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 11th in our Democracy and Peril Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events.
When Black politicians hate themselves, they become shadows of oppressors, split tongues speaking shackles back onto their own skin. call themselves Black Nazis, hold their people hostage to mirrors, say *“bring slavery back,”* as if freedom is a dream we were foolish to wake from. they abandon us on corners, on ballots, in boardrooms where Black faces smile with white teeth, do the bidding of those who never saw the sun in their skin, who never knew the heat of being Black and beautiful. when Black politicians hate themselves, they say they’d wear a hood too, if only hate came in a shade they could slip into like a second skin, say the Klan is just misunderstood, that the rope is a handshake waiting for a Black hand to grip it.
when Black politicians hate themselves, they wear red hats like crowns of thorns, turn the people’s pain into campaign slogans, sell our dignity for votes, spit out racist, misogynistic tropes like they're sowing seeds of their own destruction. say “a woman’s body isn’t hers anymore” as if they never sucked breath from the same womb, as if they’ve forgotten the magic in a woman’s spine, the strength of a back that won’t bend to lies. they make battlegrounds of bellies, forget that every life begins with choice, with the unbroken power of a woman’s voice.
when Black politicians hate themselves, they say, *“some folks need killing,”* forget that those folks look like their mothers, their cousins, the ghosts of their fathers. they pull triggers aimed at the people’s hope, mark targets on their own dreams, their own reflections. they should not lead, should not speak for us with a mouth full of our enemies' words, should not shape our future with hands that only build walls and graves.
when politicians of any shade hold hate like a torch, we must know them for what they are: a danger to the breath we’ve fought to keep, to the light we’ve carved from darkness.
we need leaders who don’t flinch at our brilliance, who don’t bow to fear, who see love as the only power worth having. we need warriors who honor every woman’s choice, who know justice is not a weapon but a way forward, who carry freedom in their marrow, who know we are more than what has been done to us, who know the fight is to make this world a home where we can all live free.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #BlackNazi #Racism #Sexism #Homophobia #EnoughIsEnough #Vote #ProudBlue #Resister