December Surprise (Class struggle trumps Trail of Tricks)
by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
I. Historically High on the Hog
An occasional ALEC bill—
Cashin’ in on Capitalist Hill
Comfortable with wild charades
Playin’ 3 monkeys, 4 decades
Seein’ evil, zero jobs, AIDS…
Big galas, par-tays and parades
Keepin’ their eyes on the prize—
Board seat, sub-contract, franchise!
Coming off the plantation porch
Gud lawd movin’ ‘em to march?
II. Prelude to failed Trail of Tricks
K: “People didn’t see what they saw…”
S: “Don’t understand complex law?”
K: “So, ‘Sharlatanize’ their demands!”
S: “Keepin’ things in the state’s hands?”
K: “Like more funding of D-O-J…”
S: “Drivin’ young activists away?”
K: “More laws, special prosecutors…”
S: “Cameras, trainin’ for shooters?”
S: “Boss, I’m barely part of it…”
K: “Front it, cut the heart of it!”
S: “Tellin’ ‘em what time to hit town?”
K: “Yes, and which streets to march down”
S: “What gestures and speeches to make?”
K: “Videos and ‘selfys’ to take…”
S: “What hoodies and T-shirts to wear?”
K: “Who to put on and keep off air…”
S: “Signs to carry, slogans to shout?”
K: “Then to get their black asses out!”
III. Change Gonna Come…
At last, Reckoning Day arrived
For those who’ve shucked and jived—
Erupting below, wildcat strike
Seizing the time, their place and mic
With young, Black America’s sound
New meaning to ‘boots on the ground!’
Like a ‘surge,’ chum-rushing the stage
Declaring: The Ferguson Age!
In resistance, the new arose
Firing ‘niggas’, ‘bitches’, ‘hoes!’
Beautiful, young, gifted and Black
Boldly unafraid to attack
Media-police state violence…
Breaking old, sinister silence—
Motion, growth, protracted ferment
Our young people growing insurgent—
Struggles rise, fall, shift, come and go
Motions lift, stirrings ebb and flow
Revolutionary trend latent
Seeds of socialism…nascent…
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 All Rights Reserved
Eric Adams has a multitude of legal and political problems that have ended any political ambitions he may have had. Donald Trump may have kept him from going to jail, but in seeking a lifeline from a…
Every year, people around the world honor Malcolm X. Though he was taken from us prematurely, his memory and impact remain. With that memory, there is a mandate that we accept and carry on the legacy…
Pat Parker warns us that cowardly acquiescence to fascism is deadly for us all.
As Rwandan troops tightened their grip on the capitals of DRC’s Kivu Provinces, activists protested the National Basketball Association’s close collaboration with the Rwandan regime.
The deal for a prisoner exchange proposed by the El Salvadoran president presents a dangerous threat to incarcerated people in the U.S. The continued outsourcing of the U.S. penal system…
