Empower Yourself
I have to admit, as a white, middle aged, middle class woman, I have no idea what Beyonce's video and song "Formation" are about. I don't particularly find the song interesting, and all I got out of the video was that it was beautifully done and gorgeous to look at.
But it sure lit a fire under a lot of people. I have seen virulent critiques of the song, the singer, and even the NFL for allowing Beyonce to perform it at the Super Bowl. And most of those critiques have come from other white people I know. According to them, it is anti-white and anti-cop. So why would I be writing about it on a blog about empowerment? Because, for the most part, history is written by the powerful, and African Americans have not been served well by our current historical narrative. Accomplishments by African Americans are rarely lauded. Did you know that the modern gaming console was invented by African American Gerald Lawson? Did you know that African Americans invented the carbon filament for light bulbs that made them long-lasting and efficient, the X-Ray spectrometer, blood banks, the traffic light, and movable refrigeration, to name a few of the many, many inventions that African Americans have made that improve our lives? I remember a day 18 years ago when I saw a poster in a colleague's office about Garrett Morgan, the traffic light inventor. I remember that day because I was astonished--not about the fact that I had learned in high school about the inventor of the light bulb, the cotton gin, the steam engine, and gun powder, but not a word about the traffic light--I was astonished that I felt shocked that an African American was the inventor. Yeah, I'm not proud of that, but it says a lot about the environment I was raised in and the kinds of things that my education consisted of. I had learned that African Americans were slaves, oppressed, poor, powerless, uneducated, and voiceless. It never occurred to me to wonder where those educated, well-dressed, and powerful-speaking civil rights leaders came from. And no one in my circle of educators, family or community (granted, I was a child in the 60s and a teen in the 70s) offered to inform me of anything different. Well, apparently, Beyonce's video takes on all of that and more. Jim Downs, a professor of History and American Studies at Connecticut College, writes that Beyonce's video takes "aim at traditional portraits of black people as subjugated, regimented, and unquestionably heterosexual. In place of those traditional bonds, she restores to them their multifaceted history." And that is why this video and song are empowering. Beyond the obvious that those in the African American community can immediately understand its messages, it pricks at the consciousness of white America by making us feel uncomfortable about things we are comfortable with. Her song, because of its pop status and ability to reach millions of Americans, forces all of us to see African Americans as something other than what we have been told they are. And it forces us to respond to the unresolved issues of Hurricane Katrina, police killings of unarmed black men, stop and frisk, and the plethora of issues that face black America that the rest of us are blithely unaware of. The song and video not only embrace the history of African Americans, but celebrate the black experience, and Beyonce's message is that we are here, we are black, we are proud and we will not accept the status quo. That message has always been scary to those who have historically had the power and written the history of America. It doesn't have to be scary. All of us, regardless of our ethnicity, should stop circling our wagons to protect the status quo. Sure, it is natural to reflexively respond by defending the status quo. But come on, even the slightest bit of self-reflection would reveal that there is still a lot of work to be done in race relations, that not all Americans have equal possibilities, and it isn't because they are lazy or unmotivated. "Formation" should be viewed as a call for all Americans to look beyond the superficial, question our own motivations and way of thinking, and think outside our comfort zone. For white Americans, that means not only taking an honest look at the lives and contributions of non-European based Americans, but also how our policies have both empowered and subjugated whole ethnicities of people; for non-European Americans, it means...you know what? I don't know what it means. I'm a white middle-aged, middle class woman, and history was written about and by my ancestors. I have no right to tell the powerless what they need to do. But I sure hope there is someone out there who does have that ability.
2 Comments
Linn
2/15/2016 05:56:19 pm
So well said Linda......I admit that I've sort of been aware of the hub bub about the song.....and saw it in the background during half-time, but missed the lyrics etc. with all the conversations going on at the Super Bowl gathering. I think I will go re-watch. Just got home from the library book discussion where we talked about Mudbound set in rural south on a cotton farm just after WWII....and the racism at the time.......sad to say we are still face with so many divisions.
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Linda
2/16/2016 05:27:02 am
So what did you think after you had a chance to look at it? It is kind of fascinating now that we know some of what it means, huh?
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AuthorI am a yoga instructor, author and activist. I wrote The Diamond Tree to inspire women to take chances. Even if the outcome of any given risk is different than expected, there is something for the community and the individual to gain from it. Archives
May 2020
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