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


  • Liberalism & Fascism: The Good Cop & Bad Cop of Capitalism
    Gabriel Rockhill
    Liberalism & Fascism: The Good Cop & Bad Cop of Capitalism
    21 Oct 2020
    Fascist modes of governance are a very real and present part of the so-called liberal world order.
  • Reformism Isn’t Liberation, It’s Counterinsurgency
    Dylan Rodríguez
    Reformism Isn’t Liberation, It’s Counterinsurgency
    21 Oct 2020
    You can’t abolish systemic anti-Blackness and racial-colonial violence by protecting the system itself.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    21 Oct 2020
    This week Third World unity, police brutality in Democrat-run cities and the failures of the presidential debates were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Yarden Katz’s Book “Artificial Whiteness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Yarden Katz’s Book “Artificial Whiteness”
    21 Oct 2020
    The models of the human “self” offered within AI commit to white male superiority and individualism.
  • Health Justice and Black Liberation: Dr. Angel Love Miles
    Gwendolyn Wallace and Roberto Sirvent 
    Health Justice and Black Liberation: Dr. Angel Love Miles
    21 Oct 2020
    Health and disability are interrelated and distinctive social categories that have significant implications for the black community.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us