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

In the same boat?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
09 Sep 2026
🖨️ Print Article
USS Abraham Lincoln
The USS Abraham Lincoln is in extreme disrepair after a record 286-day deployment in the Middle East.

BOOM goes tuna and swordfish stuffed brown burlap bags aboard
boats blown to smithereens. Presto! Fishing is now narco-trafficking.
And this violent video game replayed on high seas with impunity is
the new normal. Same boat, different decks?

Bay Of Pigs ghost ships haunt Havana. They bring boatloads of
jet black nights. Sporadic electricity. Spoiled food. Howling bellies.
Dry mouths. Dead dialysis and cancer patients with premature babies. 
Same boat, different decks?

Boatload of bodies dubbed “dignified transfer” return home boxed and
smothered in stars and stripes. While warlords of Wall Street and Washington
do undignified transfers of trillions from our treasure to float boats
on champagne and caviar. To Epstein ports of call. Same boat, different decks?

300 supersized workdays at sea. Exhausted sailors. Minutes from madness.
Several imagine Emancipation Proclamation diving overboard from the
sewage-spewing, moldy shower, soapless, food-short ship, Abraham Lincoln. 
Same boat, different decks?

Black skull and crossbones flag flaps furiously against winds of change.
Must turn SS Cruel Corrupt Titanic-class “destroyer” around — or
run aground! Can’t vote our boat ashore no more. Must convert this ghastly
gray, bloody gunboat into MLK Dr. Che-class radical Love Boat.
US as admirals. US ordering humongous waves of organizations. US ordering
militant millions into sustained strikes, boycotts, demonstrations. MUTINY AHEAD?

© 2026. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

Caribbean
Iran
Middle East
Latin America
imperialism
Cuba
Blockade
US Navy
uprisings
Working Class

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
LETTER: “We See Preparations for a Direct Military Intervention by the United States and Its Allies,” Fidel Castro, 1990
30 September 2026
“I believe that the Movement of Nonaligned Countries…can buttress the united will of the Arab nation and help it to prevail against i
Abel Prieto
Venezuela: It Is What You See
30 September 2026
A photograph of Delcy RodrĂ­guez smiling with Donald Trump after the U.S.
Pambazuka News Editors
TĂĽrkiye, UAE, and the Imperialist Chain: African Ports and War
30 September 2026
Imperialist competition and wars that facilitate extractivism have long shaped the use of seaports for access to resources, markets, and devalu
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The U.S. Determination to Achieve Full Spectrum Dominance is Not In Decline
23 September 2026
The trope of the United States being in a state of decline is a common one, but it should not be accepted without scrutiny. The U.S.
Jacqueline Luqman
The Perfect Victim Narrative Applied To Foreign Policy Only Keeps U.S. Imperialism Alive
23 September 2026
The demand to call out alleged crimes in Iran or Cuba while those countries face annihilation from the U.S.
Roberta Rivolta
Western Activism and the Axis of Resistance
23 September 2026
Western pro-Palestinian activism isolates Palestine from its regional allies, depoliticizing its struggle and reinforcing colonial
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Ultimate Betrayal of Alex Saab and the Fate of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan People
16 September 2026
The United States got its hands on Alex Saab a second time in order to use him in its case against Nicolás Maduro. The U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
COMMENTARY: The Shrinking American Empire, Glen Ford, 2009
16 September 2026
“The Iraq invasion greatly accelerated the process of U.S. imperialism’s decline.” 
Gary Wilson
Germany’s war drive feeds the far right in Saxony-Anhalt
16 September 2026
The AfD's landslide in Saxony-Anhalt reflects real working-class anger at the war and the arms buildup, but the party redirects that anger towa
Dhoruba bin-Wahad
Guardian Foray: All That's Not Real Is Camouflage
09 September 2026
An Open Letter from the American "Left" allegedly on behalf of unnamed persons said to be Iranian political prisoners has provided co

More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: White Racism and Black Consciousness, Stephen Bantu Biko, 1971
    12 Feb 2025
    Steve Biko long ago diagnosed the pathological cruelty and rot of white society.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad
    Somaliland Pins Hopes of Recognition on Trump
    12 Feb 2025
    Somaliland is pinning its hopes of recognition as an independent state on Donald Trump, and Trump has suggested that the breakaway state accept Palestinians exiled from Gaza.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Erehwon (Shangri La Utopia)
    12 Feb 2025
    "Erehwon (Shangri La Utopia)" is the latest from BAR's poet-in-Residence.
  • Jon Jeter
    Landless and Poor, Black South Africans Say they will Defy Trump and Move Ahead, Finally, with Land Reform
    12 Feb 2025
    A torrent of false and racist claims culminated in a presidential executive order suspending any aid to South Africa. Donald Trump is attempting to stand in the way of its land reform process.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    While Trump Waves a Flag of white “Supremacy,” Democrats are Waving a White Flag of Surrender
    12 Feb 2025
    Donald Trump began his presidency with an onslaught of executive actions meant to dismantle those governmental agencies that offer any lifeline for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor white…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us