
 One of the main things that Beyoncé 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 faintly and very obviously by Beyoncé in her video, mainly through the representation of police brutality. 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. Beyoncé 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 Beyoncé singing on a drowning police car.  Beyoncé 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.

The most obvious sign of police brutality is in a standoff between a child and police officers. The scene begins with a long shot of a young child dancing through people standing shoulder to shoulder’s legs standing at the exit of an alleyway. 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. This is a crafty way to represent the drastic actions that many officers have used in the face of little to no danger, which results in these deadly shootings. The video then cuts to a few more scenes of Beyoncé 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 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. The metaphorical and literal ‘writing on the wall’ in this scene is a call for officers to be held more accountable, because if things continue the way that they are, who knows where what it will lead to. 

Another scene that shows the struggle of racial inequality through police violence is very prevalent in the video. Beyoncé 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. Also, the way that Beyoncé is standing on top of the police car could be a representation of the way that she wants African Americans to rise up and overcome this brutality and end up ‘on top.’

Another type of equality that Beyoncé calls for in her video is equality for women. This is first shown early in the video before she mentions anything about women’s rights in her lyrics. There is a scene of people standing on a front porch of an old house, wearing old time 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 Beyoncé 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 Beyoncé 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 Beyoncé 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. Beyonce being in charge of this group of servants breaks the majority of people’s assumptions that only can be in charge of workers. These workers don’t always have to be servants or slaves either, they can be modernized into workers for businesses, factories, and other large corporations, which, most people usually assume, are headed up by men. 

Beyoncé also challenges women’s rights in the lyrics of her song. The lyrics are very empowering towards women. In the chorus of the song Beyoncé says “ok ladies, now let’s get in formation.” When paired with the visuals of Beyoncé dancing with many other women this could be inspiring to young girls watching this video. Beyoncé 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 Beyoncé dance who also want to “slay.”

While if one only listens to the lyrics in Beyoncé’s “Formation” they may not be able to tell, but equality, specifically racial, is the predominant theme in the song’s music video. Beyoncé does this by bringing up one of the biggest problems the United States faces today, police brutality. 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, whether that be a loss of a job or imprisonment, represented by the drowning police car. Beyoncé 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 inspiring lyrics. 
