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

Amerikkka Was Built on Busting Up Families…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
20 Jun 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Amerikkka Was Built on Busting Up Families…
Amerika was built on busting up families. They're just making Amerika great again.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes”           

— Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III,  Human Impersonator

Bottom of the boat

rocking, rolling, thrashing

Violently— the quaking black

hole now her life. She had

No idea where she was

on the awful ocean,

Traveling shackled for

thousands of miles;

belly beginning to bulge

with the baby of her foul-

smelling rapist and his

“Zero Tolerance” policy

for

tears…

She would bore four more for

a ‘Master,’ who’d sell her

to the West Virginian wanting

her in the worst way—

Ripping picaninnies from

nursing breasts to become

bucks and wenches, working

fields and lusts of slavers—“that

was then,” they say, “this is now:”

“Mama, Mama, Papa, Papa, Mama, Papa…”

tears of toddlers flooding searing shrieks,

Torturous cacophony; the satanic symphony,

counterpoint to cool BOP, ICE acronyms—

Amerikkka's great again—

At separating children from parents;

At spinning swastikas into scripture…

Once upon a time, mint julep-sipping,

Bullwhip-wielding christians in castles whitewashed by

Black labor, worked children and parents to death—

“And everyone lived happily ever after…”

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is Black Agenda Report's poet in residence. Click his name in red to see more of his work here at Black Agenda Report. For much more of his work, or to contact him for booking and other purposes visit 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


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio September 6, 2024
    06 Sep 2024
    In this week’s segment we hear about the exploitation of ride share workers and a labor action in Tennessee, a state hostile to worker organizing. But first we discuss organizing on behalf of…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    AOC and the Desperate Democrats Attempt to Undermine the Greens
    04 Sep 2024
    The incessant and increasingly harsh attacks on the Green Party are indicators of its appeal to millions of people. Democrats engage in political fakery and smear campaigns against the greens because…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Race, Rights and Repression: The Moral and Political Dilemma of the Capitalist Dictatorship
    04 Sep 2024
    BAR Executive Editor Margaret Kimberley talks to Ajamu Baraka, BAR Editor and Columnist about the upcoming presidential election and how the outcome will impact international and domestic policy.…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The New Pimps or, It’s Hip to be Black: The Failure of Black Studies, Don L. Lee, 1971
    04 Sep 2024
    Was Black Studies doomed to fail? Revisiting a critical take on its origins.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Abandon Biden Becomes Abandon Harris, Focuses on Battleground States
    04 Sep 2024
    Abandon Harris is now campaigning to defeat Kamala Harris in the battleground states, saying that genocide is a red line. A new poll shows Muslim voters evenly divided between Kamala Harris and Jill…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us