You Have to Fiercely Believe in Fantasy to Win

You’re going to have to fiercely believe in fairytales, to win in this world. Those are the words, placed on my heart as I watched the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The words played in my head like a 2001 skipped CD, and they have continued to shadow me, as we approach their one week anniversary. I know why these words came to me. It’s because, it’s a universal truth for Brown faced girls and women everywhere. It’s what nobody teaches us out loud, but every last one of us has to learn, if we aspire to levels of epic success.

I look at Madam Vice President, Kamala Harris, and while I am so proud of her achievements and elated that SHE of all people in this world, is at the heart of leadership of this country, I can’t help but imagine, how often someone told her that her political aspirations were unreasonable. Or how often, she heard this country would never elect a Black person, let alone a woman to the Presidency of the United States. It’s not even lost on me that 2 years ago, around this very time; a then Senator Kamala Harris, threw her own hat in the race to run for President of the United States. Many months in advance of Joe Biden’s exploration of the role, only to be a beautiful reminder of what shooting for the moon and ending up among the stars, can look like.  

I, like most people, watched with deep emotions as such a dynamically strong, educated, wise, pragmatic and gorgeous Brown skinned woman, placed her hand on top of Thurgood Marshall’s bible, and shook away the hair from her shoulders, and the doubt from her naysayers. I watched as she deeply inhaled the intensity of the moment and exhaled into her seat at the table. I watched her living in her moment, and I thought about me. For I too am a Brown skinned woman, of immigrant heritage and Howard University education. I too have high hopes and dreams to effect a change in this world and my industry, so deeply and so sustainable that generations after me won’t even be able to recognize their own privileges. Because just like the privileged men and women of today, they will just be living and working to a standard, rooted in the bloodshed and tears of 21st century activism.

This moment for Madam Vice President Kamala Harris, calls to mind so many moments of my own childhood and young adulthood, as I received the advice of well-intentioned people of all ages and backgrounds, who thought it their duty to tell me their truth about the world. Who thought it urgent to remind me that I could never play lead in the school musical, because none of the leads in the musical Annie were Black. Folks who thought it their place to remind me that women are most successful, when seen and unheard. Grownups who out of deep fear of their own brushes with failure, told me that it was unrealistic to expect to see a Black president in my lifetime, and even more unrealistic to successfully graduate and thrive after attending an HBCU. This moment also calls to mind the moments of my life where the most ill-intentioned of people, audaciously made it their business to actively campaign against my professional reputation, deny my contributions, lie on my character and offer ill-informed opinions of who I am, out of spite and willful ignorance.

And as I reflect on those experiences, I can’t help but appreciate the people who encouraged me to believe that the impossibilities of the moment, would be the endless possibilities of the future. That while believing in my hearts greatest desires might seem as unreasonable as unicorns, today, It’s possible, that the context, concept and nuances of the world can and will shift to make even the idea of a unicorn real. It is because of that belief that I starred as Miss Hannigan in that school musical, and that I forged ahead in public speaking competitions, and that I even voted for our first Black president AND Black lady Vice President, and with no money, inheritance or savings fund to my name attended and graduated from the Illustrious Howard University. It is also because of that belief, that when the universe finds me fit to intercept an email of someone discrediting my work and my influence, I can still see myself in the Vice President of the United States of America, as she accepts a position that was once impossible for her to achieve.

I believe this to be an exercise of manifestation, which is THE most important spell in the book of Black Girl Magic. And it is through this magic, that so many Brown skinned girls grow up to be Brown skinned women, who have defied the expectations of a limited world around her,  to make the heights of her successes in both life and love, limitless. Because being a Brown faced girl in this world, means that you cannot believe in the world, that people create for you. You have to fiercely believe in the fairytale life you want to achieve.