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

Is cruelty Governor Woke Smoke’s superpower?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
21 Jun 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Is cruelty Governor Woke Smoke’s superpower?
Photo collage Rachel Handley

                                                                                              Is cruelty Governor Woke Smoke’s superpower?

 

Hey, amigo, this ain’t Gitmo… We won’t waterboard you.

We won’t force feed you—Hop on this shiny white bus to

a better life! Catch this sleek private plane to food, clothing

and shelter! Hey, señora, one plush seat’s left for you and yours!

We swear this ain’t Sunshine State slapstick! We swear

it ain’t Lone Star State Abbot and Costello—comedy of

Cruelty! …Why… we’d never score $election points with

Corporate paymasters…by using you as $campaign props…

Why, we’d never ever move men, women, children across

this confederate chessboard like bipartisan pawns—Swear we

Wouldn’t! We’re not the same bloodthirsty Europeans who gun-

smoked plains, prairies, and wetlands, creating crimson clouds.

Hey, amigo, this ain’t Gitmo… We won’t waterboard you.

We won’t force feed you—Hop on this shiny white bus to

a better life! Catch this sleek private plane to food, clothing

and shelter! Hey, señora, one plush seat’s left for you and yours!

We swear this ain’t Sunshine State slapstick! We swear

it ain’t Lone Star State Abbot and Costello—comedy of

Cruelty! We’re not the ones who blood-soaked this soil—

leaving Indigenous ones with stand stolen ground nightmares…

Why, we wouldn’t lie—just ask the Seminoles! We’ve changed.

We’re simply not the same predatory Europeans exploring Africa,

Promising, “Jobs! Jobs! Longterm Employment Opportunities!”

Trust us, “Voluntary Relocation” can live “Where woke goes to die.”

Trust us… We’ re… “like a good neighbor.” Like Allstate following

fires in California—or floods in Florida…We’d never use pandemic

Recovery Funds (earmarked for relief ) to ship you people to woke

‘Sanctuary Cities!’ Oh—no—Never!

Hey, amigo, this ain’t Gitmo… We won’t waterboard you.

We won’t force feed you. This is a melting pot! You and your family

just jump right in! Trust us… we aren’t the AI-driven, rightwing, robotic,

Brooks Brothers’ suited barbarians your growling gut’s saying we are…



© 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.

Ron DeSantis
Guantanamo
Immigrant Rights

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


More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    ICE Exposes Democratic Party Irrelevance
    28 Jan 2026
    The Democratic Party is useful only to the oligarch class, who give them orders. Doing anything that serves the people is never on the agenda. They will not address the ICE violations of law and…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: The Palmer Raids, Labor Research Association, 1948
    28 Jan 2026
    “We forget easily in America. We have forgotten the story of the Palmer Raids.”
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For an ICU VA Nurse
    28 Jan 2026
    "For an ICU VA Nurse" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Austin Cole
    Data Center Boom, Corporate Extraction, and the Obfuscation of the Land Question in the U.S.
    28 Jan 2026
    The grassroots resistance against data centers is about more than zoning. It is the latest front in America’s war against the people over land, sovereignty, and who controls the future.
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    Continuity of Social Control From Slave Patrols To Policing To ICE
    28 Jan 2026
    To understand the violence of contemporary immigration enforcement, one must trace its lineage directly to the slave patrols of the antebellum South—a system founded on racial terror and the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us