OUTSTANDING! I don’t know any other way to open this article and won’t even attempt to find a way to do so. Not sure if you have read it or not, but Olivia Cole, a white poet, author and activist, wrote an unbelievable piece on the Black Girls Rock movement in the Huffington Post.

In 2006, the Black Girls Rock! Foundation was founded. The organization was formed to empower young women of color as a foundation committed to helping black and brown girls overcome the myriad of obstacles a misogynoiristic society places squarely in front of them.

Over the years, the Black Girls Rock! movement has grown tremendously. In fact, now they have their very own award show on BET. They focus on recognizing role models, building the self worth of black women and girls around the world while bringing light to their extraordinary talents and achievements that would go unnoticed by the greater American society and media if they didn’t exist.

The BET, Black Girls Rock! Award show was on the other day and drew a lot of scrutiny from white people in the social media universe and it was all just too much for Cole to handle,  she took to writing.

Cole breaks down why this Black Girls Rock! movement is so necessary. Please allow me to give her some space to break it down. This is from the Huffington Post article:

Let me emphasize that last part. “Women of color who are otherwise unseen in American media.” We need Black Girls Rock! because black girls and women are almost invisible in American media. Because if you were a black girl growing up in this country, watching TV and movies and reading magazines like every other kid, looking for some representation of yourself as something beautiful or heroic, you would be sorely disappointed.

• Black Girls Rock! is necessary because when you Google “beautiful women,” this is what you see.

• Because when you look at the covers of Vogue, this is what you see.

• Because when Vanity Fair printed their Hollywood issue, they put the black actresses on the back cover.

• Because when a dark-skinned woman is put on the cover of a magazine, this is what is done to her.

• Because Pixar has never made a movie featuring a black cartoon character.

• Because a black actress has never won a drama series Lead Actress Emmy. (Although Kerry Washington will change that, I am certain.)

• Because in 39 years, only three black women have been part of the cast of SNL.

• Because, until Scandal, the only real place you could find black women in leading roles on television was The Real Housewives of _______.
• Because the “first black Disney Princess” was a frog for 95 percent of the movie.

I could go on. But I think you get the gist. What it comes down to is that black girls are missing representations of themselves in positive contexts. When they turn on the TV, they are missing. When they are looking at the cover of magazines like Vogue and Elle, they are missing. When they go to the movie theater, they are missing. For black women’s faces to appear in mainstream films, it seems they must be either wearing a maid’s apron or chains. So when Black Girls Rock! appears on the scene, ready to uplift and empower the girls who are so tragically neglected in American media, ready to showcase women of color who are smart and fun and beautiful and accomplished and positive, I am so here for it.

She goes on to mention how the hashtag, #WhiteGirlsRock, began to gain steam during the show as white people expressed their displeasure with all this Black Girls Rock discussion. They felt left out, but Cole didn’t allow this to persist. She proceeded to CRUSH these white people and their ignorant comment.

Here are just a few more words from Cole and her article, but you are encouraged to read it all.

You are in everything. 99 percent of Hollywood movies feature your faces. 99 percent of magazine covers are covered in you. The Emmy Awards and Oscars are almost entirely you. If you Google “beautiful people” the screen is covered in white faces. Black girls (and boys) are taught from birth that there is one version of beauty, and it is you. Many black girls go their entire lives thinking they are ugly, thinking they need to be lighter, straighter, whiter in order to have value. Everything that you see every day that reaffirms your whiteness; every commercial that has a nice white lady embodying the perfect “mom;” every magazine that has blue eyes and bone-straight hair; every Hollywood blockbuster that has a leading lady with skin never darker than Halle Berry… all of these things are reinforcements of your identity that you take for granted.

White people often crack us up when they whine and complain about a few black people getting together encouraging one another. They are quick to leap to we are being racist, but they never acknowledge the back drop of society that validates every single thing they do that further disenfranchises us at the same time.

Kudos goes out to Cole for putting her counter parts in place and doing it with verbal force, panache and power. Hats off to you young lady. That was OUTSTANDING!

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-cole/why-im-not-here-for-white_b_4214132.html