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
  • omnibus

This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Jan 2021
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
This is what hypocrisy looks like…

“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation

The blood’s mopped up— “This is not who we are…”
“We’re better than this…” the bleeding continues—
“This is not who we are…” the body count mounts—
“We’re better than this…” The most militarized 
failed state in history… ”This is not who we are…”
red, white and blue peacocks prancing the planet 
pontificating on elections… “We’re better than this…”

Better than “Trial By Combat—” bellicose ballet 
Choreographed counterclockwise, opening up 
Capitalist Hill like Lansing?

Better than Blackshirt rites of passage—
bloodsport parting barricades to Red Seas?
Better than Mississippi stand downs—working out
Ruling-class contradictions Third Reich-style?
Better than one sect of sleazy senators, corrupt congress
members huffing and puffing 1% hot air versus another sect
backed by neo-nazis with 19th century needles stuck in their 
Arms…

Better than adrenaline of “U-S-A, U-S-A” chanting
storm troopers reenacting kicking in Afghan and
Iraqi doors predawn?
Better than their corporate paymasters surveilling
Class-struggle infecting every cell of dying empire?

Alert: the FBI found watermelon seeds and chicken
bones—so it had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face portraying ‘protestors’ spun from white
supremacy straw! It had to be Birth Of A Nation brutes—
bloody boots on desks; marauding, rampaging, ransacking, 
Looting, live-streaming, re-tweeting, urinating/defecating 
on carpets! 

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face playing noble warriors—confederate sons—
Apartheid army fighting for minority rule; Cat’s paw for
Capitalism on chocolate colony streets—Puerto Rico of the
Potomac?
It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters 
who looted
Iran’s oil/overthrowing Mossadegh; 
Guatemala’s fruit/ousting Árbenz—
Congo’s conflict minerals/Lumumba’s life— 
Chile’s copper/Allende’s life!

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters who 
Hijack Haiti’s leaders; loot Libya and shit
Shahs, Papa Docs, Pinochets on the peoples’
heads and shiny capitol floors?

It had to be Black Lives Matter/Antifa
in white face acting like shooters/looters who
Looted Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw,
Seminole, Powhatan, Lenape, Pequot, Iroquois
Land
Akan, Bambara, Dogon, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo,
Mandingo, Mende, Senufo, Susu, Wolof, Yoruba
Labor!
The blood’s mopped up— “This is not who we are…”
“We’re better than this…” the bleeding continues…

© 2021. 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 https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

COMMENTS?

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

poetry

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

Trending

Elizabeth Warren Wants Green Bombs, not a Green New Deal
Parallels Between Black and Palestinian Struggles
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Bill Cosby Should Have Been Denounced by Black America Long Ago
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
How Complacency, Complicity of Black Misleadership Class Led to Supreme Court Evisceration of the Voting Rights Act

Related Stories

He’s under suspicion…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
He’s under suspicion…
24 February 2021
The rioters all knew him— it had to be an inside job— ‘cause to a man they spoke to him by name as they
What did low Barr know?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
What did low Barr know?
17 February 2021
Liars, liars your loaded dice/tilted table theater’s on fire— But prosecutors and gas-lighting lawyers concur on  Empire… 
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 
Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Imagine: The Town Crier’s Cabinet Selections
16 December 2020
Cut plastic cuffs from imaginations— Dream larger in dire situations… IMAGINE every cook governing—
$election postmortem 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
$election postmortem 
10 December 2020
It was the Latino Vote… No, it was the Latinix vote! No, it was Black Women! No, it was LGBTQ+ Black Women!
People Power (Or 30 min. men and women every 4 yrs?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
People Power (Or 30 min. men and women every 4 yrs?)
02 December 2020
The People earned a dancing in the streets day, horn honking, slogan shouting day—collective sigh/exhale
Endangering species… 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Endangering species… 
25 November 2020
Endangering species— First Negroz and wild Karens in power—members of the Strong- arm Williams-Thom-ass Clarence-led
Donkey Dung 2/4 Dance
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Donkey Dung 2/4 Dance
18 November 2020
Militarist Macarena all pomp and circumstance— they’re baaaack with Donkey Dung 2/4 Dance…

More Stories


  • Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas
    24 Feb 2021
    The people of Texas suffer unnecessarily from bad weather because their state puts oligarchs first and does not recognize the human right to health and safety.
  • BLACK CITIZENSHIP FORUM: The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response
    Black Agenda Review Editors
    BLACK CITIZENSHIP FORUM: The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response
    24 Feb 2021
    South Africa must dismantle and transcend the colonial nation-state through creation of a Pan-African federation that stretches across the Southern African sub-continent.
  • Rusesabagina’s Show Trial and Shooting Deaths of a Rwandan Dissident and an Italian Ambassador
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Rusesabagina’s Show Trial and Shooting Deaths of a Rwandan Dissident and an Italian Ambassador
    24 Feb 2021
    Is there any limit to how far the West will go to cover for Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s Crimes? asks Ann Garrison.
  • Democracy Now Provides Progressive Cover to State Department Propaganda Campaign Against China 
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Democracy Now Provides Progressive Cover to State Department Propaganda Campaign Against China 
    24 Feb 2021
    The show has become a reliable platform for uncritical regime change propaganda, demonizing targets of US empire from Syria to Nicaragua.
  • He’s under suspicion…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    He’s under suspicion…
    24 Feb 2021
    The rioters all knew him— it had to be an inside job— ‘cause to a man they spoke to him by name as they breached the building. Read their lips…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us