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


  • 'You Can't Swim the Same River Twice': Why Full Employment Was a Great Idea, But is No More
    Jon Jeter
    'You Can't Swim the Same River Twice': Why Full Employment Was a Great Idea, But is No More
    31 Aug 2022
    Had it been fully implemented the Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill would have been a boon to U.S. workers. Any talk of reviving it is now moot, as the industrial economy of the 1970s has been…
  •  Why Does the United States Continue to Occupy a Haitian Island?
    Melissa BĂŠralus
    Why Does the United States Continue to Occupy a Haitian Island?
    31 Aug 2022
    The U.S. mined a million tons of guano on a Haitian island without paying a cent to the Haitian authorities. Other countries have sold the product for hundreds of millions of dollars.
  • Nehanda Abiodun and the Legacy of Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Nehanda Abiodun and the Legacy of Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex
    31 Aug 2022
    The late Nehanda Abiodun was an African American revolutionary who exemplified the movement to end national oppression and the criminalization of a people.
  • Biden's Student Loan Scam
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Biden's Student Loan Scam
    31 Aug 2022
    Capitalist rule dictates that millions of Americans live in debt peonage. It was inevitable that Biden's student loan debt relief would be a farcical half measure.
  • US Decision-makers Cannot Handle End of White Supremacy: Former Vice Presidential Candidate
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    US Decision-makers Cannot Handle End of White Supremacy: Former Vice Presidential Candidate
    31 Aug 2022
    Dangerous and irrational U.S. foreign policy decisions are driven by fear of the end of white world supremacy and the determination to follow the principles of full spectrum dominance. Ajamu Baraka…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us