#Blackgirlmagic
Over the past year, the #Blackgirlmagic has gone viral through the media to empower African American women of all ages. What a lot of people don’t know is the literal meaning of black girl magic. Black females are connected through all sorts of sizes and tones. In early civilizations ruled by Ancient Egyptians, African American females invented cosmetology. This new founding of cosmetology gave women the confidence boost they felt they needed to feel beautiful. Over time, African American women were stripped of their identities because they were seen as threats.
Even today, some of these women fail to realize how beautiful they are because many black women push to fit the beauty standards of white women, because that is what was seen as beautiful. This push to meet those beauty standards has caused black women to become blind to the beauty that is their skin, culture, and roots. Many black women lie about their ethnicity claiming they’re (for example) 20% Swedish, 14% French, or even 3% Italian to seem more appealing or ethnically fluid.
All of this is caused by how black women have been portrayed. Many people stereotype black women as loud, ghetto, and without class. This tears them further apart from who they actually are, because they aren’t represented in movies, TV shows, commercials, magazines, or even Barbie dolls, in an authentic way, and are not represented as much as white women. That’s one of the reasons why Black Panther had the full support of the black community and others who saw the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of black women, both on the domestic and international scale.
Many movies that feature black characters are often those who are light skinned, which makes dark skinned black girls feel even less beautiful when they see no one like them on the big screen. Imagine a little dark skin girl seeing someone of the same complexion on a big screen and thinking, “Wow, I want to be just like her when I grow up.” This vision is made by many beautiful black women such as: Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Taraji P Henson, Rihanna, Lupita Nyong'o , Naomi Campbell, Whitney Houston, Zendaya, Oprah Winfrey, Gabourey Sidibe, Serena Williams, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Danai Gurira, Yara Shahidi, and the list goes on.
Black women come in so many different varieties that the world is yet to accept and respect. Black women were born to be golden. Black girl magic is a real thing because of everything black women have accomplished even though they’re always held back.
