Beyonce Stereotypes

Beyoncé Knowles, a well-known singer, songwriter uses two of her songs: “Freedom” and “Formation” to tell the story of herself. “Freedom” is the beginning of her story where she is searching for freedom and equality showing that there is still much inequality and injustice for African Americans in America today. The song slowly transitions to a more positive tone when she seems to have made something beneficial out of her difficult situation. “Formation,” however, has a completely different tone. While she does address negative situations from the past at the beginning of the song, she quickly transitions to a more positive tone full of pride in where she came from, who she has become, and what she has overcome. Together, the two songs

I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils. ” At one point in this music video, it zooms into a shot of her daughter, who is maybe 4 at the time, with her “natural hair” and, she is very proud of it. She is being taught that this is who she should be, not to be shamed of her race or ethnicity.

Over the past few years tragic events seem to be surrounding our society. An array of killings, social protests, police brutality and racism have startled the nation. Lately celebrities have been addressing these issues more and more on TV, in interviews and in the public eye. One incredible artist just used her talent to address all of these issues and more in her new music video "Formation". Beyoncé is an iconic figure in our culture, spreading her talent, feminist views and activism worldwide. This video is one of a kind. It is not centered on her but on Black America. There have been many critics disagreeing with Beyoncé 's video. They felt that she spread negative messages of police throughout her video. Others, however, loved her video. They felt she used her platform to reach out and address issues. Supporters and critics of the video have expressed their opinions in many different ways. In this paper I will analyze this video that has been shared worldwide. The question I ask is: "How does Beyoncé depict the complexity of Black Americans?" In order to answer this question, I will apply Pentadic criticism to analyze this discourse.

She dances in a colonial house’s hallway; while drawing reference to several southern states, while displays that she loves herself and her origin. She illustrates to the audience they should be proud of their ethnicities and celebrate their origins and draws focus on the many people devastated in New Orleans. Sometimes, throughout society there is pressure to alter ones skin tone, nose, or hair to conform to the while Anglo-Saxon expectations of beauty. In this video, Beyoncé makes it clear that she’s not interested in this from embracing her ethnicities and Southern

Originating from the beginning of the African American hardship in the United States, there have been different works of protest art that come from influential figures who attempted to adjust the ways of society. During times of slavery in the 1800’s, Frederick Douglass was a figure who brought upon staggering realizations and provided regular citizens a new consciousness regarding the truth of slavery. In the mid-20th Century when racism was burning throughout the country, Malcolm X took a powerful and compelling stance that induced a sense of fury and urgency among the African American audience. In today’s America, where the so-called “afterimages” of racism linger, Beyonce has implanted a sense of empowerment among the African American community through her music. In order for these

Beyonce is an African American female artist making incorporating empowering messages for women around the world. She is creating work that speaks to an audience that might not receive authentic mainstream. Beyonce ultimate goal is to visually and sonically entice wisdom through her music. Recently in a shocking video release, Beyonce debuted a new song “Formation” as well as a politically charged music video. This song was an uproar in the music industry worldwide. Millions of people around the world negatively viewed this song as a controversy. The music video and song caused many people to debate and cause a worldwide conflict.

The artist, Destiny Frasqueri, explores what it means to be young and brown in today’s America through her spoken word poem “Brown Girl Blues.” Frasqueri informs listeners of the hardship and oppression on the black community and the racial divide the government keeps on society. This argument makes sense. With the pandemonium that appears on the news and the riots that happen daily it’s obvious the reasons behind Frasqueri perspective. Though Frasqueri is talking on such deep and demanding material she stills keeps an optimistic disposition on the topic. Destiny Frasqueri has spent her whole artistic career writing about the injustice of minorities. Many of her other pieces have a more dark and isolated tone, but not “Brown Girl Blues”. The jazzy and soulful instrumental integrated with a video of young, black, powerful females gives a unique and hopeful vibe to

Although the critically acclaimed album titled Lemonade received positive feedback for the way its visuals captured the struggles of black Americans, specifically black women, there is one song off the album that obviously emphasizes the adversities they are facing. In the beginning of the first verse of Freedom (featuring Kendrick Lamar), she uses the imagery of storm to reference her struggle towards being free. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the song, she continues to use words that are synonymous to disaster and generally negative.

