• 3 days ago
What exactly is #BlackGirlMagic? Why did the Black is Beautiful movement begin?

Digital creator and history buff Taylor Cassidy J explores the importance of self-love in Black history.
Transcript
00:00Whenever black people would wear their afros, whenever they would love their wide noses and
00:04bigger lips, it would say that they are rejecting these standards and these rules that were thrust
00:11upon them. The Black is Beautiful movement started in the 1960s with civil rights,
00:20as more and more people were starting to reject Eurocentric beauty standards that were forced on
00:25them and embrace Afrocentric beauty features that were initially and honestly even now deemed as
00:34undesirable. That contributed to the civil rights movement because it helped them realize and helped
00:49them push the notion that, hey, we're valuable and we're going to stand in just who we are
00:53without having to change. The Black is Beautiful movement was not the first movement surrounding
00:58around the uplifting of black culture. There was movement in the 1920s called the Harlem Renaissance
01:04whenever black literature, art, and music was really popularized. Honestly, jazz was really
01:12popularized from black culture during that time. What was different about the Black is Beautiful
01:16movement is that now it was encompassed in every part of culture, in every facet of
01:25black communities. Even now we see movements like the natural hair movement carrying the legacy of
01:31the Black is Beautiful movement by, once again, restating those notions that the features that
01:38African-American women and men have of natural hair is enough and you don't need to change it.
01:44Another movement we've seen today is the Black Girl Magic movement. It was started by Kashawn
01:48Thompson on Twitter with the hashtag Black Girls Are Magic after seeing a lot of articles degrading
01:55black women. Hashtags like these have roots in the Black is Beautiful movement, in the Harlem
01:59Renaissance, in the natural hair movement. These movements come from the continuous rejection
02:05and discrimination of black features. So it's not one singular event that happens that sparks these
02:11movements, but it's a continuous system that does not change that warrants these movements to keep
02:17pursuing that change and that movement toward equality and acceptance of all features. On social
02:24media there are many communities, many groups that are in direct opposition of movements like this
02:30that discriminate against black people and just spread hate. So it is black people that come and
02:36make these homes for black people to come to so that their features can be celebrated, so that
02:41their victories can be uplifted, so that we are not silenced and that we are not pushed to the
02:48bottom of the barrel. On my account, I try to promote positivity and self-love and I make sure
03:02to only share values that I've either lived through, that I've experienced, or that I am
03:08currently working through because the most valuable part is authenticity and if you can't
03:15see the love in my eyes and if you can't hear the kindness and love in my voice, then it's just fake.