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

Anthem of Banksters & War Profiteers
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
07 Sep 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Why does San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick choose to sit when the Star Spangled Banner is played before football games? Evidently he is one of many who know the real intention and import behind those bombs bursting in air...

Anthem of Banksters & War Profiteers…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

“I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
—Marine General Smedley Butler at his retirement, 1933

I.

No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,

No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,

Before bombers fly over stadiums schools and

social services were sacrificed for on altars of austerity;

No Ohlone or Navajo National Anthem,

No Iroquois or Seminole National Anthem,

No Hawaiian or Mexican National Anthem,

Before rockets red glare/bombs bursting in air

Over Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bosnia, Libya,

Panama, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen…and

Others, soon to be announced…

II.

The bleeding baby with blown off arms and stumps for legs

Dies in a ‘surgically struck’ hospital while you drain kegs?

Commander’s quarterback, bloody band wrapping his wrist,

Running old red zone, war-profiteer plays from his kill list?

Are other peoples’ children ‘collateral damage expendable—

Like leftovers lost when your fridge became undependable?

Why’s the fight for ‘our freedom’ usually where there’s oil?

Why’s it where mineral wealth’s buried beneath foreign soil?

How about freedom fighting without tanks, planes and boats—

Freeing: Fitzgerald, Peltier, Gilbert, Bell, Jamal, Shoatz…?

Ain’t ‘Incarceration Nation’ Slave State, by its other name—

Ain’t it the darker side of a barbaric, brain-damaging game?

Black players: interception, sack, fumble, loss from N-word

Inches from lynching by the intoxicated mob, the racist herd—

Of Hitler-loving, hair-trigger thugs, masquerading as fans…

Always seconds away from true team colors of their klan’s!

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find more of his work at 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


  • Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Eating Pets or Devouring Sovereignty? Notes on Anti-Haitian Racism
    18 Sep 2024
    Calling Haitian migrants "pet eaters" is racist and dehumanizing. So is the continued attack on Haitian sovereignty by the US and its global allies.
  • Ajamu Baraka in Iran
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    From the Phony Debate and Gaza to the Uhuru 3: The U.S./EU Commitment to Human Rights is and Has Always Been a Lie
    18 Sep 2024
    State repression increases as the so-called democracies continue in a state of crisis. Only a people-centered human rights struggle can bring true justice and peace.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Sen. McCarthy Called Me, Eslanda Goode Robeson, 16 July 1953
    18 Sep 2024
    Eslanda Goode Robeson stood tall against red-baiting. So should we.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Spoiling the Liberal Party
    18 Sep 2024
    “Never Trump” liberals, still hypnotized by the DNC spectacle, turn a blind eye to their candidate’s record and rhetoric.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    BRICS Plus, FOCAC and the Battle for the Global South
    18 Sep 2024
    The Russian-hosted summit scheduled for October will highlight the escalating struggle against Unipolarity.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us