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


  • TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
    03 Nov 2021
    Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley provided an impassioned call for global action on climate change. But what does it mean to beg for your life from the white neocolonial powers who have…
  • Ethiopia: “I've lost faith in everything American”
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: “I've lost faith in everything American”
    03 Nov 2021
    In October 2021 Black Agenda Report published my interview
  • Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Reclaiming Our Time for the Planet
    03 Nov 2021
                                                         
  • BAR Book Forum: Kyle T. Mays’ “An Afro-BAR Book Forum: Kyle T. Mays’ “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States” Indigenous History of the United States”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kyle T. Mays’ “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States”
    02 Nov 2021
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Kyle T. Mays.
  • Historic Landmark Decision Gives David Win Over Goliath: Maryland Court Halts Sale of Moses African Cemetery by Developer
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Historic Decision Gives David Win Over Goliath: Maryland Court Halts Sale of Moses African Cemetery by Developer
    02 Nov 2021
    A judge has ruled in favor of the community fighting to prevent a real estate developer from destroying an African American cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us