come true,

In his head! Black folks way better

Off, in his head, Rev. Wright was

Wrong, in his head!

 

…In his head

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Headin’ downtown on the D train

The other day I overheard oration—

By a fella, to a fella, from a fella 51/50

“Mexicans takin’ our jobs; they hate

Our freedoms— but blurred lines,

Beyonce’s booty, NAACP Image

Awards, Robin Thicke & recovery

Jus’ roun’ the corner; smart phone,

Dr. Dre headphones lift me outta

Poverty; smart bombs protect my

Freedoms; I got 2,000 Facebook

Friends, a poke away, who gimme

My kidney & bone marrow transplant!”

 

Booming baritone thundering in

Harmony with the train, he continued

His melodious, rhythmic catechism,

“Since ’08 things been Great,” in his

Head, Dr. King’s Dream come true,

In his head! Black folks way better

Off, in his head, Rev. Wright was

Wrong, in his head! “Yes, we can,”

In his head, mo’ Black folks have

Homes since World War II, in his

Head! Mo’ Black wealth than ever

Before, in his head; fewer Black folk

Dyin’ fo’ they 70th, in his head; mo’

Black men goin’ to college than jail,

In his head, liars figure but figures

Don’t lie, in his head, in his head,

“Change we can believe in,” in his

Head, police stopped shootin’ us

Since that beer, in his head; we

Cool, long as Big Brother brown, in

His head! Oratory swelling like a

Dark cumulus cloud, lookin’ me

Dead in the eye, “This election the

Mos’ important election ever…”

 

“The rich say that every time,” I snapped.

He leapt up like a man possessed, banshee-

Rebel- wailing, “What, you ain’t votin’?

Nigger, get away from me, you is cra-aaa-zy!”

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 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


  • BAR Book Forum: Adom Getachew’s “Worldmaking after Empire”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adom Getachew’s “Worldmaking after Empire”
    06 Mar 2019
    Black and brown anticolonialists used the United Nations to push for new and egalitarian relationships among nations and peoples.
  • Keith Tharpe and the Death Penalty’s Racist Roots   
    Stephen Cooper  
    Keith Tharpe and the Death Penalty’s Racist Roots   
    06 Mar 2019
     The history of the death penalty in America is hewn from the hell of slavery, subjugation and the suffering of black people.
  • The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy 
    Misha Hill, Alan Essig, Meg Wiehe, Jenice Robinson, Steve Wamhoff and Carl Davis
    The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy 
    06 Mar 2019
    Beginning with the Slave tax, the US has overburdened Black communities with taxes for services that they often don’t get.
  • Inside the Neoliberal Laboratory Preparing for the Theft of Venezuela’s Economy
    Justin Podur
    Inside the Neoliberal Laboratory Preparing for the Theft of Venezuela’s Economy
    06 Mar 2019
    The academic laboratory of the Venezuelan coup is housed at Harvard. “Behind every US-backed war on a foreign people there will be a body of scholarly work.”
  • A Black American Delegation to India, 1935-36
    R. Divya Nair
    A Black American Delegation to India, 1935-36
    06 Mar 2019
    Black theologian Howard Thurman’s Pilgrimage of Friendship deeply influenced the worldview of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us