Dancing in the snow

As someone who walks the path of Hoodoo—not because I found it online, but because it lives in my blood, my bones, my people—I feel it’s time to speak plainly.

Lately, I’ve been feeling a shift. I’m not the only one. More and more folks in the Hoodoo community, especially Black folks who’ve inherited this work through our families or come to it through ancestral callings, are speaking up about something that’s been sitting heavy on our hearts: Hoodoo is being treated like it’s open to everybody. And that’s a problem.

Let me be real clear: Hoodoo is Black American folk magic. It was born out of slavery, survival, resistance, and deep spiritual knowledge carried from Africa and blended with what our ancestors could find and use in a world built to crush them. It’s not a trend. It’s not “just magic.” It’s not interchangeable with witchcraft or Wicca or whatever new aesthetic is popular this week.

This is our tradition. It was built in the shadows of plantations and backwoods kitchens. It was whispered between grandmothers and aunties, handed down in prayers, in oils, in roots, in the way we survived when nothing was left to hold onto but God and grit.

And now, it’s all over the internet.

Non-Black folks are selling jar spell kits labeled “Hoodoo.”

People with no connection to the culture or history are making content, writing books, and calling themselves rootworkers.

Things that used to be sacred are now trending hashtags.

It don’t sit right. It shouldn’t sit right.

The truth is, more of us are starting to say: we want Hoodoo to be a closed practice again.

Not because we’re trying to gatekeep out of spite—but because we are tired. We are tired of seeing the sacred used carelessly. We are tired of seeing folks profit off our culture while ignoring our history. And we are tired of having to constantly explain that you don’t get to choose to practice Hoodoo the way you choose a new hobby.

This work comes with ancestors. It comes with accountability. It comes with pain and power that can’t be separated from Blackness.

And yes, we’re protective. We have every right to be.

So here’s what I’m asking, if you’re reading this and you’re not part of the Black community but you’re drawn to Hoodoo:

Sit with why.

Is it because you want power without responsibility?

Is it because it looks cool on social media?

Or is it because you’re longing for connection—and maybe you need to find it in your own roots, your own ancestors, your own folk traditions?

Because Hoodoo ain’t for everybody. And that’s not hate—it’s protection.

We protect this work because it protects us.

Because our grandmamas didn’t fight to keep it alive just to see it turned into a gimmick.

Because our spirits, our roots, our ancestors deserve better than exploitation.

If you care about Hoodoo, respect it enough to leave it to the people it belongs to.

If you’re a practitioner, speak up. Set boundaries. Keep the sacred sacred.

her name was freddie oversteegen and she, at the age of fourteen, along with her older sister truus who was 16 and their friend johanna “hannie” schaft who was 19, was a part of the netherlands most famous all female resistance cell which was dedicated to fighting the nazis and dutch traitors.

among other things, they are known to have blown up bridges and railroads, smuggled jewish children from concentration camps and, as the tweet mentions, seducing nazis and then shooting them with guns that they had hidden in their bike baskets. freddie is quoted as having said that they “had to do it.” and that it was a “necessary evil, killing those who betrayed good people.”

though freddie and her sister truus were both lucky and survived the war, hannie schaft wasn’t. at the age of 24, hannie was caught and around three weeks later was executed by nazis, only 18 days before the netherlands were eventually liberated. she was shot with one only wounding her, and, before the final shot, hannie is quoted as having told the executioners: ik schiet beter, which translates to “i shoot better.”

though she didn’t survive, hannie is recognized as a national icon and a face of the dutch resistance, with her story even being retold in a movie from 1981 called “the girl with the red hair.” along with this, truus also founded the national hannie schaft foundation in 1992, on which freddie served as a board member.

freddie, at the time of her death, was 92 years old and the last surviving member of the resistance cell, with truus having died two years earlier at the age of 92.

Also regular reminders that:

Black people can be asexual and are 1000% valid AF (racism + fetishization makes this necessary to point out)

People you find sexually attractive can be asexual and are 1000% valid for it

No one is required to indulge any sexual attraction you have for them regardless of your sexuality or theirs

Asexual people can and do have sex - there are asexual sex workers y'know & ace folks in partnerships with children

Asexual people who are sex repulsed and do not have sex are just as valid as aces who are sex favourable or indifferent

Allosexual people who are sex repulsed are also valid and it doesn't mean they're asexual by default. Attraction and action are two different things