by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Unsettling settlers settle settling like sulfur over UN peace talks. Unsettling settlers settle neighborly disputes using police like cavalry and Kit Carson Indian killers going West.
Stein Bop Blues March On Gentrifiers
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Shhhhhhhh
Decibel Dictators dislike drumming pouring
Poly-rhythms out windows of the Casquelord
Center, poly-rhythms propelling rainbows of
Glistening dancers into ecstatic communityâŚ
Shhhhhhhh
Theyâre bothered by Baptist, get-down Gospel
Choir rehearsal sparks, charging joyful noise
Spilling on to streets from stained glass windows âŚ
Shhhhhhhh
BBQs by the Lake bother them, too. Perhaps
Itâs loud laughter, line-dancing, clacking of
Black and white dominoes on tables, smells
of spicy foods feeding faces happy against all odds?
Shhhhhhhh
Maybe itâs not verbs bothering them? Maybe itâs
NounsâVooodo Children born of suspicious skin
Tone? Ebony, mocha, chocolate tones of thugs and
Thieves heard in creaking floorboards, rustling drapes
Unwelcome at home
Shhhhhhhh
We are AfricansâAfricaâs all humanityâs birthplaceâ
Mostly proletarians. âTheyâ are Europeans:
Italians, Irish, Polish, Scottish, etc., chasing their tales
shadowboxing âwhitenessâ white noise next door.com
Techno-coated crackkkers, criminal lineage on Ohlone
LandâŚ
Shhhhhhhh
It was Ohlone land Ohlone land it was was it Oholone land
They swiped with lead lead lead the way for swiping and flipping
Flipping and swiping swiping and flipping flipping houses like
flapjacks flipping people with blackjacks heads they win tails we
LoseâŚ
Shhhhhhhh
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
Manifest Destiny Destiny Manifested Jerry had a plan a
10K Plan Jerry had a 10K Plan and a Pacifica program
âWe The Peopleâ Jerry had a plan a 10K plan a 10K plan
10K plan resembling 3K plans 3K plans for Schaafing us
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
Unsettling settlers settle settling like sulfur over UN peace
Talks Unsettling settlers settle neighborly disputes using police
like cavalry and Kit Carson Indian killers going West Unsettling
settlers settle settling like pesticides on gardens
Killing everything living Unsettling settlers settle settling on whizzing
by whistling âDixieâ as they âLook away, look awayâ Unsettling settlers
settle settling in Tha Town rather than quietude of Tha Creek, or âCord
Like libraries on putting greensâŚ
Shhhhhhhh
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
Unsettling settlers settle settling on suspicious sub-prime activity
Suspicious scarlet streaks from Wells Fargo BoA and Fannie Mae
Unsettling settlers settle settling Post Racial debates in the Age of
Austerity we work too hard walking open-coated wide berths revealing
Weaponless palms showing we are not shady up to no good not potential
Threats to keep techno-coated crackkkers comfortable and at ease to keep
White noise next door.com downâŚ
Shhhhhhhh
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
History repeats repeats itself
Automatic, systematic hardwired DNA theyâre âraceâ machines watch âem
Get down clicking mouses playing âraceâ cards doing old jobs every Euroâ
No matter how dirt poorâdid: check challenge question Blacks about
âTraveling papersâ âThereâs cotton/tobacco to be picked, where you goinâ,
boy/gal, whoâs your masta?â
Shhhhhhhh
Ducks, quiet geese, they came for Occupy, next theyâll come for youâŚ.
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner Š 2015 All Rights Reserved
Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame has released two of his best known political prisoners: Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu political activist, and Kizito Mihigo, a Tutsi gospel singer.
Long before the Nike deal it was clear that Kaepernickâs politics were being subsumed by other forces pushing a weak soup of âdiversityâ and âfree speech.â
Things could get very ugly in Chicago if the cop that killed Laquan McDonald is set free by a jury that includes only one Black person.
Rather than benevolent protector, the state enables and often perpetuates violence against marginalized communities, criminalizing them.
The racism of the larger society is internalized in us, including those of us who are Black and brown, and must be methodically confronted.
