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


  • Jon Jeter
    How Charlie Kirk’s Murder Exposes Free Speech as a Tool for American Exceptionalism
    17 Sep 2025
    The assassination of a far-right demagogue raises the question: when does 'free speech' become a tool for inciting violence? Nations like South Africa and Brazil have decided that some speech is not…
  • Africa Climate Summit
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Africa Climate Summit Reflections Part 2: The Youth Are Getting Restless…and That’s a Good Thing
    17 Sep 2025
    “The youth are getting restless. I can't hear you, Let them hear you all the way to Washington, The youth are getting restless, Own creation, The Youth are Getting Restless, And once again a nation,…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    School Shooting Du Jour. War Of The Week
    17 Sep 2025
    "School Shooting Du Jour. War Of The Week" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • R.E. Wilson
    Bolsonaro and Brazil at the Edge
    17 Sep 2025
    Bolsonaro’s conviction is not a victory for democracy but a revelation of its fragility. It exposes a military that remains the armed wing of the ruling class and a fascist project dedicated to…
  • Francis Phillip
    The Imperial Contradiction Behind the 2023 Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria
    17 Sep 2025
    Nigeria’s inability to refine its own oil is a legacy of British and US imperialism designed to maintain dependence. President Tinubu’s removal of the fuel subsidy was not an economic reform but an…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us