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


  • Michael Jordan's Sad Legacy as the Plutocrats' Champ, and the Anti-Ali
    Jon Jeter
    Michael Jordan's Sad Legacy as the Plutocrats' Champ, and the Anti-Ali
    29 Apr 2020
    Ali, the People’s Champ, hurtled into the breach to come to the aid of his community while Jordan did all he could to distance himself.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 27, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 27, 2020
    27 Apr 2020
    Group Demands Louisiana Prisons Be “Evacuated”
  • New Mexico Exalts “Three Peoples” – and Leaves Blacks Out Entirely
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    New Mexico Exalts “Three Peoples” – and Leaves Blacks Out Entirely
    27 Apr 2020
    In a recent article, Dr Natasha Howard, a lecturer in Africana Studies at the University of New Mexico, cited the campus’s “Three Peoples” mural as exemplifying the state
  • The Black "Progress Narrative" is Self-Defeating
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The Black "Progress Narrative" is Self-Defeating
    27 Apr 2020
    “When we think we’ve made progress, we are blinded to the ways we have not,” and wind up affirming our slave-like relationship to power, said Anthony Farley, a Visiting Profes
  • Group Demands Louisiana Prisons Be “Evacuated”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Group Demands Louisiana Prisons Be “Evacuated”
    27 Apr 2020
    “The coronavirus is a death sentence on Black people,” who make up two-thirds of Louisiana’s prisoners, said Belinda Parker Brown, head of Louisiana United International.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us