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

Upside of slavery according to Governor Woke Smoke?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
02 Aug 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Upside of slavery according to Governor Woke Smoke?

“…most slave children were prohibited from learning to read or write…”

—James Mellon, Editor of Bullwhip Days

 

I.

Ashanti, Fulani, Wolof, Yoruba,

Ibo, Hausa, Mandinga and more—

Woodworkers, metalworkers, rice

Farmers, healers, navigators, weavers, scholars,

philosophers, fishermen, sailors, scientists,

alchemists, teachers, artists, musicians and more

Disjointed flashbacks…Schematics of slave ships;

rusted smoke stacks and sugar mills littering Choctaw

Land; littering Mississippi river banks. Work-worn bones in

mass graves littering Seminole land. Fertilizing crimson soil.

Commemorating iron-fisted rule of King Cotton, Queen Sugar, royal

rice and tobacco. Demanding reflection, study, discussion, reparations…

II.

In “Dope”Amiri calls, “Wasn’t slavery

Cool?”

Governor Woke Smoke responds: *“Ooo-ooo…

“Now, I’m the kinda guy who don’t believe

Slavery is dead—Naw

Like SCOTUS once told a

Black fella by the name of Dred

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

Ooo, we’ll strip ‘em of their votes—

While they’re debating ‘GOATS’

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

We’ll treat ‘em all as crooks—

And we'll ban Black books

(Beat ‘em back to slavery…)

III.

There were known knowns And unknown knowns—

Picking tobacco and cotton—Can’t see in the morning to

Can’t see at night. Water and rest breaks not among them.

Upside to slavery? Maybe yesterday’s cops leaning from

saddles— Going

Upside sweaty heads with shotgun butts for the slightest infractions?

Governor Woke Smoke suggests Slavery was *CETA

before CETA— smorgasbord of skillsets on the table

where one Could get blacksmith, bricklayer, bootblack,

baker, bookkeeper, fiddler dreams on…Hip setting where

One could Just do it—Nike before Nike!

Shangri-La where startups were soon running their own

Plantations—provided “travelin papers,” small stipends,

seed money, manuals— glowing letters of recommendation,

And blessings with White linen suit/Mint julep memories…

Yessir, the once enslaved left highly skilled for:

imprinting barcodes on brown flesh;

chopping feet of freedom-seeking field hands off;

pouring honey over heads buried up to their necks

and watching the ants work;

prying thighs apart, ramming members into dry

orifices and muffling screams;

gunning down insubordinate workers/instilling fear…

Guess Harvard taught Governor Woke Smoke to see Up-

side slavery skills in Black Sites? In Extraordinary Rendition?

In Enhanced Interrogation—‘Quaint’ Gitmo water-boarding and

force-feeding sessions—He so skillfully oversaw?

Poet’s notes: * Inspired by “Treat Her Like A Lady”

by Temptations Ali-Ollie Woodson and Otis Williams.

** CETA stands for Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.

© 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.

Florida
Ron DeSantis
Slavery in U.S.

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


Related Stories

Pamela Colloff
Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace, Even as Most of the U.S. Abandons the Death Penalty
26 August 2026
Early last year, Governor Ron DeSantis began signing death warrants at a faster rate than ever before.
Governor Woke Smoke's $campaign: singing Dr. Goebbels Greatest Hits
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Governor Woke Smoke's $campaign: singing Dr. Goebbels Greatest Hits
24 May 2023
                                       
Division’s still 1% survival math
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Division’s still 1% survival math
03 May 2023
                                       
The Truth About Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words
Richard S. Dunn
The Truth About Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words
22 February 2023
February is the designated month to honor presidents, but Black people should know better than to believe what they are told about any ben
Espionage Act Like Slave-Era Anti-Literacy Laws
Jeffrey Sterling
Espionage Act Like Slave-Era Anti-Literacy Laws
01 February 2023
C.I.A.
 BAR Book Forum: Christopher D. E. Willoughby’s Book, “Masters of Health”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Christopher D. E. Willoughby’s Book, “Masters of Health”
25 January 2023
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Governor Woke Smoke’s $campaign
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Governor Woke Smoke’s $campaign
31 August 2022
                                         
BAR Book Forum: Jesse Olsavsky’s Book, “The Most Absolute Abolition”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jesse Olsavsky’s Book, “The Most Absolute Abolition”
10 August 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Slaveholders Who Signed the Declaration of Independence: Washington, Jefferson, and the People they Owned
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Slaveholders Who Signed the Declaration of Independence: Washington, Jefferson, and the People they Owned
06 July 2022
Black Agenda Report editors Margaret Kimberley and Ann Garrison discuss the personal and institutional hypocrisy which allowed those who said,
The Terrible Origins of July 4th
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Terrible Origins of July 4th
29 June 2022
The causes of the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence are rarely taught in this country.

More Stories


  • Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    Kathryn Bedecarré
    Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
    15 Jul 2020
    Does the belatedness and ubiquity/banality of allyship echo an anxiety about the enormous restraint that African Americans have exercised?
  • How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    Mike Elk
    How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
    15 Jul 2020
    White labor leaders are failing to understand non-traditional organizing that has developed from viral social media movements. 
  • Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    Riva Enteen
    Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
    15 Jul 2020
    The Democrats are likely to put forward a Black woman prosecutor to legitimize the mass incarceration plague that Joe Biden helped inflict on Black America.
  • Ajamju Baraka on Race, Class and Protest in the United States
    Look Left Staff
    Ajamju Baraka on Race, Class and Protest in the United States
    15 Jul 2020
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka urged vigilance against US “attempts to control the narrative” of the Black Lives Matter movement.
  • Truth + Justice = Green Party’s Trailblazing World Peace Platform
    Lauren Smith
    Truth + Justice = Green Party’s Trailblazing World Peace Platform
    15 Jul 2020
    With ballot access in most states and a comprehensive new program for world peace, the Green’s national ticket is ready to battle the oligarchs’ duopoly.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us