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


  • BAR Book Forum: Stephen Dillon’s “Fugitive Life”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Stephen Dillon’s “Fugitive Life”
    15 Aug 2018
    “Hundreds of activists in the 1970s left behind families, friends, jobs, and their identities in order to disappear into the underground.”
  • Black Agenda Radio, Week of August 13, 2018
    Nellie Bailiey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio, week of August 13, 2018
    14 Aug 2018
  • Mumia Supporters Gear Up for Hearing
    Kyle Fraser , Black Agenda Radio producer
    Mumia Supporters Gear Up for Hearing
    14 Aug 2018
    Mumia Abu Jamal supporters need to converge on Philadelphia in large numbers, on August 30, for hearings on Abu Jamal’s contention that judicial bias tainted his trial process, said Johanna
  • Black Capitalism Can’t Fix Racial Wealth Gap
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Capitalism Can’t Fix Racial Wealth Gap
    14 Aug 2018
    Black banks are useful and should be supported, but only some form of reparations can confront the disastrous Black economic condition, said Mehrsa Baradaran, author of “The Color
  • The Lies of American Exceptionalism
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    The Lies of American Exceptionalism
    14 Aug 2018
    Corporate media claim the economy is “booming” even though “we still don’t have as many jobs as existed” before the 2008 crash, said BAR contributor Danny Haiphong, one of the auth
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us