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


  • Make a White Turn and Come to a Dead End
    Mark P. Fancher
    Make a White Turn and Come to a Dead End
    11 Jul 2018
    “White workers have not only failed to precisely identify their class enemies, they have also held on to the racial baggage of their ancestors.”
  • Labor and Liberation: An Interview with Margaret Stevens
    The Public Archive
    Labor and Liberation: An Interview with Margaret Stevens
    11 Jul 2018
    “Black working class militancy is THE essential precondition for the fight against racism, but it is not sufficient.”
  • Black Agenda Radio, Week of May 14, 2018
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio, week of July 9, 2018
    10 Jul 2018
    Margaret Kimberley on the CBC protecting police as a class, William Hartung on the bloated US military budget, Akile Anai on reparations and protecting the homeless in St.
  • Military Spending = Cash for Corporations
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Military Spending = Cash for Corporations
    09 Jul 2018
    At $716 billion, the US military budget is larger than the defense spending of the next ten nations, combined, yet is mostly wasted, said William Hartung, author of Prophe
  • Scandalizing Homeless Black Men
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Scandalizing Homeless Black Men
    09 Jul 2018
    Uhuru Movement activist Akile Anai is leading a campaign to put reparations and community development on the ballot, next year, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us