Black Magic

I love the HELL out of being black.

I remember Marvin Gaye used to say to me He had me feeling like black was the thing to be. -2Pac, Keep Ya Head Up

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) September 28, 2015 

Yes, I said it. There's more to it.

Black women and girls are magical.

Contrary to popular belief, I did not reach this conclusion overnight. Rather, the black magic I see comes from all of my beautiful strong black sisters including my mom, lives in my wife, and manifests itself in my daughter. We can go on and on and on about the "blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" and all of the other affirmations of black love yet there is more to it. That magic was always there - even when the temptation to condemn that magnetism became very real during my teenage and college years. According to a few people, that continued well into my late twenties even after my "nigga wake-up call."

The only thing separating black women from anyone else is opportunity. Black magic helps us cross the imaginary line to power. 

How?

When certain doors were closed, black magic props us up and finds another door - or in some instances, an open side window to climb through. This mysticism has been our backbone for decades if not centuries from slavery to the present day. In fact, this is enchantment at its highest form:  empowerment, unification, and dependability, inducing the rest of us to gaze in awe. 

In my mind, I see a line and over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched our to me, over that line. But I can't seem to get there no how. I can't seem to get over that line.                                                                                                                   - Harriet Tubman 

My sisters are no longer limited in life to being cooks and nannies. Their black magic is fierce, beautiful, firm, and fearless standing up for justice in an unfair world, and certainly provides a cocoon from the world's travails. My wife and mother both have that black girl magic in a world that tried to paint them as ordinary or subservient (guess what world? You failed) and my daughter's magic is an untapped twinkle that Lord willing, I am able to see shine like a star.

Being unapologetically black and loving and fighting for your community doesn't mean anti-white. It means keeping your head up in a world that tells us to be ashamed of ourselves. 

Black women and girls are magical. Keep using those gifts for good.