A video shared by Michelle Obama of a dad and daughter duo singing a powerful song may be the sweetest thing you will see today.
"I just love this," Obama wrote in the caption on Instagram. "Kody and Daniel are so right: We are strong 💪🏾. #BlackJoy."
In the clip, the dad and daughter duo can be seen singing a song with the simple but powerful lyrics, "I love my Black so much, so much, so much. We are strong, and we are powerful."
TODAY was actually first to inform Daniel Johnson that Obama re-shared his video clip to her 40.3 million followers.
"Oh my God. Are you serious?" he said upon learning the good news. "I am gonna pull this car over and scream."
Johnson, a full-time musician, has taken a break from music amid the pandemic to focus on working with his daughter, Dakota Elle Johnson, who just turned 5 on July 3.
"I'm a girl dad and I am teaching my daughter music," he told TODAY.
From the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York, Johnson explained that Dakota, whom he shares with wife Titeanna Johnson, had difficulty talking until she 4.
"We got her evaluated and they couldn't tell us nothing," he explained. "She just couldn't talk. She would just mumble her words. So we had to find a way to communicate with her and at around 1 I introduced the piano to her. She would just sing melodies to us, and that is how she would prefer to communicate with us than talking."
Johnson's sweet melodies that he records and shares on social media have an empowering message of not only accepting yourself despite your differences but loving yourself because of your differences.
"I was teased a lot growing up for having darker skin, so I never wanted my kids to go through that," he explained. Johnson and his wife have another daughter together, 8-month-old, Taylor Ann.
Related
"So what I do is what I wanted for myself. I empower her by singing to her about her being beautiful and her skin being beautiful so even when I am not here and when she gets old — because this type of thing stays with you for the rest of your life — she will remember it," he said.
"I try to teach her to love herself even when dad is not around. I want my daughters to know that they are beautiful no matter what."