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
  • omnibus

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2023
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Protest in Atlanta (Photo: AP)

                                                                                                     Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten 

                                                                                                     Orchard called Capitalist State Machine? 

                                                                                                             “Hurt people hurt people…” 

                                                                                                                  —Activist Anonymous  

 

Breathing tube snaking from busted, blue-black
botoxed lips…Snaking from swollen, battered,
bloodied, face— snaking from a STOP— ending
errands and dreams.
Presto—Another Mother’s atmospheric river of tears…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Unconscious streams
of raw sewage—spurting from blu donut holes under
Color of law. Plantation medicine men overdosing
boot, fist, shock, club, chemical cures for traffic
STOP ‘suspect;’ for their police piñata’s new identity

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! “Thank you for your”
confederate service. “Thank you for your” apartheid
state-stained, Vitamin S-fueled skillsets—for your
toxic Memphis masculinity. “Thank you for your
service” at a Kabul, Bagram, Baghdad—Port-au-Prince
STOP.

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Bullwhip behavior. Mirroring
Twin-Cities, Big Apple, City of Angels, Windy City, City of
Brotherly Love beatdown zones. Cop City battlefields
where
chokeholds, knee-o-teens and improvised firing squads
lurk— waging War on Terror—
Sweeping tents, tarps, cardboard mattresses into hungry jaws
of garbage trucks—grinding Human Rights into
gunpowder…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! ‘Skin folks’ playing basket ball,
pledging Greek, praying to the same god—And wrapping fantasies
in riddles—calling it Community Control of wild Boers…

© 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.

Abolish Police
Police Killings

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


Related Stories

Jon Jeter
As the State’s Complexion Darkens, Minnesota’s Liberalism Wanes
18 June 2025
Minnesota’s progressive myth shatters as its racial gaps in income, education, and housing eclipse even Deep South states, and right wing white
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
How to Protest for Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
Sonya Massey’s brutal murder at the hands of the police has resulted in ang
Pan-African Community Action PACA 2568)
Pan-African Community Action Condemns the U.S. Settler State for the Murder of Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
The murder of Sonya Massey by the Illinois police is a symptom of a larger, deeply rooted, systemic assault on Black and Brown working-class co
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
Alice Speri 
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
08 February 2023
The chief of the Memphis, Tennessee police department took part in trainings in Israel.
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
25 January 2023
What could possibly go wrong with a $90 million, 85-acre police training ground that the community doesn't want?
Unbelievable
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Unbelievable
07 December 2022
Unbelievable
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
Mark P. Fancher
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
19 October 2022
The idea that white people have an inherent right to control Black people permeates to this day.
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
Abayomi Azikiwe
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
19 October 2022
Detroit resident Porter Burks was killed by police while in the midst of a mental health crisis.
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
Netfa Freeman
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
09 February 2022
The US political elite and their elite press are using the fraudulent claims about a “crime wave” as an ideological offensive, a backlash, agai
Thousands of Police Killings Are Unreported
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Thousands of Police Killings Are Unreported
06 October 2021
Police killings of Black people are a feature of American law enforcement and they are deliberately under counted.

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 20, 2025
    20 Jun 2025
    In this week’s segment, we hear about the liberation struggle in the southern African nation of Swaziland, where an imperialist-backed monarchy holds political prisoners and engages in other…
  • LA Protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Los Angeles Protests, Immigration, and Black Politics
    20 Jun 2025
    Thandisizwe Chimurenga is a Los Angeles-based journalist and host of RootWork, which can also be seen on Black Liberation Media’s YouTube channel. She joins us to discuss the recent protests in Los…
  • Break the Chains
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Breaking the Chains in Swaziland
    20 Jun 2025
    Our guests are Titus Vilakati of the Break the Chains Campaign, which calls for the release of political prisoners in the southern African nation of Swaziland and the end of human rights abuses…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Tell Congress, No War on Iran!
    18 Jun 2025
    If Trump asks congress for approval to wage a war on Iran, he will probably get it.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Iran And Beyond: Total War Is Still On The Horizon, Glen Ford, 2007
    18 Jun 2025
    “So they go forward with the old plan, the only one they've got. Attack Iran.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us