White Girl Magic??

At one point during the beginning of the end of the summer, I walked into my office with long, pink box braids, fresh off the press, ready to take on my birthday month like I’m Queen of the World because, for the month of August, I am. Some might say I looked “like a snack.” I went to show one of my coworkers, a charismatic, Caribbean woman who I lovingly refer to as my “Work Mom.” She enthusiastically approved of the color, the length, and my overall choice. As I walk across the office, back to my desk, Work Mom exclaims, “That’s that Black girl magic!” One of our Caucasian coworkers, immediately adds her 2 cents and quips, “Well this white girl magic is frizzy from humidity!” Now let me be clear, I like the Caucasian coworker I’m referring to. While our views on politics and pop vulture news may differ, we’re friends outside of work and have some interesting characteristics and interests in common. That does not, however, negate the fact that when she said that, I had to consciously stop myself from guffawing aloud and politely asking, “What in the ever-loving hell is ‘white girl magic??’”

Typically my reactions to happenings in my place of employment are not so visceral or immediate, but this  one stuck with me and I simply have to comment. What’s interesting to me about this in particular is that she felt the need to comment, depending on how you look at it, you could say she countered the statement made previously. Because Black girl magic is more than just complimenting a Black woman’s physical features.  Black girl magic’s specific purpose is to uplift and praise the fact that Black female beauty can and does exist in a world that centers on beauty standards only applicable to whiteness, in which the classical European standard is considered the norm and Black beauty must attempt to adhere in some if not all ways,  in order to be considered even exceptional, let alone above par. In short, the beauty industry already favors Caucasian women in a general sense (this obviously is not a thought pertaining to size even though the case has been much the same until recently), so there is no extra praise needed. They get enough of it as it is. Black women are the ones who need it, hence the phrase “Black girl magic.”

I found it fascinating that the praise of Black beauty, even of someone that is known to the commenter, still almost immediately provoked a response of how another beauty, a more typical white beauty, is also “magical,” even in it’s distress. The fact of the matter is, white beauty was never the subject. No one ever asked that. It has been taken for granted for centuries. You are not the one who needs reinforcement here. Your children don’t have to search high and low or far and wide for a Barbie doll that resembles them. You don’t have to wonder why, when you finally do find a Black Barbie for your Black child, she still has needle straight hair…

The moral of the story here is this: accept that some women need more praise than others because for centuries we simply have not received it. Don’t feel the need to counter, add or otherwise edit the praising of a supposedly “less conventional” woman’s beauty. Let a Black girl have her moment.

xx

August 2018: The Time of the Pink Hair