Few artists are able to capture the strength, beauty, and struggle of being a Black woman in America as well as Jamila Woods does on her track “Blk Girl Soldier”. Woods, a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, released “Blk Girl Soldier” as the 9th track on her debut studio album HEAVN, a project with themes ranging from loss and police brutality to black womanhood and beauty. While HEAVN (2017) predates the emphatic resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the 2020 murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, many of its themes are still, if not even more, applicable today than during HEAVN’s initial release. “Blk Girl Soldier” focuses specifically on the strength and beauty of being a Black woman while acknowledging the historical struggles they have faced in America.
In just the first forty-five seconds, Jamila Woods provides a basic framework for the understanding of her song. She sings,
“See she’s telepathic
Call it black girl magic
Yeah scares the government
Déjà vu of Tubman
We go missing by the hundreds
Ain’t nobody checking for us
Ain’t nobody checking for us
The camera loves us, Oscar doesn’t
Ain’t nobody checking for us
Ain’t nobody checking for us
They want us in the kitchens
Kill our sons with lynching’s
We get loud about it
Oh, now we’re the bitches” (Woods, lines 1-14)
With proud declarations of being “telepathic” and possessing a “black girl magic” that “scares the government”, it is clear that Woods celebrates being a Black woman. However, the depiction of conflict and struggle is not far behind, with Woods quickly identifying the hypocrisy and bigotry of larger society. In 10 swift lines, Woods touches on contemporary discrimination towards Black women in the entertainment industry (Woods, line 8) and historically racist views of Black women as servants (Woods, line 11), all while attacking the heartless and dismissive nature of a society where “Ain’t nobody checking for us” (Woods, lines 6-10).
With her focus on the experience and liberation of Black women, Jamila Woods is undoubtedly womanist. Looking back to Alice Walker’s original definition of womanist in In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, Woods definitely fits the bill of a “feminist of color” with “courageous…willful behavior” who is “responsible”, “in charge”, and, most of all, “serious.” (Walker). In addition, I believe “Blk Girl Magic” is great representation of second-wave feminism, especially in regard to the ideas of bell hooks. In Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory, hooks writes “There is much evidence substantiating the reality that race and class identity create differences in quality of life, social status, and lifestyle that take precedence over the common experience women share” (hooks, 4). Woods echoes these beliefs by directly focusing the song on Black women as opposed to women in general, a more general idea that fails to address these significant “differences” that bell hooks mentions.
Finally, I’d like to address the role of “Blk Girl Magic” as a sort of “fight song” empowering Black women to persevere in the struggle against oppression. Beyond “scaring the government”, Jamila Woods also writes Black women as “freedom fighters” that don’t and won’t “give up” (Woods, lines 40-60). Woods namedrops multiple iconic civil rights activists like Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth, as well as famous Black feminists such as Angela Davis and Audre Lorde, both of which we read in class as well. Overall, “Blk Girl Soldier” is a testament to the complex reality of Black women, especially in America. Jamila Woods touches on Black women’s strength, and beauty, and struggles, all while reminding us that “she don’t give up.”