To celebrate International Women’s Day 2019, Google released its “SEARCH ON: black girl magic” ad. Well-intentioned with a strong message of black fempowerment, the video failed to feature CaShawn Thompson – the woman who actually started the movement.

WATCH the Google video here.
READ the original article from designTAXI here.

SOURCE THE SOURCE Google is a smart company, so I’m willing to wager that the majority of employees have completed some sort of essay that required a firm knowledge of how and why one must properly note primary and secondary resources. Chicago Manual of Style? MLA? Anyone, anyone?

Even a complicated mathematical solution requires proper citations. Are you telling me that Google, ground zero for search, where the brand’s name has become a synonym for search, didn’t search the featured query at google.com? Unlikely.

Spoiler Alert, if you type in “black girl magic” into the Google search box, you’ll clearly see CaShawn Thompson’s name as Founder.

THICK AS THIEVES This is not merely an oversight. This is full-on idea theft and a misrepresentation of the genesis of the movement. By Google’s account, people just *happened* to start searching for a three words and lookahere, it’s a trend – completely ignoring the fact that Thompson had a direct hand on the name, the ethos, the associated assets and the driving force behind all that is #blackgirlmagic. PROVIDING A LITTLE COLOUR In 2018, Google released its diversity report which showed only 2% of its U.S. workforce identified as black. The lack of diverse voices shows in this campaign. Giving the marketing team the benefit of the doubt, even if there was representation, as a person of colour with first-hand experience of what it is like to be the only non-white face in the room to raise their non-white hand on the inappropriateness of an idea meant to illustrate inclusivity and diversity, I want to say: it’s fuckin’ hard. You don’t want to be the person who makes everything about race. You don’t want to be the person to clumsily explain the complicated nature of race relations while at the same time easing the growing white stress in the room. You also don’t want to lose your job for being “difficult”. Google has yet to comment on the situation, but I’m patiently waiting to see how they spin this. I suspect it will go one of three ways.B-b-but we had a black person on the creative team. They said it was okay. Sorry if anyone was offended. It was not our intention. We will now issue an official apology and donate $XX to a charity of Cashawn Thompson’s choice.*crickets* WHAT SAY YOU I am but one small voice, but I felt this was an important topic to discuss as the plagiarism / appropriation of ideas continues to be a challenge for women and particularly, women of colour. This is not the first time, nor will this be the last. If you’d like to show some support, here’s the link to Thompson’s twitter account.   — I started #BlackGirlsAreMagic to honor the Black women in my family and all around me that I saw doing incredible things, so much so that they appeared to be magical to me. The hashtag has been one of love and community-building for Black women online. I’m proud of how it has spread and been received, but it is also representative of my innovation and my work.— CaShawn Thompson —