Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 59th in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
they were here before the blueprint, before America dreamed itself alive, black women wove themselves into the roots of this land, their hands tending the soil, their voices humming rivers awake. they are the silent architects, the hidden tendrils of power, the ones who conjured freedom when freedom was only a myth, scratched into soil beneath bleeding feet.
they have given everything, bones bent to hold up families, arms stretched wide to cradle strangers, hearts cracked open, and still, they asked for nothing— just enough breath to keep moving forward, just enough space to plant another seed.
so tell me, how do you not lift them, when they have lifted you for centuries? how do you question the right they’ve earned, the power they’ve grown in their marrow? you stand on the shoulders of giants and pretend they are invisible, casting shadows over their light, doubting the fires they bring.
but they are coming, they have seen this land in its dreams, seen it whole, healed, they hold visions you can’t fathom, dreams you are afraid to let breathe. they have held space for us through lifetimes, kept the flame lit while the world slept.
and now they step forward, not for the crown, not for applause, but because they know there is work to be done. they come with hands of iron, with voices spun from stardust, they carry the weight of forgotten names, of ancestors who walked so they could run, and yet—yet, you hesitate, you turn your back, you hold your tongue when they speak of the future.
how dare you forget the ones who’ve carried you through lifetimes of suffering, who have stitched together dreams from scraps and scraps alone? how do you not see their worth, when they have already given more than they owed, when they have already sacrificed more than you could know?
return the love that has fed you, return the strength they have lent, step aside and let them rise, for this land is as much theirs as it is yours, and they come to heal it, they come to make it whole.
they are the keepers of tomorrow, the bearers of what’s next, and they ask only for the space to build what they’ve envisioned, to shape a country that has always been theirs to lead. how do you not support the ones who’ve held you up? how do you not honor the ones who’ve given life after life to this dream?
it is time— time to give them what they’re due, time to stand with them as they have always stood with you.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #WinWithBlackWomen #ProudBlue #Resister #KamalaHarris #Democracy #Vote