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


  • How Race Made the Opioid Crisis
    Donna Murch
    How Race Made the Opioid Crisis
    01 May 2019
    The demonization of urban, nonwhite drug users played a crucial role in the opening of ‘white’ pharmaceutical markets in the 1990s.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jason Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    01 May 2019
    This week readers discussed the suppression of WikiLeaks, reactionary black politicians, and the racial roots of capitalism. We share letters for “
  • chavistas
    Your World News , Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Another USA Government Backed Coup Attempt in Venezuela (Weaponization of the US Dollar)
    01 May 2019
    Glen Ford, of Black Agenda Report, deconstructs this situation in great detail, including the historic context that the US corporate media will never expose.
  • Freedom Rider:Solidarity with Venezuela
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Solidarity with Venezuela
    01 May 2019
    When the US targets a government for regime change it brings all its coercive forces into play: military threats, economic sanctions, media slander and treasonous Quislings from the theater of the
  • If Trump Wins in 2020, Thank Russiagate
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    If Trump Wins in 2020, Thank Russiagate
    01 May 2019
    Leave it to the War Party to lose an election to a celebrity billionaire oligarch and then provide him with favorable conditions for a second-term. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us