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 Š 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


  • Niger army sergeant and artist Maman Sani Maigochi performs as supporters gather at Place de la Concertation in the capital Niamey
    Black Alliance For Peace
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #48
    25 Oct 2023
    The Black Alliance for Peace U.S. Out of Africa Network provides an update of events taking place on the African continent.
  • Caribbean Solidarity Network
    Caribbean Solidarity Network
    The Caribbean Solidarity Network Rejects Calls for Canadian Intervention in Haiti
    25 Oct 2023
    The Toronto based Caribbean Solidarity Network explains why Canada should end its interference in Haiti.
  • An injured child is treated at a hospital after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 18 October
    Maureen Clare Murphy , Ali Abunimah
    Biden’s Gaza “Aid” Plan a Fig Leaf for Genocide
    25 Oct 2023
    Biden's phony plea for aid to Gaza is a ruse meant to accelerate Israel's war crimes.
  • Kenyan police gather during tax hike protest
    Travis Ross
    The UN-Blessed MSS Could be the First Step Toward a Decade-Long U.S. Military Occupation of Haiti
    25 Oct 2023
    The impending occupation of Haiti is but a repeat of the brutal occupations that began in 1915.
  • Protest against the U.N. mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Haiti as Empire’s Laboratory
    25 Oct 2023
    As the United States and its allies push renewed foreign intervention, the uses and abuses of the first Black republic as a testing ground of imperialism offer stark warnings. Haiti still struggles…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us