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
  • omnibus

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2023
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Protest in Atlanta (Photo: AP)

                                                                                                     Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten 

                                                                                                     Orchard called Capitalist State Machine? 

                                                                                                             “Hurt people hurt people…” 

                                                                                                                  —Activist Anonymous  

 

Breathing tube snaking from busted, blue-black
botoxed lips…Snaking from swollen, battered,
bloodied, face— snaking from a STOP— ending
errands and dreams.
Presto—Another Mother’s atmospheric river of tears…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Unconscious streams
of raw sewage—spurting from blu donut holes under
Color of law. Plantation medicine men overdosing
boot, fist, shock, club, chemical cures for traffic
STOP ‘suspect;’ for their police piñata’s new identity

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! “Thank you for your”
confederate service. “Thank you for your” apartheid
state-stained, Vitamin S-fueled skillsets—for your
toxic Memphis masculinity. “Thank you for your
service” at a Kabul, Bagram, Baghdad—Port-au-Prince
STOP.

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Bullwhip behavior. Mirroring
Twin-Cities, Big Apple, City of Angels, Windy City, City of
Brotherly Love beatdown zones. Cop City battlefields
where
chokeholds, knee-o-teens and improvised firing squads
lurk— waging War on Terror—
Sweeping tents, tarps, cardboard mattresses into hungry jaws
of garbage trucks—grinding Human Rights into
gunpowder…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! ‘Skin folks’ playing basket ball,
pledging Greek, praying to the same god—And wrapping fantasies
in riddles—calling it Community Control of wild Boers…

© 2023. 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.

Abolish Police
Police Killings

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


Related Stories

Jon Jeter
As the State’s Complexion Darkens, Minnesota’s Liberalism Wanes
18 June 2025
Minnesota’s progressive myth shatters as its racial gaps in income, education, and housing eclipse even Deep South states, and right wing white
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
How to Protest for Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
Sonya Massey’s brutal murder at the hands of the police has resulted in ang
Pan-African Community Action PACA 2568)
Pan-African Community Action Condemns the U.S. Settler State for the Murder of Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
The murder of Sonya Massey by the Illinois police is a symptom of a larger, deeply rooted, systemic assault on Black and Brown working-class co
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
Alice Speri 
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
08 February 2023
The chief of the Memphis, Tennessee police department took part in trainings in Israel.
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
25 January 2023
What could possibly go wrong with a $90 million, 85-acre police training ground that the community doesn't want?
Unbelievable
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Unbelievable
07 December 2022
Unbelievable
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
Mark P. Fancher
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
19 October 2022
The idea that white people have an inherent right to control Black people permeates to this day.
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
Abayomi Azikiwe
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
19 October 2022
Detroit resident Porter Burks was killed by police while in the midst of a mental health crisis.
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
Netfa Freeman
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
09 February 2022
The US political elite and their elite press are using the fraudulent claims about a “crime wave” as an ideological offensive, a backlash, agai
Thousands of Police Killings Are Unreported
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Thousands of Police Killings Are Unreported
06 October 2021
Police killings of Black people are a feature of American law enforcement and they are deliberately under counted.

More Stories


  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    UN Group of Experts on DRC Report, June 2025
    09 Jul 2025
    The UN Group of Experts on DRC reports the obvious, that Rwandan President Paul Kagame intends to annex DRC’s Kivu Provinces.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Collaborators Like Al Sharpton Can’t Assist Zohran Mamdani with Circumventing Pigmentation Politics and the Black Misleadership Class…But Principled Black Radical Organizing Can
    09 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani’s victory rattled NYC’s political elite. But to win Black voters and defeat the Democrat machine, he must reject Al Sharpton’s co-optation and align with radical Black organizers.
  • Jon Jeter
    From Cadillac-Driving Welfare Queens to Xbox-Playing Slackers, the Oligarchs Vilify Others for Their Own Larceny
    09 Jul 2025
    America’s ruling class keeps inventing new boogeymen to disguise its endless war on workers, while wealth flows upward and capitalism’s collapse accelerates.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Mali Collins’ Book, “Scrap Theory”
    09 Jul 2025
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Mali Collins. Collins is Assistant Professor of African American and African…
  • Hanna Eid
    Hell is Empty and the Devils Are All Here: AI and Imperialism in the Current Crisis
    09 Jul 2025
    AI is imperialism's newest weapon, automating genocide in Gaza while building a surveillance state domestically.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us