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 ProfiteersâŠ
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
âI 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.â
âMarine 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, YemenâŠand
Others, soon to be announcedâŠ
II.
The bleeding baby with blown off arms and stumps for legs
Dies in a âsurgically struckâ hospital while you drain kegs?
Commanderâs quarterback, bloody band wrapping his wrist,
Running old red zone, war-profiteer plays from his kill list?
Are other peoplesâ children âcollateral damage expendableâ
Like leftovers lost when your fridge became undependable?
Whyâs the fight for âour freedomâ usually where thereâs oil?
Whyâs it where mineral wealthâs buried beneath foreign soil?
How about freedom fighting without tanks, planes and boatsâ
Freeing: Fitzgerald, Peltier, Gilbert, Bell, Jamal, Shoatz�
Ainât âIncarceration Nationâ Slave State, by its other nameâ
Ainât 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 herdâ
Of Hitler-loving, hair-trigger thugs, masquerading as fansâŠ
Always seconds away from true team colors of their klanâs!
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.
A 1971 statement shines a bright white light on the long history of Canadian imperialism in the Caribbean.
Omali Yeshitela joins BAR contributors and editors Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley to discuss the FBI's raid on the African People's Socialist Party in July 2022 and what itâŠ
This weekâs featured author is Lorgia GarcĂa Peña. Peña is Professor of Latinx Studies at Tufts University. Her book is Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective.
The people of Peru continue to protest the coup which ousted President Pedro Castillo Terrones. Clau O'Brien Moscoso reports from Peru.
