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
šŸ–Øļø 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 ā€˜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 Ā© 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


  • It is Necessary to Unify the Brazilian Black Movement
    11 Jul 2017
    by Puneet Chadha and Jamile AraĆŗjo More than half of Brazil’s population is of African descent, yet concerted action among Afro-Brazilians has often been elusive. Black organizations from across the…
  • Motsoko Pheko
    Why Africans Have No Land in South Africa
    11 Jul 2017
    by Motsoko Pheko If South Africa is an independent, decolonized, democratic country under the control of its Black majority, then why is 93% of the land still owned by whites? The author maintains…
  • How Paul Robeson Found His Political Voice in the Welsh Valleys
    11 Jul 2017
    by Jeff Sparrow Paul Robeson, the great artist and activist, began his journey to becoming a global ā€œpeople’s singerā€ through his contact with Welsh mining communities. ā€œThroughout the 1930s, the…
  • Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Black America is ā€œPro-Peace,ā€ but Its Politicians Work for the War Party
    06 Jul 2017
    by BAR executive editor Glen Ford The Black Alliance for Peace will have to work around or against the Black Misleadership Class. ā€œFor these infinitely self-centered creatures, even the Mother…
  • Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: America’s Embarrassment
    05 Jul 2017
    by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley Much of America is embarrassed by Donald Trump’s boorish ways -- as if bad manners and geopolitical ignorance are the worst faults a president…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us