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

Amerikkka Was Built on Busting Up Families…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Jun 2018
Amerikkka Was Built on Busting Up Families…
Amerika was built on busting up families. They're just making Amerika great again.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes”           

— Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III,  Human Impersonator

Bottom of the boat
rocking, rolling, thrashing
Violently— the quaking black
hole now her life. She had
No idea where she was
on the awful ocean,
Traveling shackled for
thousands of miles;
belly beginning to bulge
with the baby of her foul-
smelling rapist and his
“Zero Tolerance” policy
for
tears…

She would bore four more for
a ‘Master,’ who’d sell her
to the West Virginian wanting
her in the worst way—
Ripping picaninnies from
nursing breasts to become
bucks and wenches, working
fields and lusts of slavers—“that
was then,” they say, “this is now:”

“Mama, Mama, Papa, Papa, Mama, Papa…”
tears of toddlers flooding searing shrieks,
Torturous cacophony; the satanic symphony,
counterpoint to cool BOP, ICE acronyms—
Amerikkka's great again—
At separating children from parents;
At spinning swastikas into scripture…
Once upon a time, mint julep-sipping,
Bullwhip-wielding christians in castles whitewashed by
Black labor, worked children and parents to death—
“And everyone lived happily ever after…”

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report's poet in residence. Click his name in red to see more of his work here at Black Agenda Report. For much more of his work, or to contact him for booking and other purposes visit http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • Funeral for skulls brought back to Louisiana
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    New Orleans Buries African American Skulls Used in Racist Research
    06 Jun 2025
    Nineteen Black people who died at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, in December 1871 and January 1872 were decapitated and their skulls were removed and sent to Leipzig, Germany for study…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Ukraine Terrorism and the Question of U.S. Involvement
    04 Jun 2025
    The U.S has been involved in every aspect of Ukraine’s military activity against Russia. The recent drone attacks and sabotage were likely committed with U.S. help. Of course, is possible that…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MEMOIR: The Making of a Rebel, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1980
    04 Jun 2025
    “We cannot write in foreign languages unspoken and unknown by peasants and workers in our communities and pretend that we are writing for…those peasants and workers.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Struggle for a Somali Nation
    04 Jun 2025
    Despite shared language, culture, and religion, Somalis still struggle to become a cohesive nation.
  • Jon Jeter
    Pizza Goeth Before a Fall? Changes in Americans’ Eating Habits Foretell a Deep Recession
    04 Jun 2025
    Wages can't keep up with prices, debt is crushing workers, and racial capitalism keeps us divided over shrinking slices. This isn't just inflation—it's collapse.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us