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

Trauma Trivia
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
21 Apr 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Trauma Trivia
Trauma Trivia

We play America’s longest running game, 
Trauma Trivia—gambling blue—
Daily, weekly, monthly, annually—decades, 
Centuries at a time…We play it again and 
Again and again and again… and… again…

We play: Legal Lynching Blues For 10:
Name the cop whose tatted arm snuffed out Eric 
Garner’s life—boot heel grinding cigarette butt in-
to sidewalk? Name the  executioner cop who kneeled for 9 min. 
naturalizing the apartheid state’s Knee-o-Teen.

We play: Blue Steel Police Gang Names For 20:
Why do police gangs claim names like “Benevolent”
and “Fraternal?”
Name the police gang whose initials rhyme with
slop.

We play: Navy Blue Nicknames For 40:
NYPD officer Williams was nicknamed “Clubber”
because he frequented NYC Jazz clubs: True or False?
True or False: Oakland officer Vasquez was nicknamed
“Choker” because he missed free throws in pickup basket-
ball games? 
Chicago officer Davis was nicknamed “Gloves” because he
battled cold hands throughout his career: True or False?
True or False: Oakland cops nicknamed “The Riders” drove

low-income West Oakland seniors to medical appointments?
Why was Oakland officer Siapno was nicknamed the “Foot
Doctor?” 

We play: Thin Blue Mistakes For 10:
Name the first cop to top the charts with, “I Mis-
took My Taser—Ooops—My Gun For My Taser…”
Name the cop who had a hit covering it…
Which cop charted with the hit “I Shot The Black
Intruder Who Lived In The Apartment I Believed 
Was Mine?”
Name the cop who mistook Mike Brown for Hulk
Hogan and gunned him down?
Name the cop who mistook Walter Scott’s back
for a bullseye and commenced target practice? 

We play: Blue Impersonators Matter For 5:
Name the Florida police impersonator that executed 
a teen for snacking while Black. 
What father and son police impersonator duo had a
hit covering Junior Walker and The Allstars’ “Shotgun?”

We play America’s longest running game, 
Trauma Trivia—gambling blue—
Daily, weekly, monthly, annually—decades, 
Centuries at a time…We play it again and 
Again and again and again… and… again…
And only you… And you… And you… And
You… can end our deadly addiction….

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

poetry

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known…
08 July 2021
“…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx

More Stories


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Synergy of the Sacrificed: Katrina and the Praxis of Imperial Domination
    27 Aug 2025
    Twenty years after Katrina, the disaster stands not as an anomaly but as a blueprint. Its aftermath reveals a template for imperial domination, where "natural" disasters become pretexts for…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    "Inequality in Kenya: View from Kibera" Documentary Premieres August 28
    27 Aug 2025
    Join political activist and Black Agenda Report’s contributing editor Ajamu Baraka and members of the Communist Party Marxist-Kenya on a trip to Kibera, Africa’s largest slum.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Ethnic cleansing called Katrina
    27 Aug 2025
    "Ethnic cleansing called Katrina" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Jaribu Hill
    Solidarity, not Charity—End Jim Crow Recovery—Restore All Communities
    27 Aug 2025
    Jaribu Hill, Executive Director of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, recounts the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the efforts to organize on behalf of the people.
  • Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Katrina: The Rich Folks' Opportunity and Our Dismal Failure
    27 Aug 2025
    "Racism showed its ass in the days after August 29, 2005."
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us