Black girls and women are some of the most beautiful, intelligent, and hard working people on this planet. Too often society likes to paint us into this picture of being angry, lazy, and simply “made for the kitchen”. In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to take the time to point out 4 reasons why Black girls are the epitome of the word magical. Welcome to Black Girl Magic:
- Black girls come in all different shades of color.
Black girls come in all different shades of color. We embrace all of our different skin colors to create such versatile beings. You will see a Black girl with the darkest smoothest skin that is so rich, billionaires are jealous. Another Black girl may have the lightest skin, one that resembles the sunlight. There is no skin color to determine a Black girl, but that tends to be forgotten when the media displays the “perfect Black girl” to be light-skinned and “thick”. Our versatile aspect is what makes us art.
- Our gravity defying hair.
As a Black girl with curly hair, I am often told that my natural hair is a “political statement”. Black hair grows up and outward and comes in all different types of curl patterns, making us even more magical. There are so many textures of our hair that we coded them based on curl pattern (i.e, 3A, 3B, 3C, 4A, etc). These textures go from coily to kinky and come in many different colors. There are Black girls born with rich blonde hair and others born with beautiful black hair. And if a Black girl does not want to rock her natural hair, she can wear wigs, weaves, twists, crochets, locs, and braids. The different styles of hair types and the way we can switch it up from one to another, truly defines our existence as nothing short of magical.
- Black women are socially aware or “woke”.
Not only do we have rich skin tones and gravity defying hair textures, but we have this history of carrying the weight of America on our shoulders. In the past election, 94 percent of Black women did their job and voted in opposition of Donald Trump. Not only do Black women often come out and support civil rights agenda’s and movements, they are constantly forgotten when doing so. And when White women say they only get 76 cents to a White man’s dollar, well Black women only get 63 cents. Black women are also highly discriminated against in the workforce for various reasons including their hair. Despite being constantly disrespected, Black women continue to fight for the rights of their people and other minorities. Marches like the Women’s March on Washington were not new for Black women. On October 25, 1997, Black women participated in a Million Woman March in Philadelphia bringing out more than 500,000 people to march against White feminism. And as Malcom X once said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”
- Black women are the most educated group in the United States.
Despite the stereotype of Black women being angry and lazy, we actually are the most educated group in America. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, Black women earned 66 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 71 percent of master’s degrees, and 65 percent of doctorates awarded to Black students. A higher percentage of Black women, approximately 9.7 percent, are enrolled in college more than White women, White men, and Asian women. Iconic and amazing Black women are leading many sectors of our society. We have leaders of entertainment, government, hospitals, and even courts. Michelle Obama is, not only, the first Black woman to be First Lady of the United States, but also one of the most educated First Lady’s. The current President of ABC Entertainment is Channing Dungey, a Black woman. This past election, California elected its first Black woman as Senator, Kamala Harris. Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim woman to be elected into public office, is also a Black woman serving as a Representative for the State of Minnesota.
