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 The Video Shows
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Dec 2015
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Video, as police and military malefactors frequently remind us, is two dimensional.

What The Video Shows

by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

The officer drove 6 min.
Like Mario Andretti impersonating
Evel Knivel on Chicago streets
The officer alighted from his vehicle
Firing and fearing for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers…

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

After being struck by several rounds 
Fired by the responding officer, the 
Suspect assumed a combative prone
Position and began resisting the officer’s
Fire…

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Notice the suspect’s body refusing to
Stay still; notice the suspect’s body 
bouncing, twisting—that’s resisting
Notice the suspect’s body refusing to
Just die—that’s resisting—he’s resisting!

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes
The officer feared for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers whose
Guns were holstered
The officer feared for his safety and
The safety of his fellow officers and
The safety of the suspect, so they let
Him ‘bleed out’—a split–second decision
this work’s hard enough without second-guessing 

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Well, on second viewing, the officer may
Have used poor judgment, may have over-
Reacted; the officer may need more training

Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Video’s two dimensional—what you think you
See is not what you really see—take that hospital 
Bombed
In Afghanistan—it wasn’t really bombed—it only
Looked bombed. It only looks like splattered blood
on ICU walls. That head only looks like it’s detached 
from its torso. It only looks like 32 people were killed…
Video’s two dimensional—what you think you
See is not what you really see—so repeat after me:
Baby, don’t do it
Baby, don’t you do it
Baby, don’t dare do it
Don’t trust your lying eyes

Raymond Nat Turner Š 2015 All Rights Reserved

subscribe to our free weekly email notifying you of new content published at Black Agenda Report

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


More Stories


  • Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
    Stansfield Smith
    Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s Coronavirus Threats and Government Incapacity to Handle a Pandemic
    13 May 2020
    The city’s Black mayor threatened Black house partyers with arrest, but ignored 500 un-masked white people protesting the Covid-19 lock-down.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 11, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 11, 2020
    11 May 2020
    Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
  • “Scent of Africa” Marketed to “Afropolitans”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Scent of Africa” Marketed to “Afropolitans”
    11 May 2020
    Fifty years after most African nations won nominal independence, ad agencies are marketing upscale products like the perfume “Scent of Africa” to so-called “Afropolitans,” a cohort defined by 
  • US Systemic Collapse is “Total”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Systemic Collapse is “Total”
    11 May 2020
    The current meltdown is “a total crisis of the system” in all its economic, social and political aspects, said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro.
  • Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    11 May 2020
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka said de facto Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” plan for Black America “assumes th
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us