I agree that as a non-Black person you can’t fully grasp the message and that the rest of us have to celebrate this message and music with this awareness.

HOWEVER, ALSO- I do want to point this out:

The beauty in what Beyonce is doing with this song and with her fame is that her audience platform consists of Black AND White AND other (like me). THAT is what makes her message so powerful; she speaks to all of us and gets through. Black people need to hear this powerful message of empowerment from someone as influential as her BUT White (and other) people do too… just for different reasons. We NEED White people singing Formation. We NEED them to hear it. We NEED them to know they need to be a part of the changes ALSO… they need to take responsibility and they need to back off and appreciate the stories of their Black American counterparts. And the power of music is that it is a platform for influence like no other. If Beyonce’s audience was a purely Black audience the message wouldn’t be as powerful a movement. Not because there wouldn’t be power in that alone…but because the nation as a WHOLE needs to hear a woman they all love and adore talk about the way she loves her own culture...the culture that so many of her own fans criticize and are racist towards. They need to know that they can’t continue to love HER or others like her without acknowledging her Blackness, her culture, her come-from. We have to get clear about this as a nation… that this conversation shouldn’t just be taking place in Black communities. This conversation needs to be taking place everywhere and with every community. I’m not talking about an “All Lives Matter” approach… that is the most atrocious thing I have ever heard. I am talking about non-Black communities acknowledging their Black counterpart’s struggles as a national problem and not as a Black problem. White people can’t continue to be a part of the problem and pretend that they shouldn’t show up to be a part of the solution.