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


  • WHO Chief Blasts 'Grotesque' Vaccine Inequality as Rich Nations Block Speedy End of Global Pandemic
    Andrea Germanos
    WHO Chief Blasts 'Grotesque' Vaccine Inequality as Rich Nations Block Speedy End of Global Pandemic
    31 Mar 2021
    "As long as the virus continues to circulate anywhere, people will continue to die, trade and travel will continue to be disrupted, and the economic recovery will be further delayed."
  • New Data on Jail Populations: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    Alexi Jones and Wendy Sawyer
    New Data on Jail Populations: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    31 Mar 2021
    The pandemic forced many police departments, courts and jails to take steps that reformers had been demanding for decades.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 29, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 29, 2021
    29 Mar 2021
    Expect “Lip Service” from Biden on Immigration Reform
  • Audre Lorde’s Revolutionary Contribution to Black Political Thought
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Audre Lorde’s Revolutionary Contribution to Black Political Thought
    29 Mar 2021
    Black poet and feminist Audre Lorde showed her socialist and revolutionary colors in the wake of the US invasion of Grenada, her parent’s birthplace, in 1983, said Jack Turner, pro
  •  US Black Elite Tied to Capitalism, Not Black Liberation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Black Elite Tied to Capitalism, Not Black Liberation
    29 Mar 2021
    “If we want to have Black liberation, we have to abolish capitalism to do that,” said Kandista Mallett, an activist and columnist for Teen Vogue magazine who authored a recent colu
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us