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

Statues of Limitation
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Sep 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Statues of Limitation
A flatbed truck carries a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from Market Street Park in Charlottesville. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Statues of Limitation

A German comrade
quipped, “When you
Come to Frankfurt
You’ll find bronze celebrating
Poets, painters, philosophers—
But you won’t find the
Führer’s face any place—
Bratwurst, beer and Jazz
in Berlin; but you’ll find
lime green leprechauns
before patinas of Goebbels,
and Goering glaring from
park and plaza pedestals…”

Italian bandmates chimed in,
“Come with us when we go home—
you won’t find Mussolini’s
mug in Milan, or Rome…”
And the Butoh dancer blurted
“And no Tojo in Tokyo!”

Why’d I softly reply,
“ Dixie—south of the
Canadian Border—sits
pock marked with 1,000
syphilitic statues of
Slavers, traitors, terrorists—“
Instead of screaming,
“Would you name your child
Jezebel Jackson,
Judas Jones,
Satan Smith, or
Sheriff Joe—
Would you call yourself
a nigger, bitch, or hoe?
Would you celebrate
Stonewall Jackson, or
Robert E. Lee—
Would you tell your Mother
You’re an SOB?”

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved

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.

confederate statues

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


More Stories


  •  Why Does the United States Continue to Occupy a Haitian Island?
    Melissa Béralus
    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…
  • Liberal Requiem for the Cold War
    Kahlil Wall-Johnson
    Liberal Requiem for the Cold War
    31 Aug 2022
    The U.S. loss of unipolar power has created liberal angst which does little to foster understanding of the new multipolar world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us