This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at KU chapter.
Saturday, Feb. 6, the day after what would have been Trayvon Martin’s 21st birthday and a day after Jay-Z’s TIDAL donated 1.5 million dollars to Black Lives Matter and other affiliate charities and causes, Beyoncé released an unapologetic, activist anthem called “Formation.”
Beyoncé is unarguably one of the most powerful and successful black women to have graced the entertainment industry. She worked hard and built an empire centered around her amazing vocal, lyric and artistic talents which extends past the entertainment industry all the way out into the political sphere; her following is unprecedented and her legacy timeless. One of her many talents is her ability to use striking visual art to accompany her smooth, catchy musical narratives to make powerful statements and to reveal her alignment with various positions, like art, fashion, politics or service.
And right at the commencement of Black History Month, Beyoncé’s newest piece of artwork definitely did not fail to deliver a powerful message of unapologetic blackness and political activism.
The video begins with a voiceover from Messy Mya, a comedian and social media celebrity, saying “What happened in the New Wil’ins?” as the video features Beyoncé atop a sinking New Orleans police car and a montage of various aspects of New Orleans black culture before ending the introduction with a feature of a recreation of a scene of the damaging aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In this, attention is brought to the questionable circumstances regarding the murder of Messy Mya, as well as the obvious exposure of the impacts of systematic racism and oppression as they appeared post Hurricane Katrina in the way that the government failed to protect the black people of New Orleans.
Beyoncé then starts the song from atop the sinking police car, “y’all haters corny with that Illuminati mess,” knocking the ridiculous idea and wildly popular theory that because of her power and success she has to be a part of the Illuminati — a theory that undermines her credibility and success as a black woman by accrediting her power to a white centered, patriarchal “secret society.”
Later on in the refrain, Beyoncé reminds us of the roots of her blackness and how their powerful mixture made her who she is today. “My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana. You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma.” She then goes on to uplift specific black features, features that her family (immediate and conceptually) have been targeted for possessing, by affirming the beauty of “baby hair and afros” and “Jackson Five nostrils.” And through her verse about “hot sauce in my bag” and a voice over (from Messy Mya and Big Freedia — a New Orleans bounce artist) about cornbread and collard greens, Beyoncé owns the stereotypes about black (especially southern black) food and tastes to embrace her blackness unapologetically.
The rest of the song continues on with powerful, carefree black girl themes of working hard, making money, dominating and banding together to own our potential and power to push the movement further than thought possible over a series of shots featuring different aspects of black culture and southern black culture, black power fists, deconstructions of caricatures of major black figureheads (Martin Luther King Jr. as a passive dreamer), and a powerful feature of a small black boy dancing in front of a row of police officers (the only white people in the video), ending with a pan over of graffiti reading “stop shooting us” and the police officers with their hands up.
“Formation” is a black power anthem and a call to arms. The video is an ode to black girl magic, featuring lots and lots of natural hair and an always beautiful, sharp choreography routine executed by a crew of all black girls representation of all shades of black, “ladies, now let’s get in formation.”
Black Lives Matter.
Here is the video (and the source for all of these images).
