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


  • Jail Populations Back Up After COVID-19
    Weihua Li, Beth Schwartzapfel, Michael R. Sisak and Camille Fassett
    Jail Populations Back Up After COVID-19
    09 Jun 2021
    Judges, prosecutors and sheriffs in many states sent people home instead of to jail last year, but new data suggests the change is not lasting.
  • Exposing the Motive for the Sudden Wave of Attacks on Schools That Teach Critical Race Theory
    Jeff Bryant
    Exposing the Motive for the Sudden Wave of Attacks on Schools That Teach Critical Race Theory
    09 Jun 2021
    What appears to be a dispute about academics is really a political tactic in the ongoing campaign to privatize public schools.
  • Leftist Anti-Anti-Imperialism: Supporting Imperialism But With Caveats
    Roger D. Harris
    Leftist Anti-Anti-Imperialism: Supporting Imperialism But With Caveats
    09 Jun 2021
    The phony Left dabbles in R2P interventions and claims the world is plagued by a plethora of imperialisms, thus letting the superpower and its allies off the hook.
  • AFRICOM Military’s Exercise: The Art of Creating New Pretexts for Propagating US Interests
    Pavan Kulkami
    AFRICOM Military’s Exercise: The Art of Creating New Pretexts for Propagating US Interests
    09 Jun 2021
    An AFRICOM-sponsored military exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, ostensibly to combat “irregular migration” and trafficking, is really about further militarizing Africa.
  • New Investigation Reveals Role of Israeli Operatives in Colombia’s “Political Genocide”
    Dan Cohen
    New Investigation Reveals Role of Israeli Operatives in Colombia’s “Political Genocide”
    09 Jun 2021
    Known as the “Red Dance,” the systematic murder of the Patriotic Union in Colombia was apparently concocted by one of the most decorated spies in Israeli history.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us