From Black Feminism to #BlackGirlMagic

Queen Things Blog

Same as the #BlackLivesMatter movement emerged from a hashtag on social media, #BlackGirlMagic
has become the new face of black feminism and a staple for black women empowerment and praise.
Our movements are changing. Our voices are changing. Our fight is changing. Regardless of political
power, accolades, or physical structure, the freedom movements of the 21st are forming as many
organizations and businesses are through the internet. The power of social media is real, whether we
recognize it as a business entity or not. Our own President takes to social media to release sensitive
press details and opinions of his subordinates.

Black Feminism of the late 1980s

Black legal scholar Kimberl Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in her iconic 1989 essay,
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination
Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. Intersectionality is not an abstract notion instead it
describes how multiple oppressions are experienced.

The struggle for black women in America began much before Crenshaws essay was published. In 1851,
Sojourner Truths famous Aint I a Woman? speech was delivered to the Womens Convention in
Akron, Ohio where she emphasized the difference and heightened oppression of a woman that is also
black:

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to
have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me
any best place! And aint I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I could have ploughed and planted,
and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And aint I a woman? I could work as much and eat
as much as a manwhen I could get itand bear the lash as well! And aint I a woman? I have borne
thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mothers grief,
none but Jesus heard me! And aint I a woman?

Truths words distinguished the degree of oppression faced by black women compared to white women.
While middle-class white women traditionally have been condemned as delicate and overly emotional
as well as subordinate to white men, black women have been subjected to the racist abuse and
consequences of slavery.

Breaking the Angry Black Woman Stereotype

Sassy. Loud. Bitter. These are the words we hear all too often categorizing black women. There have
been several poems, books, essays, and apparel to denote these stereotypical phrases, and
#BlackGirlMagic in one sentence is here to clapback at the misogyny that spews malice, because lets
be clear it is not just white men who cling onto this stereotype. It also is a hard look in the mirror for the
black girls who are still stuck on self-hate, and unwilling to support other women.
#BlackGirlMagic is important because it gives a platform for black women to celebrate each other as
well as change the narrative of black women in America. It is shaping the future for a positive
environment and rhetoric for black women and it allows little black girls to grow up in a more unified
society. Growing up, I had to look to older female pioneers such as Angela Davis and Maya Angelou.
There wasnt an overwhelming platform of black women not only succeeding in activism, politics,
entertainment, etc., but also congratulating one another. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackBoyJoy
#BlackGirlsRock #BlackGirlMagic all solidify the shift towards unity within the black community which
has been described by many scholars and freedom fighters as a major step towards change and equality.
It is vital that we band together because we are indeed stronger as a unit than separate.

#BlackGirlMagic Is

CaShawn Thompson, blogger and social media innovator, coined the term #BlackGirlMagic in 2013 to
promote the beauty and celebration of black women.

I started #BlackGirlsAreMagic to honor the Black women in my family and all around me that I saw
doing incredible things, so much so that they appeared to be magical to me. The hashtag has been one
of love and community-building for Black women online. Im proud of how it has spread and been
received, but it is also representative of my innovation and my work.

CaShawn Thompson

#BlackGirlMagic is Regina King & Viola Davis & Taraji P. Henson & Issa Rae & Amandla Steinberg &
Shonda Rhymes & Mara Brock Akil & Marley Dias & Haile Thomas & Maya Penn & Kamala Harris & Kim
Foxx.

#BlackGirlMagic is every woman fighting against the oppression, the nos, the hate, and the
stereotypes. #BlackGirlMagic is the FACT that black women ARE the MOST educated demographic in the
US. By both race and gender, a higher percentage of black women (9.7 percent) are enrolled in college
than any other group; topping Asians and white women. #BlackGirlMagic is Solange Knowles and
Beyonc topping the Billboard 100 in the same year both for projects that detest police brutality against
black people and promote women empowerment. #BlackGirlMagic may be a hashtag today, but it
inevitably will become the official black feminism freedom movement of this generation. To learn more
about the movement visit Black Girl Magic Magazine.

With Love I Leave You,

Khai Myell