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


  • Expanding Monstrous US Drone War to Kenya is Bi-Partisan Madness
    Netfa Freeman
    Expanding Monstrous US Drone War to Kenya is Bi-Partisan Madness
    23 Sep 2020
    The absence of a domestic backlash against US Africa policy is testament to the blind spots of our movement.
  • Whitewashing the Destruction of Libya: Douglas Murray’s Libya Whitewash
    Nu’man Abd al-Wahid
    Whitewashing the Destruction of Libya: Douglas Murray’s Libya Whitewash
    23 Sep 2020
    The British, both left and right, simply do not want to acknowledge the role their government played in destroying Libya and the attendant migration crises.
  • White Women Were Avid Slaveowners
    Parul Sehgal
    White Women Were Avid Slaveowners
    23 Sep 2020
    The violence of slave-owning women especially could go unchecked, particularly when the victims were black children.
  • Top Trump Official Asks Feds to Charge Protesters with Sedition 
    Peoples Dispatch Staff
    Top Trump Official Asks Feds to Charge Protesters with Sedition 
    23 Sep 2020
    The rarely used statute could put protesters accused of using violence in prison for up to 20 years.
  • The Difference Between the US and China’s Response to COVID-19 is Staggering
    Vijay Prashad and John Ross
    The Difference Between the US and China’s Response to COVID-19 is Staggering
    23 Sep 2020
    While the US continues to suffer the devastating impacts of poor management of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s people-centered approach serves as a model to follow.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us