When I woke up this morning, I was met with some...disturbing posts on Facebook. There were a bunch of articles/statuses being shared by different people, all with the same idea--that Beyonce's new video for Formation, along with her performance of it at the Super Bowl, was racist, hypocritical, and disgusting.
Hm.
Okay, first of all, if you haven't already watched the music video, here it is. Okay, done watching it? Wasn't it beautiful? Wasn't it a perfect blend of Beyonce's proud sexual energy and of her proud Black identity? Didn't you love the seamless weaving together of the past, present, and future New Orleans, and on a broader level, of the Southern Black identity? Did you notice all of the allusions to different kinds of spirituality, her continued support of female empowerment, her condemnation of police brutality? Yeah, I noticed it too.
So why, you may be asking yourself, why are people up in arms about this song, this video, and the subsequent Super Bowl performance this past Sunday? Well, it's difficult to give a simple answer to that question, because there isn't just one simple answer as to why our society is still finding reasons to demonize and condemn a powerful WOC who has (justifiably) decided to speak her mind through her art. There are a lot of layers to this problem, and all of these people continuing to give into their internalized racism, under the guise of being more morally sound than Beyonce, or whatever their reasons are for getting down on her, are just adding to the problem.
There is no doubt that Formation is paying homage to Black history, but it's not the white-washed version of our history that has been shoved down our throats since we first stepped into elementary school. The video shows images of a post-Katrina New Orleans, devastated by floods and poverty; it shows the New Orleans of the past, with a preacher in a Baptist church as well as people practicing Santeria and other non-Christian religions; and finally, we see the group of black-clad dancers, whose outfits harken back to the regalia of the Black Panthers (also: did you notice that all of the dancers were Black? And that they weren't being used as props for White performers? Isn't that refreshing??). Not to mention the powerful moment towards the end of the video where the young Black boy in the dark hoodie is dancing in front of a line of White police officers in SWAT gear, and as he finishes, the policemen raise their hands up in in the all-too-familiar "Hands up, don't shoot" position.
All in all, I love this video, I love this song, and I love Beyonce. But I still have a bitter taste in my mouth, and it has nothing to do with Beyonce. It has to do with the droves of people in the Internet who are so pissed off that a WOC performer has decided to stray from the path of just entertaining for entertainment's sake, rejecting the notion that she must cater to the beliefs and ideals of her White "fans," instead coming out with something that has significant meaning not only to her, but to her community. It's so infuriating, because these people that are calling Beyonce a hypocrite for calling out the issues with police brutality against Black people in this country are the same people who were praising her for the feminist anthem on her self-titled 2013 album, "Flawless." Everyone was soooo happy that Beyonce had "come out," so to speak, as a feminist. Her music suddenly changed from being the typical pop/R&B stuff it was in the 2000s into something more meaningful, more political, more empowering (not to say that her earlier work wasn't empowering, because it was, but you know what I'm talking about). But as soon as Formation came out, Beyonce stopped being so powerful in the eyes of those who secretly (or not so secretly) want to keep POC down. Suddenly, she's become a cop-hater, a racist (????), and any other terrible thing people can come up with when insulting her latest work.
People are comparing Formation to the Confederate Flag. They're saying that if you think the Confederate Flag is terrible, then you should automatically think that Beyonce's proud exhibition of Black history and heritage is also terrible...because that makes perfect sense. Yes, Beyonce and her dancers dressed up like the Black Panthers at the Super Bowl and raised their fists up, a move that is very much about Black power. But what I think people fail to see is that this is incomparable to what the Confederate Flag represents--that flag represents hundreds of years of Black oppression, of slavery, of racism. It is a symbol of the terrible plight African slaves, my god damn ancestors, had to endure. So when I see that people are comparing the outrage over the Confederate Flag to the empowering performance Beyonce and her dancers gave at the Super Bowl, I get angry. Really damn angry. For once, check your damn white privilege and stop trying to stifle the voices of people who have been fighting for years to be heard.
Oh, and when people bring up the fact that Beyonce is a hypocrite for being escorted by police to wherever she goes...
1) She's Beyonce, and there are plenty of people who want to get a piece of her (violently or not)
2) Just because she is protesting police brutality does not mean that she hates the police. In fact, the police force in this country are a wonderful group of men and women who work tirelessly every day to make sure that we are all safe, and I'm sure Beyonce knows and respects that. That does not mean that there are not bad police out there, because obviously, THERE ARE.
3) Stop trying to mask your closeted racism with these poor excuses. It's incredibly transparent, and it doesn't make you look any less bigoted.
4) Do you also think that President Obama is a hypocrite for having a constant police escort, when he too has spoken out against the problems with police brutality in this country? No? Okay.
This turned into a wild rant, and for that, I do not apologize. But I just can't stay quiet about this. Stop trying to bring powerful Black people down because they aren't conforming to your narrow-minded ideas about what Black people are supposed to do. Beyonce is in a very powerful position--she is arguably one of the most influential female performers in the world. It is admirable that she is using her position to spread the truth and stand up for what she believes in. Honor that. Respect that. Stop being assholes.
