Black Lives Matter Co-Founder to Beyonce: ‘Welcome to the Movement’
Beyoncé once again broke the Internet when she released “Formation” Saturday. People on my Facebook timeline have talked about almost nothing else for the last few days.
Is this Queen Bey’s #BlackLivesMatter anthem? Maybe. What I do know is that the Queen is an expert at encouraging some of us black women to love on ourselves, exactly as we are, just a little bit more. For me it’s clear Beyoncé sees herself as a part of the movement for black lives, and believes that black lives matter — and ultimately, that’s what matters.
How do I know? Because in a little under five minutes, Bey told us who her people are, how that makes her who she is, and that she could care less about conspiracy theories about her man being part of the illuminati, or what you think about her daughter’s natural hair. She told us to forget the haters, because the best revenge is being successful; that she likes her men black, with the nostrils to match; that she’s rich, but don’t think for one second that she ain’t country, too; that she carries hot sauce in her purse; that she didn’t come here to play around; and that she is, ultimately, the Queen.
The lyrics of the song are complicated — and so is the movement itself. The images in the video conjuring the man-made tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, police violence, resistance and black life in the South showed that the Queen is multifaceted, complex, full of contradictions and black as hell. In it, she invokes Southern heritage, traditions and tragedy. She uses magic to remind us that we have the power to change the dynamics between police and the communities they’re supposed to protect and serve.
And then she literally writhed on top of a New Orleans police car, in floodwaters, and drowned with it. She drowned what has become a very visible symbol of state-sanctioned violence in the floodwaters that emerged from state-sponsored violence and neglect of poor black people in the Gulf Coast.
Black Lives Matter is rooted in some of these fundamental principles. We have come together to fight back against anti-black racism and state-sanctioned violence, in all forms. We are complex, multi-faceted, and led by what are still unfortunately considered to be non-traditional leaders: folks who are women, queer, trans, disabled, immigrant, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, poor and working class, Southern and rural, urban and coastal. We are comprised of the complexity of who black people are, not just in the U.S., but around the world.