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 38th 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.
nobody told Trump, nobody warned— you don’t debate a Black woman, don’t step into the ring thinking your swagger can outshine centuries of unbreakable, unshakable, truth wrapped in mahogany and steel. you don’t bring bluster to a chess game, don’t mistake loud for right, don’t think your headlines can drown out the sound of ancestors clapping back through every syllable she speaks.
he thought it was a stage— a show where lies wear suits and facts bend low, but she came with receipts, with fire, with the calm of a storm that’s been waiting its whole life to rain down. she brought the gaze, the unflinching eye that sees through spin and spit, through bluster and bluff, through every empty boast puffed up like a balloon begging to be burst.
there he was— blustering and boasting, red tie, red face, lost in the maze of his own noise, and there she stood, unbothered, a lighthouse in the fog, smiling the way Black women smile when they know they’ve already won, when they know the game was over before it began.
nobody told him, but now he knows— you don’t debate a Black woman because she is the debate, because every word is a mirror that shows who you really are, every pause a reckoning, every comeback a revolution you can’t spin away. he learned the hard way, like they all do— that you don’t play checkers when she’s already mastered the board.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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