Look around. Hair. Fashion. Dance. Music. Language. Beauty. Humor. Style. So much of what Black communities h
Look around.
Hair.
Fashion.
Dance.
Music.
Language.
Beauty.
Humor.
Style.
So much of what Black communities have created has traveled farther than the people who first imagined it could have dreamed.
And Black girls have always been part of that creativity.
On playgrounds.
On porches.
In bedrooms with a hairbrush for a microphone.
At school dances.
In beauty shops.
At family reunions.
In church.
In kitchens.
In neighborhoods where somebody tried something new and everybody said:
Girl, where did you get that?
Culture often begins like that.
Not with a corporation.
With people.
With play.
With imagination.
With somebody making something beautiful out of what was available.
So when a Black girl sees pieces of her culture traveling around the world, I want her to know something deeper than pride in popularity.
I want her to understand inheritance.
SURVIVOR AFFIRMATION:
I come from creators.
I come from people who made beauty under circumstances that did not always make beauty easy.
I do not need the world to imitate me to know I have value.
My worth existed before anyone noticed.
My creativity is an inheritance.
And I am allowed to create something the world has never seen before.
REFLECTION:
What piece of Black culture from your childhood now makes you smile when you see how far it has traveled?
May Black girls know the difference between being noticed and knowing their worth—and may they possess the second long before the world offers the first.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air Will Smith Dance