Hm.
Okay, first of all, if you haven't already watched the music video, here it is. Okay, done watching it? Wasn't it beautiful? Wasn't it a perfect blend of Beyonce's proud sexual energy and of her proud Black identity? Didn't you love the seamless weaving together of the past, present, and future New Orleans, and on a broader level, of the Southern Black identity? Did you notice all of the allusions to different kinds of spirituality, her continued support of female empowerment, her condemnation of police brutality? Yeah, I noticed it too.
So why, you may be asking yourself, why are people up in arms about this song, this video, and the subsequent Super Bowl performance this past Sunday? Well, it's difficult to give a simple answer to that question, because there isn't just one simple answer as to why our society is still finding reasons to demonize and condemn a powerful WOC who has (justifiably) decided to speak her mind through her art. There are a lot of layers to this problem, and all of these people continuing to give into their internalized racism, under the guise of being more morally sound than Beyonce, or whatever their reasons are for getting down on her, are just adding to the problem.
There is no doubt that Formation is paying homage to Black history, but it's not the white-washed version of our history that has been shoved down our throats since we first stepped into elementary school. The video shows images of a post-Katrina New Orleans, devastated by floods and poverty; it shows the New Orleans of the past, with a preacher in a Baptist church as well as people practicing Santeria and other non-Christian religions; and finally, we see the group of black-clad dancers, whose outfits harken back to the regalia of the Black Panthers (also: did you notice that all of the dancers were Black? And that they weren't being used as props for White performers? Isn't that refreshing??). Not to mention the powerful moment towards the end of the video where the young Black boy in the dark hoodie is dancing in front of a line of White police officers in SWAT gear, and as he finishes, the policemen raise their hands up in in the all-too-familiar "Hands up, don't shoot" position.
All in all, I love this video, I love this song, and I love Beyonce. But I still have a bitter taste in my mouth, and it has nothing to do with Beyonce. It has to do with the droves of people in the Internet who are so pissed off that a WOC performer has decided to stray from the path of just entertaining for entertainment's sake, rejecting the notion that she must cater to the beliefs and ideals of her White "fans," instead coming out with something that has significant meaning not only to her, but to her community. It's so infuriating, because these people that are calling Beyonce a hypocrite for calling out the issues with police brutality against Black people in this country are the same people who were praising her for the feminist anthem on her self-titled 2013 album, "Flawless." Everyone was soooo happy that Beyonce had "come out," so to speak, as a feminist. Her music suddenly changed from being the typical pop/R&B stuff it was in the 2000s into something more meaningful, more political, more empowering (not to say that her earlier work wasn't empowering, because it was, but you know what I'm talking about). But as soon as Formation came out, Beyonce stopped being so powerful in the eyes of those who secretly (or not so secretly) want to keep POC down. Suddenly, she's become a cop-hater, a racist (????), and any other terrible thing people can come up with when insulting her latest work.
People are comparing Formation to the Confederate Flag. They're saying that if you think the Confederate Flag is terrible, then you should automatically think that Beyonce's proud exhibition of Black history and heritage is also terrible...because that makes perfect sense. Yes, Beyonce and her dancers dressed up like the Black Panthers at the Super Bowl and raised their fists up, a move that is very much about Black power. But what I think people fail to see is that this is incomparable to what the Confederate Flag represents--that flag represents hundreds of years of Black oppression, of slavery, of racism. It is a symbol of the terrible plight African slaves, my god damn ancestors, had to endure. So when I see that people are comparing the outrage over the Confederate Flag to the empowering performance Beyonce and her dancers gave at the Super Bowl, I get angry. Really damn angry. For once, check your damn white privilege and stop trying to stifle the voices of people who have been fighting for years to be heard.
Oh, and when people bring up the fact that Beyonce is a hypocrite for being escorted by police to wherever she goes...
1) She's Beyonce, and there are plenty of people who want to get a piece of her (violently or not)
2) Just because she is protesting police brutality does not mean that she hates the police. In fact, the police force in this country are a wonderful group of men and women who work tirelessly every day to make sure that we are all safe, and I'm sure Beyonce knows and respects that. That does not mean that there are not bad police out there, because obviously, THERE ARE.
3) Stop trying to mask your closeted racism with these poor excuses. It's incredibly transparent, and it doesn't make you look any less bigoted.
4) Do you also think that President Obama is a hypocrite for having a constant police escort, when he too has spoken out against the problems with police brutality in this country? No? Okay.
This turned into a wild rant, and for that, I do not apologize. But I just can't stay quiet about this. Stop trying to bring powerful Black people down because they aren't conforming to your narrow-minded ideas about what Black people are supposed to do. Beyonce is in a very powerful position--she is arguably one of the most influential female performers in the world. It is admirable that she is using her position to spread the truth and stand up for what she believes in. Honor that. Respect that. Stop being assholes.