If You Think #BlackGirlMagic Isn't For All Black Women, You're Doing It Wrong

Controversy is nothing new to the world, but with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter around the more controversial and sometimes ignorant opinions are put at the forefront.

Much like the opinion of one young woman who inspired my friend to shoot me an angry message about an ignorant Facebook status that garnered was able to gain enough traction for the unfortunate message to gain over 400 reactions and 600 shares.

The status has since been deleted, but, as you know, nothing really ever goes away on the internet. So I can still show you what it said.

“I think it’s cool that light skin girls are following the black girl magic wave but no offense y’all have always been valued and this movement is for darker women. Ya’ll bandwagoned just like women with loose curls bandwagoned the natural hair movement and its high key annoying.”

The status badly reeked of colorism (a term that defines the discrimination among people within the same ethnic group) and 100 percent failed feminists everywhere, said:

First, I must point out that anytime someone says “no offense” they’re about to the exact opposite. In this, she said "I think it's cool ... but ." Same difference.

More importantly, the posters opinion is completely devoid of logic.

It simply stems from a cycle of colorism that forces her to feel threatened by all black women and people, in general, being one entity, because she's so desperately trying to unlearn all the hateful things she's been told about herself as a black woman of a darker complexion.

She's trying to uplift some but bringing down the ones that don't look like her in the only way that she knows — alienation based on their features.

And that's not right.

It's like the Willie Lynch Theory, which alleges that white people were once informed of a “foolproof method” for keeping blacks enslaved by pitting them against one another based on body type, hair texture, and skin complexion.

Although there’s some debate as to whether the theory is true or not it doesn't seem too farfetched as there were positions in place for “house slaves” (essentially the jobs that weren’t field work) that were predominately filled by slaves with lighter complexions.

Looking at the division and hatred that the black community puts on itself, it seems that not only was the theory real but it was — and still is — successful. We may no longer be slaves in shackles but we are in other ways.

Instead of uplifting and loving all black women alike, this woman felt the need to tear down lighter women for features they can’t help and features that don’t make them any less black, especially in the eyes of white people.

Because although white people's goal was to pit us against each other, their perception of blackness never did, which is probably why the one drop rule existed — reminding black people of mixed race that they were still, in fact, not white.

Yes, there's been a history of lighter complexions of black people being treated differently, but at the end of the day they still have the struggle of of fitting in with darker women as well as the struggles we all go through as black people.

And, sadly, I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the grass is greener somewhere else but forget that it's really just green where you water it.

No one lives without struggle, and we may see the privilege that lighter women and men have access to we rarely see or know of their personal struggles that come with their complexion.

Dark Girls and Light Girls is a two-part documentary worth watching to get a better grasp on that.

Regardless of whether you watch it, it's never okay for you to discount someone's experience in their skin. Or to tell them they don't get to be part of a celebration like #BlackGirlMagic clearly meant for all of us.

This young woman has perpetuated a cycle of hatred that she’s grown accustomed to as a darker woman in the same way that others told her her features weren't good enough for her to fit in.

She did the exact thing to all the many other complexions of black women who believe in the #BlackGirlMagic movement — a movement that's about, in the words of Scottie Beam of Black Girl Podcast, “we’re the ‘in’ thing right now, even though we’ve always been it — we’ve always been ‘in.’ ”

In other words, although we might be the trendy and mainstream now to other cultures, we as black women collectively have always been the pooh.

The #BlackGirlMagic hashtag is about uplifting one another and creating a sense of security in a community of women who have been conditioned to believe we're inferior when it comes to our beauty, intelligence, and so much more.

We've been conditioned to believe we're not "it" despite so much of the world wanting to emulate all that we are, from buying melanin to buying disproportionate butts and lips.

We are magical.

We have the strength and beauty of unicorns.

We are adored and coveted.

And, we get shit done — that's what's real and that's what #BlackGirlMagic is all about illustrating.

Or as the Huffington Post defines it: "a term used to illustrate the universal awesomeness of black women. It’s about celebrating anything we deem particularly dope, inspiring, or mind-blowing about ourselves."

The goal is to put up a united front — and if we can't learn to love ourselves unconditionally without hating the next person or making the next person feel inferior then we will forever be doomed to a history of oppression opposed by ourselves as well as others.

Bottom line? If you think #BlackGirlMagic is a movement that is somehow not meant for all us, then frankly my dear you're doing it wrong. You're anti-feminist and no where near as woke as you think you are.

And worst of all: You have lost your magic in the midst of avenging your insecurities.

If You Think #BlackGirlMagic Isn't For All Black Women, You're Doing It Wrong

Girl bye.

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