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


  • Pelosi, Taiwan, and the American Crisis
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Pelosi, Taiwan, and the American Crisis
    12 Aug 2022
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation. He joins us from Philadelphia to analyze the crises in U.S. domestic and…
  • Reparations for African People
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Reparations for African People
    12 Aug 2022
    Kamm Howard is Executive Director of Reparations United. He recently attended the reparations and racial healing summit in Accra, Ghana. He joins us from Chicago to discuss the campaign to secure…
  • Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    10 Aug 2022
    White supremacist arrogance was the order of the day when Nancy Pelosi ignored a red line set by the Chinese government and visited Taiwan.
  • ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    10 Aug 2022
    Assata Shakur exposes the conditions faced by incarcerated Black women in a powerful 1978 essay.
  • For the American Empire, Hypocrisy and War Go Hand in Hand
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    For the American Empire, Hypocrisy and War Go Hand in Hand
    10 Aug 2022
    American exceptionalist hypocrisy was on full display during Nancy Pelosi's provocative trip to Taiwan.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us