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

Managers
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Mar 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Managers
Mayors Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, and Sylvester Turner of Houston. (NY Times photographers An Rong Xu, Erin Schaff, Akilah Townsend, Michael Starghill Jr.)

                                                                                                        Managers

 

Pomp and circumstance! Praise Dancing

precarity!

Knighting ‘em ‘enlightened,’ ‘progressive!’

Crowning ‘em ‘reformers!’

Or, tagging ‘em transparent Bassackwards

Tribesmen like Strong-arm Williams.

Like Thom-ass Clarence. Like Raytheon’s

Raven. Like woke Drone Ranger—Or

Calling ‘em/her/they/them…Big Mama or

Tiny Tim…

Color ‘em music stand black, mocha

expresso, high yellow, or coco brown…

Tag ‘em BIPOC, Hip Hop, Homegrown,

Transgender, Disabled, with two PhDs!

Pronouns We The People! Names like:

Martin Lou Harriet Douglass X III!

Still the ship of state stays its course…

Can’t turn on a dime—can’t reverse itself!

They’ll check hip boxes—

Coronating them President, Police Chief,

Mayor, White Supreme Court justice,

Capitalist Hill careerist, Governor, Warden…

but be ‘bout the business of business. Remote

controlled, battery-operated, omnidirectional—

Intersectional instruments of corporate class rule.

State apparatus—still coming at us!

Supervising sweeps of howling belly, cupped hand

Encampments. Sweeping ‘em under rugs of the rich.

Sweeping crumpled signs/crossed red lines up into

Gun towers/grey bars concertina wired to Wall Street;

Managing misery in capital’s tilted table, thumb on scale,

loaded dice casino; Where even the Race Card’s

marked…



© 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.

Black Face in High Place

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


Related Stories

Musings from the Margins #2: From Atlanta and Haiti, to Niger, the Western War Against Africans and Collective Humanity Intensifies
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Musings from the Margins #2: From Atlanta and Haiti, to Niger, the Western War Against Africans and Collective Humanity Intensifies
09 August 2023
The war against Africans intensifies, the puppets and stooges do as they are ordered, while others are satisfied with empty gestures.
The Super Bowl and the Trouble with First Black Symbolism
Gus Griffin
The Super Bowl and the Trouble with First Black Symbolism
08 February 2023
Whether Super Bowl quarterbacks, or presidents, or police chiefs, unquestioned admiration of the "first Black" should come to an end.
Laboring Beyond Black Representation
Too Black
Laboring Beyond Black Representation
06 April 2022
The allure of Black representation in high places can be very dangerous.
Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
03 November 2021
Black politicians may be openly conservative or pretend leftists but their constituents rarely get what they need.

More Stories


  • DOCUMENT: Of the Culture of White Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1917
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: Of the Culture of White Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1917
    02 Mar 2022
    As the European-initiated World War I raged, W. E. B. DuBois reminded us about the destructive nature of the “culture of white folk.” It is a reminder sorely needed today.
  • From Crisis to Catastrophe? What is to be Done in Eastern Europe.
    Dr. Gerald Horne
    From Crisis to Catastrophe? What is to be Done in Eastern Europe.
    02 Mar 2022
    The end of the cold war was the beginning of the America unipolar moment.
  • A Different “Fight for 15:” Haiti Garment Industry Workers Strike
    Mamyrah Prosper
    A Different “Fight for 15:” Haiti Garment Industry Workers Strike
    02 Mar 2022
    The garment workers' strike in Haiti can't be separated from that nation's history. Continued US interference on behalf of oligarchic rule keeps workers in poverty.
  • For African and Colonized Peoples, to Understand Ukraine: De-center Europe and Focus on Imperialism
    Black Alliance For Peace
    For African and Colonized Peoples, to Understand Ukraine: De-center Europe and Focus on Imperialism
    02 Mar 2022
    The Black Alliance for Peace emphatically declares that the conflict in the Ukraine emerges from the ceaseless and single-minded drive of the U.S., NATO, and the European Union for global economic…
  • BAR Book Forum: Yolanda Covington-Ward and Jeanette S. Jouili’s Book, “Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Yolanda Covington-Ward and Jeanette S. Jouili’s Book, “Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas”
    02 Mar 2022
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us