I am a white male. And I love Beyoncé. I fell for her back in 2008 when she released “I Am… Sasha Fierce.” Yes, I know, I was way late to the game. But I only listened to Casting Crowns and Steven Curtis Chapman the first 16 years of my life. I lived a sheltered life. However, If I Were a Boy, Halo, Single Ladies, Diva, Sweet Dreams all got me going, but after hearing her pipes on Ave Maria, I about lost my mind every time I hit ‘repeat.’ Then she released 4 with Run the World and Love On Top and Best Thing I Never Had. Watching her video for Run the World was like watching your favorite heroine kick ass, but then watching her in Best Thing I Never Had almost turned me straight. Friends of ours like to say that everyone is Beyoncésexual. I have to agree.
Then she did the unthinkable: dropped an album without any promotion and it went to number 1 on the charts overnight. It wasn’t just any music album, it was a video album, complete with a video for every single song on the album. And I would argue that it was her best album to date. Many claimed she explored ‘darker themes’ in this album, but I just called them ‘real life’ themes. She sings about depression, motherhood, unnatural beauty standards this country places on women, feminism, women empowerment, and making love with her husband. She brings her full self as a woman into this album and it is Flawless. I remember listening to that track for the first time driving to dinner with the same friends who say everyone is Beyoncésexual and thinking, “This is everything.” She critiques patriarchy in Flawless and explores the depth of depression caused by patriarchy in Pretty Hurts. And while I am not a black woman, I am a gay man and I have suffered from patriarchy in my own ways, from the need to be the ‘perfect (straight) man’ and the need to be someone I am not. Her lyrics, melodies and videos affected me deep in my bones because I either found myself in them or raised my fist with her in protest and danced in celebration.
A week and a half ago, she dropped the new song and video Formation the day before the Superbowl and it is spectacular. It is woman. It is black. And she is unapologetic about her womanness and her blackness. Thank God. Then, she performs a part of it at the Superbowl and she is both praised and ridiculed. Her outfit pays tribute to Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, a black man. Her backup dancers wore outfits that paid tribute to the Black Panthers, a group often villainized during the 60s and 70s by the media and government for empowering black people.
Beyoncé’s performance evoked images of blackness at the Superbowl and it upset people, mostly white people. While some white people will say they’re upset because Beyoncé brought politics into the Superbowl or that her performance was anti-cop, I believe they are mistaken. They are upset that Beyoncé brought her black woman body into their presence and had to acknowledge her. They are upset that Beyoncé showed up and didn’t pretend to be white. Her lyrics have nothing in them about police, about being anti-cop. Only her dancers’ Black Panther attire could be referred to as being anti-cop, and that too is a stretch because they were an activist group, not an anarchistic group. Her video points towards ending police brutality with images and writing on a wall that says, “Stop shooting us,” but her lyrics do not. Also, allow me to point out that being anti-cop is different than wanting police reform and refusing to accept police brutality as a norm. Furthermore, people accused her of making her performance political. If people mean that she brought politics into it by singing about her blackness, then yes, she brought in politics. But it’s disturbing to me that singing about one’s skin color and culture and heritage is political. It’s disturbing to me that when a black woman decides to sing about being a black woman, she is villainized and accused of being political (in a negative sense). When a black woman is asked to sing in front of millions of people on television, we are going to see a black woman singing on t.v., and that means she’ll show up with all of her black woman experiences.
It’s time for white people to calm down and actually listen to the stories black men and women and children are telling us. It’s time for white people to stop being afraid of losing their privilege and power so that everyone who’s at the dinner table can have a bite to eat. It’s about damn time white people in the U.S. stopped hating on a woman because she’s a woman and a black person because she’s a black person and a black woman because she’s a black woman.
Thank you Beyoncé for being you. Here’s Formation in case you haven’t seen the video: https://vimeo.com/154783794
Thank you Jessica Williams for your spectacular account of Beyoncé’s performance here: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/j79s76/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-beyonce-s-halftime-show-message
Thank you SNL for this laugh that is simultaneously sad and hilarious and insightful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociMBfkDG1w
Timothy Burge-Lape 