On February 6, 2016 Knowles released a song and video known as “Formation”, endorsing the #BlackLivesMovement and embracing her own blackness. “Formation” is an unapologetic message that identified the roots and history of black power, as Black History Month approached.This music video also gives her audience an insight that includes, imagery of the affects of Hurricane Katrina and the evolution of black culture and femininity. This allowed her viewers to visually understand the cruelty and immorality of police brutality; however, Knowles demonstrates the

While noticeably referring to the “free” Creole Bourgeoisie of color in the late 1800’s infused with the Victorian Era in relation to the Queen Victoria’s reign. There is a quick shot of Beyoncé wearing all white in reflection of the attire worn in that era by this wealthy race of people. The symbolism of the Victorian Era relates to the ideology of femininity. Her lyrics specifically says, “Okay ladies now let’s get in formation”. Being that Beyoncé can be considered a part of the modern-day elite, she is illustrating

The References in the time go from her choice of soul sustenance “ I like cornbread and collard greens, easy to believe it” to the control of a dull stalling band, adoring in a little, dark church, and even the voodoo charm that is still particularly a bit creole culture. Beyonce reclaims black culture and sheds light on the injustices brought upon people of color. “Black Lives Matter” In a period where the parts of our way of life that we were at the point stigmatized for are right now being appropriated and made into the standard by our white assistants, it's throughly invigorating to see beyonce stand up in her darkness, readily, and establish a

In Lemonade, Beyonce’s latest visual album, Beyonce addresses “urgent themes” including: black identity, Black Lives Matter, marriage infidelity, motherhood, faith, reconciliation, and the lives of black women who are in dire need of respect. In the powerful music video “Freedom,” black women join together to form a formidable visual community. Their unity and strong stances make it known these black women will not tolerate negative stereotypes, police brutality, attacks on a woman’s appearance, or assaults against a woman’s character. Gwen Carr, Sybrina Fulton and Lezley McSpadden, the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown appear alongside Sierra Leone ballerina Michaela DePrince and model Winnie Harlow, both of whom

The lyrics in this song expresses the things that some African Americans don't even realize, for example she states that, Black rage is founded on blocking the truth, Murder and crime. However, currently there has been focus on abuse and killing of unarmed blacks by police thanks to the U.S. news. In addition Lauren Hill supports her claim by mentioning instances of freedom denial where she says Black rage is found in dreaming and draining, threatening you freedom, to stop you

She emphasizes the strength, especially in the face of adversity, that black women manifest through this song. Her confidence in her appearance with more revealing clothing helped to defy the mold of black women that society enforces. The messages Khan sends through her music are grounded in black feminism. Kahn “breached the old walls of sexual silence and respectability that had necessarily defined the lives of many black women”(Echols 91). This emerging definition of black femininity in the seventies allowed black women to reclaim control over how they represent themselves and affirms their importance, strength and power in

While on her previous albums, Beyoncé was trying to empower all women, on Lemonade, Beyoncé speaks directly to black women. “As Jacqui Germain astutely noted on feministing.com, ‘Beyonce using the specific cultural marker of ‘Becky,’ [a social trope for white womanhood] in Lemonade is less a question of who’s excluding whom and why, and more so just us watching Beyonce be the ... multi-layered Black woman’” (Thompson, C., 2016). It was through this album that Beyoncé changed how the public thought of her. She was no longer afraid to not fully share what she wanted to say about current culture, and finally talked straight to black women to raise them up. It was also through this album that Beyoncé changed her image. Before her sixth album, Beyoncé definitely had feminist songs, but with Lemonade, she used rage to share her message, a message telling women that even after getting married, a man may not always be right for