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


  •  Cuban Socialist Internationalist Medicine Puts Capitalist Countries to Shame
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Cuban Socialist Internationalist Medicine Puts Capitalist Countries to Shame
    22 Mar 2021
    So few of its own citizens have contracted Covid-19 – less than 300 -- that Cuba must test its vaccines in other countries, said Dr Layla Brown-Vincent, professor
  • Freedom Rider: Ending Poverty in the United States
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Ending Poverty in the United States
    17 Mar 2021
    President Franklin Roosevelt made profound changes in the US political-economic structure, while Joe Biden only does temporary patchwork on the late-stage capitalist carcass. 
  • New Cold War is Built on Humanitarian Interventionist Lies and Dismissal of Actual War Crimes
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    New Cold War is Built on Humanitarian Interventionist Lies and Dismissal of Actual War Crimes
    17 Mar 2021
    To manufacture consent for its own constant aggressions the US claims its competitors are guilty of even greater crimes – sheer inventions that never happened. 
  • Black Citizenship Forum: On Identity and Empire: France and the Colonial Roots of Black Citizenship
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Black Citizenship Forum: On Identity and Empire: France and the Colonial Roots of Black Citizenship
    17 Mar 2021
    You cannot simply declare yourself race free, racism free, and simply think that it will generate a race free or colorblind society.
  • Prominent Black Lives Matter Activists Stand in Solidarity with Deposed Tigrayan Puppets for US Imperialism
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Prominent Black Lives Matter Activists Stand in Solidarity with Deposed Tigrayan Puppets for US Imperialism
    17 Mar 2021
    Not only confused white “leftists,” but also Black Lives Matter activists have been conned into mouthing vicious CIA and State Department propaganda against Ethiopia and Eritrea, writes A
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us