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


  • Orchestrated Apartheid in Philadelphia
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Orchestrated Apartheid in Philadelphia
    22 May 2018
    Despite repeated protests, the Philadelphia Orchestra is going ahead with a planned trip to Israel to join in the apartheid state’s independence anniversary celebrations.
  • Roots of Israel’s Mass Murder Policy
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Roots of Israel’s Mass Murder Policy
    22 May 2018
    The logic of Zionism compels Israel to massacre scores of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza, said journalist and scholar Vijay Prashad.
  • The People Versus Whirlpool in Benton Harbor
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    The People Versus Whirlpool in Benton Harbor
    22 May 2018
    The giant Whirlpool Corporation, which has long dominated the politics of 90 percent Black Benton Harbor, Michigan, “has not paid taxes” to the city for years, said Rev.
  • Jeff Cohen
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Russiagate is Excuse for Democratic Party Failure
    17 May 2018
    Russiagate “has blossomed and blossomed until it’s this huge thing that obliterates rational thought,” said veteran media critic Jeff Cohen, of the Park Center for Independent Media, at Ithaca Coll
  • Deafening Silence of Democrats on Gaza Massacre Is Because It's Their Baby Too
    Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    Deafening Democratic Silence on Gaza Is Because They Own It Too
    17 May 2018
    "Democratic party leaders are as always firmly behind their Israeli clients, and their party machinery remains under lock and key."
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us