The music video to Beyonce’s new single “Formation,” which she performed during the Super Bowl Sunday, is being quickly labeled as political because of its references to Hurricane Katrina and Black Lives Matter protests.
But “Formation” differs radically from other post-Ferguson protests songs like Trip Lee’s “Coulda Been Me” or Rihanna’s “American Oxygen” video, which focus on black men’s deaths.
Beyonce’s celebration of her formation her heritage, her fine form, her politics—is a tapestry of black women’s colorful, textured lives, which refuse to become the living deaths that feminist foremother Audre Lorde warned us about.
While some activists call on African Americans to get militant in response to injustice, Beyonce asks ladies to get in formation, to stand side by side and show everyone we’re still here and “we gon’ slay, slay.”