Queen Bey has done it again! This eccentric entertainer has moved us worldwide with a different outook of artistic performance. In many songs and performances we have seen and heard how she encourages feminism and promotes women empowerment, as in the song “Flawless,” where she utilizes an excerpt from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech “We Should All Be Feminists”. Although, on this peculiar time, she played her cards right to denote the importance of Black History Month with her iconic “Formation” video and her memorable performance at the Super Bowl 50.
“Formation” contains various symbolic references concerning the black community that we should all pay attention to in order to understand its relevance from past and present occurrences, featuring southern black imagery
In the beginning of the music video, we recognize Beyonce sitting at the top of a police car in a massive flood. The flood setting represents the end result of Hurricane Katrina, where the community of New Orleans was severely affected by the storm in August 23, 2005.
During the video, we can identify the colonial apparel where it historically resembles the period where blacks were enslaved and degraded under white supremacy.
Also, Blue’s appearance leaves us feeling joyful as she confidently shows her beautiful and natural hair, as her mother sang the lyric “I like my baby hair with baby hairs and afro.”
Also, the very meaningful appearance of a man holding a newspaper titled The Truth with front page “More than a Dreamer,” and the picture of the legendary civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
Although it has caused controversy to the conservatives, it is clearly not what she intended to portray through this strategic political statement.
For example, in the following gif, it is allegedly believed that the boy could either represent Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown, both unarmed when shot by police officers, causing national controversies, and further growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement. This boy could also embody all the other lives wrongfully taken as well, which is outstandingly powerful. However, Fox News shames her Super Bowl performance and video as “outrageous” as said by New York’s public speaker Rudy Giuliani as if the message she was transmitting was disrespectful to the police. We all understand and respect that the police aren’t the enemy, but Beyonce’s intentions were not to advocate hatred towards them, but to create black conscious to society as a whole.
Finally, ending the video with Beyonce and the police car sinking in. This last scene emblemetazes all the lives lost and voices unheard for the help that did not arrive on time post Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
This video has been scandalously critized, but not as much as her part in the Super Bowl performance where it also had symbolic references throughout the costumes that resembeled The Black Panthers‘ uniform and the Malcom X formation (while performing Formation). Disregarding the negative comments, this video has been strikingly influential coming from Beyonce. It was very well orquestrated to display black suffrage and also take pride of their roots to celebrate the meaningfulness that this month beholds.