A Message from a Black Matriarch to Black Men Everywhere
Nefarious Candidate
He requires unquestionable obedience
Loyalty
Allegiance
and Devotion
Stripped of our power to
think
question
speak
and make sense of things
he procures ownership of our
minds
bodies
freedom
hidden out of sight, laying still as a stone
bound from wrist to ankle
barefoot
naked
restrained
abandoned
our private parts bruised as we lay exposed and captive
to his thirst for totalitarianism
The Me(a)ga move-men-t latches onto our spirit
bleeding our essence
leaving welts in their wake
banning our right to control our own bodies
We are not permitted the legal right to decide the future
of our reproductive lives that affords our sense of self in our human condition
We are dismantled
inch by inch, picked apart
lock, stock, and marrow
bone brain
body blood
Punishment for our gender
Defiant
Disobedient
Determined
We will not sit this one out
We cannot allow His narcissistic, egomaniac nature
to dismantle the democracy of the country we helped to build
on the backs of our bodies, this country where freedom came
at a high cost of family, abuse, exploitation,
systemic racism, and discrimination
This is our final S-O-S call, please respond
protect our right to choose
Vote for democracy
On the eve of my 71st birthday, I am sending an S-O-S call during these tremulous times in the hope that our black and brown brothers will take a stand against those who threaten the democracy of our country and endanger our freedom. This is a call to respond to the crisis that threatens to take us back to a time when as an enslaved person, the African American woman was considered by law as property, or chattel, and was divested of her rights and specifically, the power to control their sexual and reproductive health choices. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
This is a call to act during a crisis that threatens to take us back to the time when we were not allowed to vote. A time when many of our ancestors sacrificed and paid the price with their lives. I beg you to not sit this one out. I beg you to go head on into the voting booth to fight for our right to choose and retain control of our bodies. It is the only way we as black and brown men and women can survive. We need your support for the sake of our children, and for the sake of their children and grandchildren.
In 1963 when James Baldwin wrote “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have,” I am certain that he had no idea that his words would communicate the state of the MAGA movement and his chauvinistic foothold on our nation. Their belief that they can say anything about us without reservation or consequence. On the eve of my 71st birthday, I am reminded of a time when making comments about black people in our community was disrespectful and cause for outrage. I remember when derogatory remarks like “Your Mama,” were fighting words. Yet, MAGA’s Leader Donald Trump has denigrated and labeled Vice President Harris as “mentally impaired, a s—Vice President, dumb, lazy as hell, weak, crazy, and a lunatic.” He believes comments like “This woman is lazy as hell and has a low IQ,” is acceptable and without consequence. These are words that should lead in our fight to help him understand that he has just spoken about our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sister and daughters.
I beg you to weather the storm by heading straight to the voting booth and remember that you are our warriors, our rock, our future.. The fate of our right to decide our future, and our reproductive lives, is in your hands. “To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger,” and Kamala and our country is in danger.
In this case, the danger in the mind of The Me(a)ga move-men-t is the stripping of control and power. They want to limit your ambition, spell out with brutal clarity in as many ways as possible that you and I are worthless human beings who carve watermelons, love making babies, and pollute the oceans with garbage. Their aspiration for your excellence is spoken in tongue and flows of racism as freely as the Nile.
This is our final S-O-S call, please respond
protect our right to choose
Vote for democracy
E.J. Wade is an award-winning poet whose work has been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Women Speak, Salvation South, and Callaloo Literary Journal. She holds an EdD in Disability and Equity in Education from National Louis University, an MA in Appalachian
Studies from Shepherd University, and an MA in Creative Media Practice from the University of the West of Scotland.
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