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

 For Brother Bruce
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Jul 2019
🖨️ Print Article
 For Brother Bruce
 For Brother Bruce

Here’s the FOIA requested,
Redacted part of the story they never tell
You. 

Baby Bruce was wandering
the Midwest with Dorothy and Toto—
Before they picked up the Tinman in 
Pittsburgh, the Scarecrow on Staten Island,
the Cowardly Lion in Los Angeles
Baby Bruce had a baby brain, a huge
heart and fully formed courage that
would be schooled and steeled at the 
point of production—
Molding a straight-up soldier on
The Long March; A rank-in-file, 
meet ‘em where they’re at,
shoe leather, serve the people, 
door-to-door knocking, 
troublemaking organizer;
Chitown stubborn kinda fella— 
stubborn as a Georgia mule—
Refusing to slip, on Iceberg Slim
posing as community organizer…

He had huge heart, big brain and 
courage. Barrel of his pen blazing—
welcoming me from the wilderness,
Cali isolation, to fight side by side
Against the masked man— The
Drone Ranger; when icons and 
Legends were losing their minds

and Slutty Professors dangled
on the dick of Deporter-in-Chief!

When Bruce’s 404 popped up on my phone
It was business—but personal—laughing, joking, 
we’d cover the waterfront with lunch bucket language…
I pray The Wizard put a Bruce Dixon Organizer’s App
 on my phone countering some spyware…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Bruce Dixon

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
Dr. Matthew Quest
The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
21 August 2019
Bruce entered history as the most distinguished critic of the Black political class during the Age of Obama.

More Stories


  • In 1918 and 2020, Race Colors America’s Response to Epidemics
    Soraya Nadia Mcdonald
    In 1918 and 2020, Race Colors America’s Response to Epidemics
    08 Apr 2020
    A century ago, In cities across the nation, black people struck by the flu were often left to fend for themselves.
  • Moral Leaders Demand Coronavirus Relief for Most Vulnerable
    Jessica Corbett
    Moral Leaders Demand Coronavirus Relief for Most Vulnerable
    08 Apr 2020
    The relief package “leaves out the majority of homeless, undocumented immigrants, the disabled, and anyone too poor to have to file taxes,” says the Poor Peoples Campaign.
  • Trump Sends Gun boats to Venezuela While the World Partners to Fight a Deadly Pandemic
    Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado and Zoe PC 
    Trump Sends Gun boats to Venezuela While the World Partners to Fight a Deadly Pandemic
    08 Apr 2020
     The Trump administration has used the fabricated narco-trafficking charges against Maduro and other officials as an excuse to intensify pressure on Venezuela.
  • Public Health? Anyone? Twelve Ways to Avoid Talking About Capitalism
    Philippe Gendrault
    Public Health? Anyone? Twelve Ways to Avoid Talking About Capitalism
    08 Apr 2020
    The failure of the American public health delivery system facing the Covid-19 is a socio-political and ideological failure born from the intrinsic contradictions of contemporary capitalism at large
  • Affirmative Action for White People
    Barry Spector
    Affirmative Action for White People
    08 Apr 2020
    Most whites have been able to live out their lives completely unaware of the long term, institutional factors that have kept people of color down – and themselves up.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us