Beyoncé has been in the news a lot lately – from her role in the latest Coldplay music video to her release of the song and music video Formation to preforming with Coldplay and Bruno Mars at the Super Bowl half time among other things. Rather than try to write a think piece or critically about issues related to all of these things, here are some articles that I’ve been reading for the past week and a half.
- “Formation” Exploits New Orleans’ Trauma – Beyoncé’s blockbuster video isn’t advocacy. It’s appropriation. – Shantrelle Lewis
- Beyoncé’s Surprise New Single is Both a #BlackLivesMatter-Inspire Protest Anthem and an Absolute Jam – Leon Neyfakh
- Dear Beyoncé, Katrina is Not Your Story – Maris Jones
- If You Ain’t Got In-“Formation” – Tiffany Lee
- Hymn for the Weekend: India’s Got 99 Problems… But Beyoncé’s Not One – Thanu Yalupitiyage (Ushka)
- Get What’s Mine: “Formation” Changes the Way We Listen to Beyoncé Forever – Naila Keleta-Mae
- The Strange Contradiction in Beyoncé’s New Song ‘Formation’ – Jeff Guo
- Beyoncé’s Black Southern ‘Formation’ – Zandria F. Robinson
- Beyoncé Wins the Super Bowl: Pop Legend Invokes Black Panthers, #BlackLivesMatter at Halftime Show – from Democracy Now!
- Black Lives Matter Co-Founder to Beyonce: ‘Welcome to the Movement’ – Alicia Garza
- Beyoncé Releases Mini-Documentary Highlighting Racial Injustice – Brennan Williams
- White People: Shut Up About Beyoncé – Melissa Hillman
- SNL Perfectly Parodies The White Reaction to Beyoncé’s “Formation” – Carly Lane
These two more have to do with Coldplay and their latest music video Hymn for the Weekend (which features Beyoncé), set in India:
- Coldplay’s eat-pray-love India: Their Beyoncé collaboration is even more insidious than cultural appropriation — and it’s not the band’s first time. – Paula Young Lee
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Coldplay: only the latest pop stars to misrepresent India as an exotic playground – Rashmee Kumar
That article about Katrina is incredibly interesting. While the author speaks to the essential Blackness of that experience, and 1000% rightfully so, it makes me wonder instead about the politics of disaster. Katrina may be a very recent disaster for us to call on when we need its power, but it isn’t the only one; people drop the word “Holocaust” any time they want, and the sinking of the Titanic is practically a joke punchline these days. Even 9-11 is brought up all the time without thought to how many people in our country may suffer PTSD from it. With so little understanding in the general public about disasters, both natural and manmade, it’s no wonder we don’t even consider the long-term psychological aspects of them. The author of that article is right; dredging up Katrina imagery just to make a statement is a shitty thing to do when you weren’t there. And if you’re using shock images to make a statement to white people, it’s best to remember what those images mean to your people too. Very interesting…
That’s one of the biggest criticisms I’ve seen of the Formation video – the visuals are incredibly powerful but there is that consideration of how the disaster impacted people who went through it.
I LOVE that SNL skit. It is hilarious! lol
Right?!? It’s one of the few in recent years that I really love