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


  • On the Move: Rastafari, Tanzania, and the Lessons of Pan-African Action
    Monique Bedasse
    On the Move: Rastafari, Tanzania, and the Lessons of Pan-African Action
    18 Oct 2017
    “Tanzania’s government and Rastafari asserted a different way of ordering the world through the repatriation: pan-Africanism.”
  • U.S. Troop Deaths in Niger: AFRICOM’s Chickens Come Home to Roost
    Mark P. Fancher
    U.S. Troop Deaths in Niger: AFRICOM’s Chickens Come Home to Roost
    18 Oct 2017
    “The Trump administration is talking about a potential imminent U.S. military action to hit back.”
  • Relocated Puerto Rican Families Are Florida’s Latest Class War Targets
    Michelle Matisons
    Relocated Puerto Rican Families Are Florida’s Latest Class War Targets
    18 Oct 2017
    “Trump’s treatment of Puerto Ricans as “third world class” citizens will also be reflected in the school and housing conditions available to Puerto Ricans arriving in Florida.”
  • Secret Trials of Thousands of Boko Haram Suspects to Start in Nigeria
    Jason Burke
    Secret Trials of Thousands of Boko Haram Suspects to Start in Nigeria
    18 Oct 2017
    “Many of the detainees had been held in custody for years without access to a lawyer or ever having appeared before a judge.”
  • Ethiopia, the Day After: The Firestorm
    Alemayehu G. Mariam
    Ethiopia, the Day After: The Firestorm
    18 Oct 2017
    “The people of Ethiopia are showing their defiant resistance.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us