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
šŸ–Øļø 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

ā€œI 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.ā€
—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 ā€˜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 ā€˜collateral damage expendable—

Like leftovers lost when your fridge became undependable?

Why’s the fight for ā€˜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 ā€˜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 Ā© 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


  • Images of all the presidents since Ronald Regan
    Imani Nile
    These Politicians are Playing in Our Faces
    10 Oct 2023
    Joe Biden had a moment of truth when he promised the oligarchs that nothing would fundamentally change if he became president. He kept his promise, and so will all those who come after him unless…
  • Man in a field wearing a keffiyah holding a Palestinian flag
    Black Alliance For Peace
    The Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Murderous Assault on Occupied Palestine
    10 Oct 2023
    The Black Alliance for Peace released a statement in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians under occupation in the racist, apartheid settler state of Israel.
  • Léopold Sédar Senghor
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: West Africa in Evolution, Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1961
    10 Oct 2023
    The current political turbulence in France’s former colonies in Africa can perhaps be understood as the continuation of an unfinished project of decolonization.
  • Laphonza Butler swearing in
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Laphonza Butler’s Liberal Dem Credentials All But Glow in the Dark
    10 Oct 2023
    No one better exemplifies the Democratic Party’s overarching identity politics than California Governor Gavin Newsom.
  • People marching at a protest in Haiti
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The United Nations Pushes Haiti Under the Bus
    10 Oct 2023
    For the tenth time in the last 30 years, the United Nations vote to authorize an occupation of Haiti.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us