 One of the main things that Beyonce wants people, especially young women, to take away from her “Formation” video is the idea of equality. There are two kinds of equality that are repetitive in this video. The first, and more prominent of the two, is racial equality. The second, is gender equality. Racial equality is shown both very subtly and very obviously by Beyonce in her video, mainly with the representation of police brutality. Saying that there are multiple forms of showing this concept is good.  Over the past few years in the United States, the Black Lives Matter movement has caught a lot of momentum due to a large number of unwarranted police shootings against young African Americans. Beyonce represents this violence in her video in a very powerful scene showing a standoff between a young child and police officers. It is also shown throughout the video by showing Beyonce singing on a drowning police car.  Beyonce also calls for equal rights in women throughout the video shown by a group of servants standing on a porch. Her lyrics calling for gender equality are also more noticeable once they are paired with the video. Nice – you give a road map here and say up-front how you're going to demonstrate your thesis. 

The most obvious sign of police brutality is in a standoff between a child and police officers. Nice topic sentence  The scene begins with a long shot of a young child dancing through people standing should to shoulder’s legs standing at the exit of an alleyway. Awkward phrasing - I don’t understand the description here? The camera then cuts to a line of police officers in full riot gear, who the viewer would assume are the people standing shoulder to shoulder. This is confusing to the viewer as the police officers are dressed in full riot gear as if they were going to stop an angry mob, but it is just a young child dancing. The video then cuts to a few more scenes of Beyonce dancing and other symbols of African American culture, specific to New Orleans, and then goes back to the scene of the child and the police officers. The young child stops dancing and throws his hands up in the air as if to say “I am surrendering” or “don’t shoot.” Then there is a shot of all of the police officers throwing their hands up as well. After they throw their hands up, there is a powerful shot from behind the child of everyone with their hands up, the camera focuses on the child and blurs out he officers in the background. Then the camera shifts to a wall with writing on it that says “stop shooting us.” This is all visual description in one paragraph – each paragraph should be equal parts description of the visually apparent and analysis of those details. 

This scene is very powerful as a representation of police brutality. The young child is a symbol of all of the people who have been wrongly killed by police officers who, by throwing his hands up, shows their innocence. The police officers throwing their hands up also represents innocence, but it is the innocence of those officers who wrongfully killed African Americans and weren’t held accountable. This scene challenges police brutality by calling for those people who are responsible to be held accountable for their actions, because nothing will change if they aren’t. This paragraph should be pushed up to continue with the preceding paragraph's line of arguing; it is also a bit repetitive. 

Another scene that shows the struggle of racial inequality through police violence is very prevalent in the video. Beyonce starts the video standing on a police car that about halfway underwater, and throughout the video that water rises, until it is completely submerged. The car however is not fully submerged until right after the “stop shooting us” writing is shown. This is a symbol of the idea that if the police don’t stop the violence they will eventually lose their authority and “go under” as represented by the water. Good analysis! You could push this idea further – this paragraph is a bit underdeveloped. Tell me about implications/significance about this analysis.

Another type of equality that Beyonce calls for in her video is equality for women. This is first shown early in the video before she mentions anything about womens rights in her lyrics. There is a scene of people standing on a front porch of an old house, wearing old time specify? clothing. The five people, all of them African Americans, standing on the outside of the group are all men, and they are surrounding a woman (presumably Beyonce herself.) When paired with the somewhat mysterious mood of the video to this point, a viewer is confused by this group of people. Upon looking closer a viewer can see that the men standing around Beyonce look like servants of some sort, due to their dress and the way they are standing at attention. The men behind her look like butlers of sorts, the man to her right looks like he could be a driver. Due to her dress, her hat, and the way that she is in the middle of the group Beyonce looks like she could be in charge of these men, as a wealthy owner or boss. This breaks one’s normal assumption that only men can or be in charge of groups of servants or slaves. You set this paragraph up to be about lyrics, but then you go into visual description. Avoid this kind of inconsistency. 

Beyonce also challenges women’s rights in the lyrics of her song. The lyrics are very empowering towards women. In the chorus of the song Beyonce says “ok ladies, now let’s get in formation.” When paired with the visuals of Beyonce dancing with many other women this could be inspiring to young girls watching this video. Beyonce also constantly says “’cause I slay” in the background of most of the song. This could also be inspiring to young girls watching the video seeing Beyonce dance who also want to “slay.” what does "slay" mean? If you bring in lyrics to the conversation, you must analyze words. 

While if one only listens to the lyrics in Beyonce’s “Formation” they may not be able to tell, but equality, specifically racial, is the predominant theme in the song’s music video. Beyonce does this by bringing to light the problems in the world today with police brutality against African Americans. The innocence and guilt shown in the scene with the boy and line of police officers shows that things need to change in the relationship between African Americans and police. If these things don’t change, there will be some sort of consequence, represented by the drowning police car. Beyonce also wants young women to think high of themselves and wants them to know that they can do anything in a world where women still aren’t given completely equal opportunities to men. She does this by showing a woman who is in charge of a group of men, and a group of dancers, who’s true meaning comes out when paired with her brilliant lyrics. 
