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

I’m no nuanced Negro, but…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
13 Oct 2021
I’m no nuanced Negro, but…
I’m no nuanced Negro, but…

I’m no nuanced Negro, but…

 

I’m no nuanced Negro—never have

been—never will be. I’m a lower the

forks, pick up the pallet, put it on the

Truck, stack the boxes; scrub the toilet,

mop the floor—lunch bucket, gloves, steel

toe boot crowd—picket line lovin’ kind of fella.

 

But, lemme see if I may help you in my

crude, crass, class—black/white—My

wrong/right; 99%/1%—Binary,

bourgeois/proletarian terms. Lemme see

if my unvarnished, rough hewn style helps…

 

Would you dare trust Slick Willy and R. Kelly

chaperoning; Jell-low Puddin’ Man bartending

your daughters’, your granddaughters’, your

nieces’ Quinceañeras, Bat Mitzvahs, Sweet Six-

teen Parties? Would you trust Ms Maxwell with

supervising the sleepovers? Would you send pre-

teen sons and grandsons to the Sierras to play

War games with a platoon of priests?

 

Yet, you suspend suspicion for acts starring

Kentucky Turtle in Kabuki Theater—silly Sinema?

You suspend suspicion for theater featuring Schmo

Munchkin-Schmo Biden-Madame Speaker slapstick…

 

You suspend suspicion, finding yourselves bamboozled

by special effects; had by stuntmen—corporate stickup

artists…

You suspend suspicion, see yourselves suckered by hollow

Heists…By artificial intelligence of Lilliputian politicians

on Wall Street strings screaming, “Hands up—

to the debt ceiling—this is a stickup, stupid muthafukkkas!”

 

 

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
 

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, 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: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

Black Liberation

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


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Solidarity Against ICE and the Entire State Apparatus
11 June 2025
Popular resistance against the Trump administration in Los Angeles and othe
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Malcolm X and Human Rights in the Time of Trumpism: Transcending the Masters Tools
21 May 2025
This piece was originally published in Black Agenda Report i
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney, Jr.’s Book, “From Rights to Lives”
26 February 2025
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Austin Cole
Demanding More in the Struggle for Collective Liberation – A Conversation with Nicholas Richard Thompson, Part II
30 October 2024
As part of his research on grassroots economic projects toward Black Liberation, Austin Cole spoke with Nicholas Richard-Thompson about his com
Too Black
Unburdened by Palestine: Shedding Black liberalism for anti-imperialism
04 September 2024
Liberals are demanding that Black people in the U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: In Our Hands: Thoughts on Black Music, Bernice Johnson Reagon, 1976
31 July 2024
For the late Dr.
Rosa Parks
Ingrid Banks , Jaime Alves
Antiblackness and Palestinian Humanity: A Call to Resist Fear
06 March 2024
Internationalism is the path toward Black liberation.
Joy James speaking on a panel at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice's Carceral State Reading
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Joy James’ Book, “New Bones Abolition”
13 December 2023
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Why Embracing Anti-Colonialism Made Malcolm a Marked Man
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Why Embracing Anti-Colonialism Made Malcolm a Marked Man
22 February 2023
Malcolm X was a legendary revolutionary who is still loved by millions of people.
INTERVIEW: A Voice from the Monster: Charlene Mitchell in Tricontinental, 1971
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
INTERVIEW: A Voice from the Monster: Charlene Mitchell in Tricontinental, 1971
15 February 2023
A 1971 interview with the late Charlene Mitchell reminds us of both the need for Black radical struggle against capitalism, militarism, and rac

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Necessity of Birthright Citizenship for Black People
    02 Jul 2025
    Black citizenship was non-existent for the first 200 years that enslaved and free people were present in what became the United States. Even long-standing legal victories are tenuous, and now…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Refugees Unwelcomed! Gaou Guinou Balewa, 1973
    02 Jul 2025
    “Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Aggressors Unnamed in Rwanda-DRC “Peace Agreement”
    02 Jul 2025
    The U.S.-brokered 'peace deal' between Rwanda and the DRC whitewashes Rwanda’s occupation and M23 militia crimes.
  • Jon Jeter
    Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them
    02 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani’s Harlem socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the left’s racial blind spot even as Wall Street prepares to spend…
  • Maurice Carney
    Donald Trump’s Congo Venture: A Scramble for Minerals Under the Guise of Peace
    02 Jul 2025
    Trump’s ‘peace deal’ between Rwanda and the DRC is a corporate resource grab disguised as diplomacy, rewarding Rwandan war crimes while U.S. investors stake claims to Congo’s coltan mines. This…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us