by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
No-win game, leading bassackwards to “Thom-Ass Clarence...Temples of Afrocentric Professors” and “Pinocchio politicians.”
Skin-game
by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
The skin-game’s a
Thin game, melanin
Game, Mickey Finn
Game, kingpin game,
No-win game—
Benjamin game, 100%
For the one percent…
Wage-slaves betting, Stockholm Syndrome-style,
Against solidarity and losing their shirts to sheets,
Dunce caps, camouflage, blue uniforms, Brooks Brothers suits…
Prosecuting, redlining, foreclosing, pepper-spraying, killing
“Chinks” “camel jockeys,” “rag-heads,” “gooks,” “spooks,”
“Spicks,” “spades,” “niggers,” “sand niggers,” “fags,” and
“Cunts” on command!
The skin-game’s a
Thin game, melanin
Game, Mickey Finn
Game, kingpin game,
No-win game—
Benjamin game, 100%
For the one percent…
Trip-master monkey business
Of Bacon’s Rebellion—
When the “white race” was
Invented, circa 1676—
To Occupy Oakland 2011
General strike-port shutdown
Talks stalling: cultural nationalists
“People of color” tossin’ “decolonize”
Dust in “white” activists’ eyes…
The skin-game’s a
Thin game, melanin
Game, Mickey Finn
Game, kingpin game,
No-win game—
Benjamin game, 100%
For the one percent…
GPS leading bassackwards into the
Arms of Strong-arm Williams, Thom-
Ass Clarence, to Temples of Afrocentric
Professors, Pinocchio politicians, Ringling
Brothers of Rhetoric, torturing reason, trading
Resistance for rubbing elbows with warlords &
Pledging allegiance to serial wars for slavery…
Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 All Rights Reserved
The U.S. is careening towards economic and military disaster, a moment when the Black radical tradition is missing but badly needed.
“We salute all peoples who are fighting/We honor all those who have died/For the cause of freedom.”
This lecture was delivered on February 3, 2026, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada) for the monthly series “Black History and the Project of Black Studies.”
Dan Kovalik and Jeremy Kuzmarov’s Syria: Anatomy of Regime Change was published on September 1, 2025. What can it teach us now that the empire has pulled the trigger on three more nations…
"Everything they touch turns to rubble" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
