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

Riggers?
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
23 Aug 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Riggers?
Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, left, is comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, at a congressional hearing investigating the events of January 6. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP)

                                                                    “Riggers?”

                                 (For The Central Park 5; Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss)

                        “Karma is the friend of honesty and the enemy of liars.” —Anonymous

I.

N-word averse world—someone’s singing fog-horned,

dog-whistled flat notes of “Riggers!”

Someone’s singing, “Riggers” are serving him at Karma’s

Cafe from the Capitalist State Machine’s same dirty utensils

“professional vote scammers;” COVID-profiteers used

during violence-riddled reign of terror…laying waste to lives…

Someone’s singing, “Riggers,” yet once purchased full page

ads, “Paper of record,” rigging noose/gallows mobs/framing

5 Black and Brown teen lives—hanging in the balance

Someone’s singing, “Riggers,” when it’s the ugly face of

Capitalism on trial, on blast—on that Midnight Plane to

Georgia —Woo-woo!

II.

Remembering my Mom… Phone wedged

between shoulder and ear— Cooking;

radio NEWS/TV NEWS on. Making meals

for contacts there to share,“What’s Goin’ On?”

“What’s Goin’ On?” What requires direct

Action—Mass action? City action? State,

national action? Always action. Never a

Distraction—She was where We were…

Remembering my Mom… Turning Water-

gate into teachable moments—college classes—

like her Friend’s records, “Message To The Grassroots;” and “The Ballot Or The Bullet…” I wore the grooves off

Remembering revolutionaries teaching me Super Bowl,

Olympic language for lunch bucket brethren practicing

Analysis on crumpled, back pocket sports sections.

Teaching me to be Where they are. “Listen and learn…”

like my Welfare Rights organizing Aunt once told Dr. King.

III.

Cops and soldiers— bad hombres, murderer-rapist-torturer

Death squads stormed Capitalist Hill, J6—7

Died.

Winners of Reconstruction—Training to re-fight the Civil

War—stormed Capitalist Hill, J6—7

Died.

Brownshirts showed up— showed out— for their paper towel-

tossin, pussy-grabbin grifter, Mussolini-wannabe…Commanding,

“Stand back—stand by!”

Statehouses north, south—coast to coast— post-Charlottesville

And you think Long COVID’s a bitch?

Ask your Spanish or Chilean doctor if Long Fascism’s right for you…

© 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.

Donald Trump

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


Related Stories

Wolfgang Bronner
Entertainment as Militarization: The Spectacle of the Super Bowl & WrestleMania in Nashville
06 May 2026
The spectacle of major sporting events does not simply distract from a city's crackdown on the working class.
Adam Mahoney
An Oil Explosion in a Black Texas Town Traces Back to Trump’s Iran and Venezuela Crises
08 April 2026
“The chickens have come home to roost,” one resident said. “Our exact fears have come true.”
Dr. Gerald Horne , Anthony Ballas
Shadowboxing with Ghosts: Whiteness, Jake Paul, and the Crisis of U.S. Imperialism
21 January 2026
Jake Paul’s ascent in boxing is a cultural symptom of an empire in decline.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Autocracy in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Eric D. Walrond, 1923
14 January 2026
“[T]he United States on March 31, 1917,...acquired the three Danish West Indian isles…subsequently rechristened “the Virgin Islands o
X
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Fighting Trump and the Black Collaborators Too
24 September 2025
Fighting Trump’s racist attacks is obviously a necessity but that fight must include opposing the Black misleadership class and their
Frank Chapman
How the Enemies of Our Movement Are Using the Kirk Assassination
24 September 2025
Charlie Kirk's assassination has become the pretext to accelerate a pre-existing fascist agenda, targeting a broad spectrum of forces, from lef
Jacqueline Luqman
DEI’s Swift Demise Exposes The Absurdity Of Trusting The Oppressors To Correct Themselves
05 February 2025
Donald Trump recently issued an executive order that eliminates all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Death of DEI
29 January 2025
Black people must be discerning about racist attacks on DEI programs while also acknowledging that “diversity” can be a con t
Black Alliance For Peace
No Matter Who Sits in the White Peoples’ House, the War Being Waged by the U.S. Colonial/Capitalist Class Against the Black Colonized Working Class and All Oppressed Peoples and Nations Will Continue
20 November 2024
Originally published in Black Alliance for Peace
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
TRANSCRIPT: Analyzing the Correct Method in Combating American Fascism, George Jackson, 1971
17 July 2024
Martyred Black Panther, George Jackson told us long ago that fascism has been the de facto politi

More Stories


  • Bruce Dixon
    Another Black Face on MSNBC: Good News For Joy Ann Reid, Not So Much For The Rest of Us
    26 Feb 2025
    If Fox News is the Republican ministry of TV propaganda, MSNBC is the mouthpiece of the White House and corporate Democrats. The last real journalist in an MSNBC host spot was Phil Donahue, fired for…
  • Ryan S.
    Elon Musk and DOGE Slash Funding for Major Black Kansas City Neighborhood Councils
    26 Feb 2025
    Elon Musk & DOGE are targeting one of Kansas City’s most prominent Black-led neighborhood councils—slashing a federal grant and threatening a vital food sovereignty movement.
  • Chuck Squatriglia
    Feds Lend Tesla $465 Million to Build Model S
    26 Feb 2025
    Elon Musk is Donald Trump's right-hand man and viewed as an evil incarnate, but it was Barack Obama's administration which bailed out Tesla with a $465 million loan in 2009. Both wings of the duopoly…
  • Tamara Nassar
    Palestinians Forced to Flee US-Armed Israeli Military in West Bank
    26 Feb 2025
    Israel initiated a massive assault against the West Bank, displacing tens of thousands of people. As the terror and destruction go on, settlers continue to steal land as part of Israel's expansionist…
  • Kit Klarenberg
    USAID Exported CIA Balkan Terror to Haiti
    26 Feb 2025
    After the CIA orchestrated the 2004 coup in Haiti, the U.S. ushered in a genocidal paramilitary organization from the Balkans to violently remove all resistance to regime change efforts.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us