23rd
more on baraka
A lot of readers have written in, after the long poem by Amiri Baraka, to demand to know who indeed he was talking about. So, let’s go to the tape.
Who own this city
Who own the air
Who own the water
Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth
[[Could be anyone at this point]]
Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytime
[[Freelance writers! Freelance writers?]]
Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
[[Ah, no, Nazis. Nazis did.]]
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos
Who? Who? Who?
[[Not the Nazis?]]
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radio
[[Uh-oh]]
Who own what ain’t even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain’t the real owners
[[Uh-oh]]
Who own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
[[The Jews]]
Who make the laws
[[Yeah, that’s us]]
Who made Bush president
[[Wait, no, not us!]]
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lying
[[Not us at all!]]
Who the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
[[Us again]]
Who put a price on Lenin’s head
Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it
Who said America First and ok’d the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebkneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced, tortured, assassinated, vanished
[[Not us even a little bit]]
Who frame the Rosenbergs, Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys,
The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
[[Nazis, man. The Nazis did that, and J. Edgar Hoover]]
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?
[[Well, ok, that’s us again. But still the overwhelming evidence points to the Nazis here and white people in general]]
Answer: White people in general.
Analysis: Can’t argue with that.
Amiri B. for poet in 2013.
