Black Girl Magic and Black Boy Joy Hit Platform 9 3/4, and #BlackHogwarts Was Born

Although we now have Black Panther, Black Mirror and A Wrinkle in Time—films that, in fact, employ black actors to play black characters—a few years back, black folks in mainstream sci-fi and fantasy were few and far between.

As Ashley Nkadi recently wrote for The Root, we were usually “erased” from these genres, though rich racial metaphors abound: “In these fictional worlds, anything could happen: magic, dragons, travel through space and time. Anything, that is, except diversity.”

But fear not; that will never happen. Not in the real world, not even in a reimagined fantasy world.

Not when there’s #BlackHogwarts, which used GIFs, pics and notes to infuse the world of Harry Potter with a rich stew of magic and melanin.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/951598325417078784

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was feeling it, and so was I (sorry, non-Potter fans, the jokes are kinda insidery).

https://twitter.com/all__hale_/status/951934233639030784

https://twitter.com/Reshadjason/status/951828316109115392

https://twitter.com/NikeRobot12/status/951920716559024134

https://twitter.com/zero_past/status/951761117034016768

https://twitter.com/LamarRazor/status/951913693301927936

https://twitter.com/yxngvim/status/951921221070938112

https://twitter.com/albert12nunez/status/951864735292710912

https://twitter.com/RespectMyElders/status/951523254967197701

https://twitter.com/LasciviousBobo/status/951932796360040448

https://twitter.com/Sickshoota/status/952024112486125568

https://twitter.com/iBeezTamii/status/951819051021553665

https://twitter.com/candacetukes/status/951846417403973632

https://twitter.com/DarylJElliott/status/951812548067758080

https://twitter.com/psnhardaway19/status/951428183861194752

https://twitter.com/KeeperOfHoodies/status/951528729267851265

https://twitter.com/gaymerchik/status/951519271103983617

https://twitter.com/MsBriannaGuice/status/951907381600030723