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


  • Gandhi’s Struggle Relevant to 21st Century Anti-Imperialism
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Gandhi’s Struggle Relevant to 21st Century Anti-Imperialism
    10 Jun 2019
    Following up a yearlong, citywide study of the works of WEB Dubois, the Philadelphia Saturday Free School kicks off “The Year of Gandhi,” June 14 and 15, at the Church of the Advocate.
  • Reparations Now Ripe for Full Congressional Debate
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Reparations Now Ripe for Full Congressional Debate
    10 Jun 2019
    The premier organization pushing for Black reparations holds its 30th annual convention, June 20 – 23, in Detroit. HR 40, the House Reparations Study bill, now has a companion measure in the U.S.
  • cedric johnson
    Cedric Johnson , This Is Hell
    On class in Black politics.
    06 Jun 2019
    "As the state has been hollowed out as a result of neoliberalization - who is going to suffer the most?
  • Black Lives Matter Founder Launches Huge Project to Shrink Black Lives
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Black Lives Matter Founder Launches Huge Project to Shrink Black Lives
    06 Jun 2019
    Alicia Garza and her crew conducted what they claim is the biggest survey of Black political opinion ever -- but failed to ask a single question about foreign policy. 
  • Freedom Rider: How to Protest Trump
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: How to Protest Trump
    05 Jun 2019
    If the British really oppose Trump’s policies they should dump their own government, which backs Washington to the hilt – and then they should apologize to the world for Britain’s crimes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us