Beyonce's "Formation"

Taking my liberties to write on anything relating to black culture, I’d like to take a minute to comment on Beyoncé’s new video and song release “Formation.” After one of Rhodes College’s most renowned and controversial professors wrote an article for Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/beyonces-black-southern-formation-20160208) on the topic, I cannot help to comment on its relevance and necessity. Beyoncé uses her popularity to turn a new page in her career going from a “Love on Top” mindset to one that’s politically and socially relevant with “Formation.” She uses her southern black woman identity to make a statement and possibly one of the most watched nights and music events annually at the 50^th Superbowl. In reading Dr. Robinson’s article in Rolling Stone, I also decided to read the comments addressing the article in some problematic ways with some saying “the only way we make things racial is when we bring up race.” Obviously this person missed the big picture.

It is rare that someone of her stature and popularity takes a stance politically for fear of losing fans and good favor with her audience. It is apparent that Beyoncé doesn’t care and is instead choosing to risk all of that to make people listen. She chooses to address intersectionality, black queerness, womanhood, violence, police brutality, and the south in less than four minutes. All issues of absolute relevance at this point in our nation’s history, she continues and even highlights this conversation.

During this music video she points out major problems people of color face in our nation. The fear of violence and death because of the lackluster care police officers take in their jobs. The contrast between having too much money and having no money at all forced to live in the projects. The idea that because you’re poor, you have no option to leave New Orleans before, during, or after Katrina because of the way our nation handles poverty stricken people in poverty stricken neighborhoods which are majority people of color. In particular she makes a statement for women and the power they should strive for without regard for the power of men. She calls herself an innovator in comparing herself to Bill Gates and in that moment calls for a formation of women to come together for the solidarity of black feminism, something often overlooked and hardly talked about.

Beyoncé is fighting this battle of structural racism and white privilege. She addresses major issues of how structural racism has affected black people and how she saw it in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She tackles white privilege by having practically no white people appear in her video. This flips the script on the majority white media that exists in America’s pop culture. She’s making black women the main character of the stories she believes need to be told. What is so important about this is that Beyonce is an artist that has access to nearly every audiences and especially the ones that need to be targeted: white and black listeners. She uses this access to create a message that needs to be heard, assessed, debated, and implemented.