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 eighteenth 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 event
I see you, Kamala, carving your name on this earth, just like I did, with a voice so bold that even the silence dared not speak. I was the first to open the door— not to knock, not to ask, but to burst through, a hurricane of Black womanhood, unbossed, unbought, and unbroken.
I wore their doubts like armor, turned their smirks into sparks, lit fires that still burn in the marrow of this country’s brittle bones. You stand on my shoulders, but sister, don’t forget— you carry the weight too, of every Shirley, of every Sojourner, of every Harriet, who bled freedom from her very veins.
The road ain’t paved, Kamala. It’s a minefield, a battlefield, and every smile hides a knife. But you know this— you’ve felt the sting, you’ve seen the lies, and you’ve kept marching, head high, eyes forward, like the daughter of warriors we both are.
So, when they tell you you don’t belong— when they spit venom, cloak it in politeness— remember, you are the storm, the reckoning they fear. You are the echo of a revolution, the next verse in our song, a symphony of change they can’t silence.
And if the day comes when you sit in that chair, don’t forget the ones who came before— don’t forget the power in your name, the power in ours. Let them know, Kamala, that we are still here, still fighting, still dreaming, still unyielding.
This is your time, but it’s our legacy. Carry it well, and make the impossible, inevitable.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poem #ProudBlue #Resist #ShirleyChisholm #KamalaHarris2024 #WinWithBlackWomen #Fresh #GabrielleUnion #KerriWashington #IssaRae #MustafaSantiagoAl