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

Bankrolling blu klux klans? 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Oct 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Bankrolling blu klux klans? 
Bankrolling blu klux klans? 

Rhythms of red, white, blue ‘party’
lights flashing beneath screaming
sirens; The rush of warm crimson
drawing 2, 4, 6, 8, 10—and then some…

Robotic legs, arms—possessed—
punching, kicking a fetal fraction—
prone red shirt; black face; fractured
eye socket, exploding eyeball; broken
ribs drowning in swarming blue savagery:
The viral video sparks flashbacks to a few
of my… narrow escapes…

“Keep still, punk, or I’ll bust 
your damn head open!” 
13 year-old reaching for wallet,
complying with ID ‘command…’

“You been runnin’, haven’t you, boy?” 
15 year-old jogging to get home before
Curfew; before cuffing and seating in
black and white backseat…

“Someone robbed a store down the street—
your jacket and cap match the description;”
Gun in gut of a
20 year-old strolling home from library…

Back to the viral video—
infested with dozens of loitering,
swaggering, threatening gun-thugs
Ambling, dawdling, strutting,
prancing, parading, promenading,
putzing ‘bout—on our clock—blocking
Residents from their neighbor’s slowly 
fading cries for help…

Are we financing the framers—“Finding 
Fathers—“ finding evidence locker guns, 
knives, drugs—magically appearing at 
shootings—or in poor peoples’ pockets?

Are we funding the epithets fired through
donut holes—like ‘rubber’ bullets shred-
ding the1st Amendment?

Are we subsidizing six-figure salaries and health-
care for killers masquerading as ‘peace’ officers?
Are we paying pensions for the privilege of ’10-
ring’ targeting on lethal 9-1-1 calls?
Are we suckers and losers, bankrolling blu klux
klansmen—death squads slaughtering 1,000 a year—
Sucking up .50 cents of our every dollar?

Are we underwriting Rotten Orchard bad 
apples protecting/serving the1%? Are we
bankrolling badges breaking bones—“earning 
ink—” on our dime?

Are we bankrolling Banditos, Riders, Regulators,
Executioners, Vikings, Spartans, Grim Reapers,
Jump Out Boy-white supremacist dinosaurs—use-
less as milk pails beneath bulls?
The Gloves Davis, Foot Doctor Siapnos, Choker
Vasquezs, Clubber Williamses of the world?

Are we blinded by Blue Ribbon Commissions
crooning “Body-Cam” and “Better Training
Blues,” professing to teach Al Capone etiquette;
Andrew Jackson Native American Medicine—
Hitler Torah?
Or, are we ready to return thin blu lines of inked
arms, bent badges to 1850s enclaves—Abolishing,
Dismantling, disassembling, de-
constructing ‘collective’ EXTORTION agreements?

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.       

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com   .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       

More Stories


  • White Supremacy Goes Back to the Crusades
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    White Supremacy Goes Back to the Crusades
    12 Nov 2019
    The roots of western European anti-Blackness lie in the Middle Ages, in the Crusades to seize Arab lands, said Cord Whitaker, a professor at Wellesley College and author of “B
  • Class Struggle and Revolution are Inseparable
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Class Struggle and Revolution are Inseparable
    12 Nov 2019
    “If you don’t recognize class oppression, you’re siding with the oppressor,” said Jihad Abdulmumit, chairperson of the National Jericho Movement, speaking to a conference of t
  • Ruling Class “Crisis of Legitimacy” is Behind “Bernie Blackout”
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Ruling Class “Crisis of Legitimacy” is Behind “Bernie Blackout”
    12 Nov 2019
    The ruling class is attempting “to establish its legitimacy, once again, without the popular mandate of broad sections of the people,” said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro
  • By trying to Silence Sanders, the Corporate Media De-Legitimize Themselves
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    By trying to Silence Sanders, the Corporate Media De-Legitimize Themselves
    07 Nov 2019
    Sanders has been made into a non-person, and his proposals routinely distorted, because the corporate media want Americans to meekly submit to the Race to the Bottom.
  • Freedom Rider: America Needs Protest
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: America Needs Protest
    06 Nov 2019
    A thousand young people demonstrated in Brooklyn, jumping over turnstiles in solidarity with others arrested and brutalized by the cops.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us