From Michelle Obama to Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay, Taraji P. Henson and so many more, sisters with superpowers serve as lighthouses and ignite the spark in others who are growing and cultivating their own respective superpowers. These women not only serve as mentors to millions, they are proving, time and time again, that Black girl magic is real and that women of color are sisters with superpowers who can accomplish anything they put their minds to.
These sisters with superpowers abound in every industry imaginable. They are those who are in the corporate layer, from the brilliant minded Rosalind Brewer, chief operating officer at Starbucks (previously the CEO of Sam’s Club), to the U.S. Senate, where Kamala Harris recently made history by becoming the second Black female senator in U.S. history, representing California (D). Women of their caliber recognize the need for sisters all around to give their very best on so many levels, without hesitation or fear. They confirm by their very being that we need sisters with superpowers.
There are sisters with superpowers like Tamika D. Mallory, an activist and the national co-chair for the Women’s March movement, who fights for justice. And there are groups like the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., and its current national executive director, Janice L. Mathis, who is modernizing the organization along with national chairperson and Detroit native, Ingrid Saunders Jones. Both women keep a focus on serving with highest level service imaginable and uplifting Black women everywhere.
Then there are the parents, the den mothers and the laborers who continue to nurture young powerful and successful sisters with superpowers as they grow up with an understanding of their need to code in STEM-related fields, their need to understand commerce, their need to understand learning a second language, and so much more.
I met a couple of these young girls as they were actually on the sidewalk in front of a retail establishment I was patronizing. They wanted me to support their den mother in purchasing several boxes of Girl Scout cookies, which, of course, I obliged. My only request of them in return of my purchase was that they take a photo with me so that I could share it on my social media pages. I then called the girl’s father, and commended him along with his wife, on their accomplishments of raising young sisters with superpowers and helping them to groom their superpowers from a very young age. I thanked them for allowing me to participate in their commerce and grooming exercises with their daughters. I thanked the mother and father for sharing the vision and images of their young daughters, who just may become the next Venus and Serena Williams of the future.
In the quest to understand excellence, you first need to understand how to experience excellence. All of these are examples of the cultivating factors of what makes up superpowers and instills them into our African American sisters. It’s not until these women recognize they’re being utilized, until they solve a problem or give the value of awesomeness that they continue to serve with women of the same gender, but different hues. These women continue to grow stronger and wiser as they forge alliances, and as they nurture other sisterhood pacts beyond those we recognize today.
African American women are flexing their superpowers every day in a myriad of ways. Mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, aunts, den mothers and sisters are doing the work, imparting the wisdom, walking in their might and, oh yes, they are definitely showing the world what it means to be powerful. They don’t have names or faces that we recognize but we acknowledge their courage, their beauty, their magnificence. We thank you, sisters, with superpowers, for continuing to make the human race better while healing and protecting the world.
