When learning about American history, often times the negative aspects of our country are glossed over. The degree to which this occurs depends on many factors: where the student is from, the political leanings of the student’s teacher, which history book the student’s school used, and which historical movies or books the student has been exposed to. However, people generally picture the past the same way, due to popular movie tropes, because film often shapes the way that people apply the facts learned in school to a physical setting. Students learn that the south’s main export was cotton. Students picture African Americans picking this cotton due to their knowledge of slavery’s prevalence in the south and the many popular movies depicting this. When picturing African Americans in the context of American history, they are often in the role of a slave. Beyoncé’s music video Formation turns this idea on its head, featuring African Americans in very fancy old fashioned clothing inside of homes that were occupied by slave owners in the past. The Formation video uses the viewer’s initial thoughts about the locations pictured and their shock at the anachronisms in the video to make a statement about the place of African Americans in society. 

The video opens with a view of houses in New Orleans being consumed by the Katrina floodwaters. These houses seem to be cheaply made and poorly kept, these are very reminiscent of a slum primarily occupied by African Americans in popular films. These homes are a permanent fixture in most cities, usually in an unsightly part of town that most people avoid. To see their impermanence as they wash away prompts the question of why they were there in the first place. This begins the video’s narrative of the locations black people occupied historically and the locations they occupy now and draws a scary comparison between them: that African Americans had no control over their location in the past, and that their subjugation and constant hardships that society places on them have kept them in undesirable locations like slums. As the ugly homes are covered by water, the viewer readies themselves for the boundary-breaking ideas that Beyoncé will present.

Beyoncé stands in front of a plantation house in a beautiful gown. The house staff stand behind her and surround her. There is a stark difference between this scene and the scene one would traditionally see in front of a southern estate. This is traditionally a house which would be owned by a white man and staffed by African American slaves. Instead, a powerful black woman stands in front of it, claiming ownership over it. The fact that this scene is in the Formation music video shows what African Americans have overcome in America. 

Beautifully dressed black children dance in the parlor of the plantation house. They are enjoying the beauty and space that the house has to offer, filling a role that black children never would have filled in a house like this in the past. Historically, in the view of society, black children were just small slaves. This scene shows in detail the beauty of these children and their presence in this place. This scene takes the viewer deeper into the house than just the idea of Beyoncé owning the house by standing outside of it. It shows this house that represents a history of slavery being inhabited and lived in by African American children. This deeper view contrasts against one’s idea of these houses, and causes the viewer to try and see what is wrong with this picture. The viewer realizes that there isn’t anything wrong with this scene, but with the history of this type of home. 

Beyoncé sits with several other black women in the sitting room. Beyoncé looks like a queen surrounded by her ladies in waiting. This is another instance of using the viewers’ expectations of a look into this building to surprise them with a different take on a scene that might occur there. The women surrounding Beyoncé are all black and beautiful, and their hair stands out against the beautiful white dresses. One woman has natural curls, another has dreadlocks, another has permed and relaxed hair. This type of uniqueness differentiating them from each other is truly novel. Often, when looking at paintings of similar scenes, there is very little to distinguish one woman from the other. The beauty of this scene gives the viewer a painful glimpse into how beautiful the past could have been had African Americans not been enslaved and made to be second class citizens. 

Beyoncé stares out the window of the house. She is dressed well and holding an umbrella. This scene strikes the viewer immediately. This has always been the view of a white person. This view out of a window of a house like this has been solely the view of a while slave owner or a slave owned by this white person. It is truly striking to see a black person who is very apparently not a slave take this view in. 

These scenes take the viewer’s memories of scenes similar to these and play with their expectations in a very meaningful way. It is very striking to see Beyoncé go places as a strong empowered black woman that few others have ever been. The use of the beautiful home, in contrast to the unsightly slums that people envision African American’s as belonging in, completes the thought that the Formation video is based on: what if? What if police didn’t shoot and kill black people, and what if they were never subjugated in the first place? What if African Americans had control over their destinies and the places that they occupy?