
Racial segregation was a big problem in the U.S. all the way back in 1896 when the Supreme Court passed the Plessy v. Ferguson law. It took until 1964 to fully end all laws regarding racial segregation. That is sixty-eight years straight of American people being told they are not all the same and that black people have restrictions on things white people don’t. Even when “ending” this racial division it still took time to get used to everyone actually being equal for once. Some people accepted it and learned that things had changed and now whites and blacks were equal, but not everyone. This caused for some racial tension and unfairness to still stick around. One might argue that despite the law changes, there are some things that still aren’t completely equal. To this day we are still having racial disputes between the white and black communities. Some blacks in our community today feel like they still need to prove their power and control in the world against the authority figures that control us all, black and white people. Beyoncé is one of those people not letting the cops, or anyone for that matter, control her. In her music video, “Formation,” she works to show her dominance and power over the police and does so by using motifs, different angles from which the scene is being shot from, and the different outfits and colors used in each scene.

The motif in Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video of her standing on a cop car, is shown multiple times throughout the video but has two instances when it is the most prominent and makes the point she is trying to get across to her viewers. The first instance of the motif is played at the very first second of the video. The scene is Beyoncé standing on top of a cop car in the middle of the water with flooded houses in the background. Right away this scene makes the viewer feel the amount of power and control she has over the authority figures of her town. The second instance of this motif is her now laying on top of that same police car at the very end of the video. This scene shows power and control like no other. It demands attention as the police car sinks into the water as she is just laying on top of it as it goes down. Although, this scene could also convey a sense of powerlessness. By showing Beyoncé on top of a car that is slowly sinking into water it could show that she is actually submissively sinking down with everyone else. When watching the video many viewers could see it many different ways but most see this as a video that’s all about having power over the law and being able to get what she wants by working for it no matter what race one might be. With her standing on the cop car it shows a lot of command and that’s the point she is trying to get across from the video as a whole. 

This visual text is used to show dominance and power over the police and is done so in many ways. One way is the different angles from which the scene is shot and how the scenes portray the characters. There are multiple scenes where the dominance is shown. For example, in the music video, there is a scene with a child in a black jacket with the adult cops all around him with their hands up in the way the police would normally make others do. It helps us visualize the control the kid has over the police by making them put up their hands the way the police normally make us put up ours. This video is all about racial power over the police and this scene really portrays that. The second scene that is a good example of this is the scene that encompasses the first motif. This scene is shot from a straight on view of Beyoncé’s whole body and her surroundings using the long shot angle. This really encourages the viewer to take in her whole image along with the background and atmosphere around her. This scene is shot from a bird’s eye view to show her surroundings which is the big body of water she is sinking into. This scene can be seen one of two ways, either that the big body of water is swallowing her up and she is powerless. This could also be seen as a form of overcoming fear of the huge amount of water and letting it take her in while she is still in control by being on top of the sinking police car. It’s almost like the only way to defeat the problem is to take her down with it too but she is willing to do that to show her power and to get what she strives for. The angle of the camera contributes to this effect. When shooting from this angle it gives the dramatic effect of the scene to continue to build the meaning of the music video which is the dominance and power of Beyoncé. Those two scenes are two of the main sections that get the message the music video is trying to get across but there is one more important scene showing the example of power, when Beyoncé is wearing a black hat covering her eyes but she is still looking straight into the camera. During that scene you can strangely feel her looking through the camera at the viewers and it is very powerful. The way the camera men shot that so close up gives the viewer that strange feeling. Some readers may see this as her being blinded and not fully seeing her surroundings for what they truly are. Others see this as a depiction of her saying “I can see what is going on even with my eyes closed.” 

While the motifs and scene shots help influence the dominance of Beyoncé in her music video, “Formation,” so does the different outfits and colors used in each scene. The colors used throughout were different between each scene, going from the older day sepia colors to the newer more vibrant colors. This makes the viewer think about the racial issues from the past and combining them with today’s issues. This is shown through the outfits she is wearing in the sepia colored scenes compared to the more modern outfits worn in some of the other, more modern scenes. It is as if we are backtracking in racial segregation and this video really points that out to us. In one of the “modern day scenes” she even shows a newspaper with Martin Luther King Jr. on the front of it reading “More Than a Dreamer.” That alone ties together the past racial segregation issues and the present racial issues showing that the black people are still fighting for the same thing Martin Luther King Jr. was in the 1960s. These colors, outfits, and items used throughout the music video show the present hasn’t changed that much since the past. This kind of just tops off all of the reasons why Beyoncé feels the need to have to show, prove herself and her power.

This visual text definitely accomplishes what it is meant to accomplish by arguing the point that the law shouldn’t be treating the black community different from anyone else. In her music video, “Formation,” she works to show her dominance and power over the police and does so by using motifs, different angles from which the scene is being shot from, and the different outfits and colors used in each scene. All of those devices used in the video are presented loud and clear to the viewers. This visual text helps get the point across about the equality of the races and shows everyone that you can get what you want as long as you work for it and believe no one can stop you no matter what race you are. With that being said, do you believe you should have to work harder for something just because you’re a different race than someone else? Inequality is still a problem in the world today and many people are trying to work on it and hopefully this issue will be fixed in the next few decades at least.