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


  • Targeting Eritrea and Ethiopia: The Warmongering Campaign of Disinformation
    The National Council of Eritrean-Americans NCEA
    Targeting Eritrea and Ethiopia: The Warmongering Campaign of Disinformation
    25 Jan 2023
    Washington think tanks are home to the propagandists who help guide US foreign policy decisions. The National Council of Eritrean Americans highlights the words of one individual who uses his…
  • AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #44
    US Out of Africa Network
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #44
    25 Jan 2023
    The Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM Watch Bulletin discusses the first session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and provides updates on the latest news from the African…
  • The Abuse of the Concept of “Populism”
    Prabhat Patnaik
    The Abuse of the Concept of “Populism”
    25 Jan 2023
    What is populism? The word is often used by corporate media but without any analysis of its true meaning.
  • Direct from Western Sahara: Learn About the Struggle of the Last Colony in Africa
    Michele de Mello
    Direct from Western Sahara: Learn About the Struggle of the Last Colony in Africa
    25 Jan 2023
    After 30 years of peace, the Polisario Front holds its 16th Congress amidst the war against Morocco’s invasion.
  • Protests in Breakaway Somaliland Call for Reunification with Somalia
    Pavan Kulkarni
    Protests in Breakaway Somaliland Call for Reunification with Somalia
    25 Jan 2023
    Even as the US and UK are increasingly legitimizing secessionist rule in Somaliland, whose sovereignty has no international recognition, a unionist movement seeking a united Somalia threatens to…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us