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

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten Orchard called Capitalist State Machine?
Protest in Atlanta (Photo: AP)

                                                                                                     Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute? Or, rotten 

                                                                                                     Orchard called Capitalist State Machine? 

                                                                                                             “Hurt people hurt people…” 

                                                                                                                  —Activist Anonymous  

 

Breathing tube snaking from busted, blue-black

botoxed lips…Snaking from swollen, battered,

bloodied, face— snaking from a STOP— ending

errands and dreams.

Presto—Another Mother’s atmospheric river of tears…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Unconscious streams

of raw sewage—spurting from blu donut holes under

Color of law. Plantation medicine men overdosing

boot, fist, shock, club, chemical cures for traffic

STOP ‘suspect;’ for their police piñata’s new identity

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! “Thank you for your”

confederate service. “Thank you for your” apartheid

state-stained, Vitamin S-fueled skillsets—for your

toxic Memphis masculinity. “Thank you for your

service” at a Kabul, Bagram, Baghdad—Port-au-Prince

STOP.

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! Bullwhip behavior. Mirroring

Twin-Cities, Big Apple, City of Angels, Windy City, City of

Brotherly Love beatdown zones. Cop City battlefields

where

chokeholds, knee-o-teens and improvised firing squads

lurk— waging War on Terror—

Sweeping tents, tarps, cardboard mattresses into hungry jaws

of garbage trucks—grinding Human Rights into

gunpowder…

Black magic, melanin, body cameras, training—On

Tennessee’s Tonton Macoute! ‘Skin folks’ playing basket ball,

pledging Greek, praying to the same god—And wrapping fantasies

in riddles—calling it Community Control of wild Boers…

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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 and PayPal.

Abolish Police
Police Killings

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


Related Stories

Janine Jackson 
How Many Ways Can You Avoid Reporting That Cops Killed a Baby?
24 June 2026
A one-year-old baby was shot dead by police, but corporate media shield the police and their barbaric actions with a passive voice.
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Killing of Wali Bey by Newark Police
04 March 2026
The media cycle has moved on, but the family of Wali ‘Grillz’ Bey is still waiting for answers after his murder by Newark Police.
Jon Jeter
As the State’s Complexion Darkens, Minnesota’s Liberalism Wanes
18 June 2025
Minnesota’s progressive myth shatters as its racial gaps in income, education, and housing eclipse even Deep South states, and right wing white
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
How to Protest for Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
Sonya Massey’s brutal murder at the hands of the police has resulted in anguish and anger but no differ
Pan-African Community Action PACA 2568)
Pan-African Community Action Condemns the U.S. Settler State for the Murder of Sonya Massey
31 July 2024
The murder of Sonya Massey by the Illinois police is a symptom of a larger, deeply rooted, systemic assault on Black and Brown working-class co
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
Alice Speri 
Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces
08 February 2023
The chief of the Memphis, Tennessee police department took part in trainings in Israel.
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Cop City Kills Before It Opens
25 January 2023
What could possibly go wrong with a $90 million, 85-acre police training ground that the community doesn't want?
Unbelievable
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Unbelievable
07 December 2022
Unbelievable
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
Mark P. Fancher
The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
19 October 2022
The idea that white people have an inherent right to control Black people permeates to this day.
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
Abayomi Azikiwe
Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
19 October 2022
Detroit resident Porter Burks was killed by police while in the midst of a mental health crisis.

More Stories


  • Guinea-Bissau
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Guinea-Bissau Struggles Against Imperialism
    23 Feb 2024
    Rafiki Morris joins us from Washington D.C. to discuss the upcoming demonstration, “Open the Peoples National Assembly in Guinea-Bissau” and why this action is so important.
  • BT News
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Haiti Doesn’t Have a ‘Gang’ Problem, It Has a US Imperialism Problem w/ Dr. Jemima Pierre
    21 Feb 2024
    Dr. Jemima Pierre joins BreakThrough News to discuss the nationwide uprisings in Haiti where thousands of demonstrators have flooded the streets calling for the ouster of the unelected Prime Minister…
  • Fani Willis
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Phony Fani Willis, Misguided Support, and the Atlanta Plantation
    21 Feb 2024
    Public reaction to the Fani Willis soap opera is an example of how cynical Black misleadership creates confusion among the masses.
  • Lorraine Hansberry
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: A Challenge to Artists, Lorraine Hansberry, 1962
    21 Feb 2024
    At a rally against the House Un-American Activities Committee, insurgent playwright Lorrainne Hansberry called on artists to shake off the fear and incoherency of the world to defend the peoples’…
  • Congolese burn an American flag
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Congolese Journalist: It’s Time to Stop Negotiating with Rwanda
    21 Feb 2024
    Rwanda’s M23 militia and Rwandan Special Forces have been advancing on Goma, the capital city of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ann Garrison speaks with Congolese…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us