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

The Unemployment Question(s)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Feb 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Livin’ on nothin’, while hunger works full time

No wonder, some brothers stumble into crime.

 

The Unemployment Question(s)

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Licking bitter flaps on unemployment envelopes

somewhere under the rainbow

Lies

true hues

in bright Red,

Black

and dark Blues:

 

Drawin’ unemployment’s like drawin’ straws

Drawin’ unemployment’s like drawin’ straws

We come up short under rich folks’ laws.

 

Livin’ on nothin’, while hunger works full time

Livin’ on nothin’, while hunger works full time

No wonder, some brothers stumble into crime.

 

And the rich cry, “...crime, crime, crime” every day

And the rich cry, “...crime, crime, crime” every day

While cocaine’s trafficked by the C-I-A.

 

We been slavin’ fo’ the mastahs and what we git?

We been slavin’ fo’ the mastahs and what we git?

Stack-o-papers to fill out, askin’ dumb shit!

 

“State here the reason you’re out of work.”

“Answer the following then report to the clerk.”

“Will you accept work in your usual trade?”

“What’s your income with benefits paid?”

“Do you own a farm, or a ranch?”

“Do you have a savings? What branch?”

“Did you look for work all this past week?”

“Where did you go, with whom did you speak?”

“Are you a citizen of the U.S.?”

“If answering ‘No’, then why not ‘Yes’?”

“Have a seat and wait to be seen”

“Any questions about what we mean?”

“Anyone in line who voluntarily quit?”

“Step out — go over there and sit”

“Sorry, you can’t be seen until ten —”

 

“Provided, you fill this out for WIN...”

 

We been slavin’ fo’ the mastahs and what we git?

We been slavin’ fo’ the mastahs and what we git?

Appointment

with

revolution

When we fit…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 1986 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Caracas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Diego Sequera on Venezuelan Resistance
    16 Jan 2026
    Diego Sequera is a Venezuelan journalist. He joins us from Caracas to discuss the Venezuelan people's solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution in the wake of the January 3rd kidnapping of President…
  • Minneapolis anti-ICE protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    ICE Invades Minnesota
    16 Jan 2026
    Suleiman Adan is Deputy Executive Director of the Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. He joins us from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Donald Trump has unleashed ICE…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Renee Good, Keith Porter and the Normalization of Police Violence
    14 Jan 2026
    Law enforcement in the United States are responsible for more than 1,100 deaths in a typical year. This level of bloodshed goes unnoted even when police killings are deemed newsworthy and attract…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Breaking the Silence Revisited: Gaza, Venezuela, and the Enduring Relevance of Dr. King’s Critique of Empire
    14 Jan 2026
    The annual ritual of sanitizing Martin Luther King Jr. serves to obscure his radical anti-war politics, which are urgently needed to challenge U.S. imperialism.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Autocracy in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Eric D. Walrond, 1923
    14 Jan 2026
    “[T]he United States on March 31, 1917,...acquired the three Danish West Indian isles…subsequently rechristened “the Virgin Islands of the United States.” 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us