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

Malcolm X Tic-Tac-Toe in the Age of…Austerity?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 May 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

Tic-Tac-Toe, X versus O

Shrewd black buck dancer

O a cancer— X an answer

 

Malcolm X Tic-Tac-Toe in the Age of…Austerity?

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Vertical, diagonal, horizontal moves

Of Malcolm X, martyr, giant, live on

Like simple grid, paper and pencil games

Of Noughts and Crosses, 3-in-a-row—

Tic-Tac-Toe in the age of… Austerity

 

X, like exciting, expanding, extending,

X, like exalting, exemplary, example,

Excelling, exceeding— revolutionary as

Exponential, unlimited—far as you dare!

 

O, as in hollow, phony, posture, nothing!

O as diversion, like COINTELPRO, Psy-

Op or false consciousness like blue-collar

Workers masquerading as middle-class!

 

3-in-a-row, X versus O

Tic-Tac-Toe, X versus O

Shrewd black buck dancer

O a cancer— X an answer!

 

Africom boots on the Congo

Banksters bagging big dough

Mother Africa their hoe

A peculiar quid pro quo

Slaves cheering status quo

Their beer full of GMO—

Madison Avenue mojo!

 

3-in-a-row, X versus O

Tic-Tac-Toe, X versus O

Shrewd black buck dancer

O a cancer— X an answer!

 

Negroz go pianissimo

Fiery X’s blocked by O,

Rich white house Negro,

Attorney Generalissimo

Super of Guantanamo

Teachers rise against O

Working-class Tic-Tac-Toe!

 

3-in-a-row, X versus O

Tic-Tac-Toe, X versus O

Shrewd black buck dancer

O a cancer— X an answer!

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 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


  • Say Its Name: Genocide!
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Say Its Name: Genocide!
    17 Jun 2020
    Unless we identify genocide as the common underpinning to all of the brutality directed against Black people in the US, we are talking about the wrong thing.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    17 Jun 2020
    This week colonial genocides, white supremacy, and the Democratic Party’s role were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Samantha N. Sheppard’s “Sporting Blackness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Samantha N. Sheppard’s “Sporting Blackness”
    17 Jun 2020
    Black memory is a muscle trained, flexed, and disciplined by colonialism, enslavement, and racial terror, as well as collective Black struggle.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kristen R. Ghodsee’s “Second World, Second Sex”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kristen R. Ghodsee’s “Second World, Second Sex”
    17 Jun 2020
    Socialist ideas about the inextricable links between class, race, and gender predate the concept of intersectionality. 
  • ​​​​​​​Re-Embracing Internationalism and Class Solidarity in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter
    Berna Ellorin and Adrian Bonifacio
    ​​​​​​​Re-Embracing Internationalism and Class Solidarity in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter
    17 Jun 2020
    The struggle against systemic racism and the police state in the US is integral and linked to the struggle against US wars of aggression overseas. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us