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

2nd Amend Meant
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
26 Apr 2023
🖨️ Print Article
2nd Amend Meant
WLRN.org (Photo: Christian K. Lee)

                                                                                                                                    2nd Amend Meant

                                                                                                                  “…shotgun—shoot ‘em for he run now!”

                                                                                                                                     â€”Junior Walker

I.

Redlined, ‘white’ enclave. Un-ceded Hopewell,

Kansa, Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, Otos tribal

Land. Receiving settler soundbites of misinformation,

disinformation, 1/2 truth, big lies attached to Fox-box

IV—the prisoner trembles fearfully in padded cell of

‘Whiteness.’

Maybe he fears ghosts of gunpowder done real

estate Deals?

Maybe his MAGA-mind hears dispossessed people

pleading with him and cracker comfort tribe STOP

the chop—the so-called “tomahawk chop”—‘whites’

Insist on doing at Kansas City “Chiefs” football

games?

II.

Post-Bacon Rebellion—

2nd Amend Meant—

Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,

sadist, torturer, overseer—slaver-wannabe

Infected with ‘whiteness’ could STOP you.

Question you about where you’re going…

About where you’ve been. Plantation/reservation

you’re coming from? Going to? Supposed to be on?

Blunderbuss, flintlock, musket, revolver trained on

temples—‘Whiteness’ questioned!

Questioned how dark skins got there. When they

got there. What was in their pockets? Never

questioning what makes ‘whiteness’ fear for…

sacrosanct Safety?

2nd Amend Meant—

Every man, woman, child, cutthroat, killer,

sadist, torturer, overseer-slaver wannabe

Infected with ‘whiteness’ could STOP you.

Detain you! Arrest you! Flog you! Lynch you—

come up with cruel, creative ways to crucify

or castrate you!

2nd Amend Meant—

They could cooly flex index fingers should you

Flinch!

Object!

Make eye contact! Speak when not spoken to!

Breathe when you’re not permitted to breathe!

III.

Black at wrong address, the boy was there

to pick twin brothers up. He picked up two

Bullets instead.

Had his lithe, young, gifted

Chocolate, promise-filled, bass clarinet-playing

body perforated

He knocked for an answer regarding the twins.

.32 caliber

questions tore through glass, ripped in

to his furrowed brow like a hot pin ball:

Do Black Lives really Matter? If so, how

much?

The ball bounced into a neighbor’s yard

and drew gunfire. The car turned into a

driveway and drew gunfire. The woman

approached a wrong car and drew gunfire.

Volleys of shots are 2nd Amend Meant for:

“How may I help you?”





Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

Gun violence
Second Amendment

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


Related Stories

Cartoon comic about mass shottings
Danny Shaw
Murder Thy Neighbor A Recap of Mass Shootings in 2023: An Anti-Imperialist Perspective
20 December 2023
Mass shootings have become ubiquitous in the US, as part of a gun-obsessed culture that manufactures and exports violence around the world.
Javonte Alexander (left) and Basaime Spate (right), researchers at Center for Justice Innovation.
Shannon Chaffers
Driven By Fear: Why Some Brooklyn Youth Carry Guns
25 October 2023
Tropes about violent Black youth prevail but efforts to analyze the causes of firearm use are rarely seen.
Black People, Guns, and the Troubling Reaction to Ja Morant
Gus Griffin
Black People, Guns, and the Troubling Reaction to Ja Morant
21 June 2023
Ja Morant plays basketball in Tennessee, an "open carry" state with lose firearm regulations.
Why Americans Are Shot at the "Wrong House"
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Why Americans Are Shot at the "Wrong House"
26 April 2023
People in the U.S.
Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
21 April 2021
If the state reserves the right to commit mass murder no one should be surprised that the people follow suit.

More Stories


  • The Battle Against COVID-19 in Shanghai: A Human Rights Disaster?
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Battle Against COVID-19 in Shanghai: A Human Rights Disaster?
    20 Apr 2022
    China's "zero covid" strategy prevented the large number of deaths seen in the United States. But the challenges of stopping the Omicron variant in Shanghai, a city of 25 million people,…
  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Matthieu Chapman
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Matthieu Chapman
    20 Apr 2022
    This week’s featured scholar is Matthieu Chapman. Dr. Chapman is Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  His essay is “‘Away, You Ethiop!’: A…
  • Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
    20 Apr 2022
    Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
  • Patrick Lyoya’s Death Sentence for the Crime of “Contempt of White Cop”
    Mark P. Fancher
    Patrick Lyoya’s Death Sentence for the Crime of “Contempt of White Cop”
    20 Apr 2022
    Police in the United States kill an average of three people every day and one of those persons will be Black. Patrick Lyoya was one recent victim of a police execution.
  • Statement: #AFRICANSFROMUA on Equal Treatment
    Black Community Hamburg
    Statement: #AFRICANSFROMUA on Equal Treatment
    20 Apr 2022
    Germany and other EU member states granted immediate temporary protection status to citizens of Ukraine, but Black refugees who also fled the war are experiencing unequal treatment.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us