Mainstream Rebellion

Beyoncé and “Formation” Empower Black Women Long After Halftime

In the glory days of the 1990s, Hollywood took a chance and made Panther, which depicts the rise of the Black Panther Party in the 1970s. Like most movies of the day, Panther features a soundtrack offering a memorable aural journey through the same subject matter. The unforgettable song from the movie is “Freedom” featuring every hip-hop and R&B femme fatale of the day, from Aaliyah to Zhane. (Literally… see the Wiki). These talented women represent our beauty and through song, rejected our oppressors, and presented us with a charge — achieve respect by demanding the freedom of your mind and body, freedom from centuries of psychological abuse faced by Black women.

As a teenager in North Louisiana, this anthem gave me life. It fortified me and was newly inspirational against the backdrop of my parents’ teachings on ancestral pride parsed with society’s decorum and survival rules. The song affirmed an individual awareness on the edge of my subconscious — despite the obstacles presented to Black women in America (let’s generalize these as respectability politics), I do not have to be a different person. Society should accept me because I am a person. A person equal to all others and completely entitled to free to live humanely. Few in mainstream America understand the need for such an affirmation, especially by a teenager.

In 2016, for all of Black women’s approaches to merely existing in society, I see the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Oscar Grant, and countless others still mourn for their children. Society irrationally “fears” us, the system disproportionately malfunctions when we are involved, and society is still complicit in killing us. As evidenced by the abysmal situation in Flint and disproportionate use of gun violence against Blacks by police and armed White civilians, systemic racism continues to threaten basic survival for Black people. The human rights struggles of Black Americans persist.

Fast forward to “FORMATION”. When R&B fell from mainstream grace, Beyoncé emerged as society’s ideal Black artist, popular at appealing to the European aesthetic. She has also exuded its decorum by being elusive, polite in interviews, and staying out of “it”.

But God…

In her latest video, featuring beautiful Blue Ivy and her afro, Bey boldly rejects conformity while touching on everything: identity, history, beauty, female ambition, religion, sexual pleasure, and authoritarianism. She uses her Louisiana and Alabama roots for strength and at Super Bowl 50, she showed the world that she’s the same kind of Black you see and shun every day. You cannot separate her from Black, and you cannot stop her from being who she is. And when she is, she slays.

This is a 2016 battle cry for freedom from a woman who is among society’s most lauded and successful mainstream popular artists. She knows we — especially our children — cannot be free in this society until it is made to know who we are and accept us. Acceptance by others is only possible when you accept yourself. In her way, with full homage to the superpowers of her sister Solange, Bey is purposing her platform to make a statement to us and to society. She is not immune to the unprecedented awareness social media brings to the plight of Black Americans; and society is not immune to Beyoncé.

Twenty-one years ago, the sisters from “Freedom” sounded the alarm in this pseudo-revolutionary, and this week, Bey grabbed that torch for young Black women of today.

After Janelle Monae’s “Hell You Talmbout” in 2015, “Formation” truly means the simmering revolution among has boiled over into the mainstream. Society can keep trying to program us to believe we do not matter and will suffer if we reject inferior treatment, but nothing is stronger than us knowing and seeing that we do matter. Armed with that and high-profile allies, we will continue our magical existence — on our terms, often to a soundtrack… and we will always slay.

“I see the fear in your eyes, surprised your cover’s been blown
I know just who I am and what I wanna do
I can make you run, make you hide from all your ancestors’
Transgression that you hold inside

Sisters rising up and seeing that our time is here
We’re taking back what’s been ours for years
Let the heaven of a sister embrace you and praise ’em of the gods
All these lies and all this propaganda that you want us to take
We’re gonna take our Freedom”

“Freedom” Theme from Panther

Hip-hop version of “Freedom”