Beyonce Gets Into ‘Formation’ With Sexy Black Panthers: Here’s What She’s Trying To Say

Beyonce “came to slay,” on the lawn of Levi’s Stadium where the 50th Super Bowl is being played. What no one expected was that Beyonce would bring a group women with berets upon their heads to help her “get into formation.” But that is just what she did and, there’s a good reason why.

Queen Bey is tired of the ridicule from the public, not only about her own appearance, but that of her now four-year-old daughter, Blu Ivy, according to Huffington Post. Protesting the media’s portraits of white-washed black stars and the ongoing violence against blacks in America, Beyonce released her new song and music video “Formation,” unannounced, in the late hours of Saturday night. Since then, the internet has been abuzz with commentary, asking, just what is Beyonce trying to say? What does she mean by that? But based on the imagery from the video and the follow-up half-time performance, Beyonce’s message is clear. The best way to explain the message is with a timeline of American history.

Beyonce in New Orleans, Louisiana-2004

Bey’s music video begins with a humorous voice saying, “what happened after New Orleans?” Once Beyonce appears on the top of a sinking police vehicle, the story line begins. Over ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina left the city of New Orleans in extreme detriment, but most importantly, left many people either dead or homeless. The facts of the story involve the federal government failing to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans; a city that is about 67 percent Black and predominantly poor.

In Beyonce’s video, the sinking of the police vehicle symbolized the sinking of the American justice system and the failure of the executive powers. So, what happened after New Orleans? Well, everything pretty much went downhill form, there but in order to fully understand, we must first look back.

Beyonce of the Covenant on the Louisiana Plantation-1700s

In the second scene in the Formation music video, Beyonce appears in a long black dress, dripping in heavy jewelry whilst nodding in a fashion that resembles Creole witchcraft in New Orleans. What you didn’t notice is that Beyonce is the only person in this scene who is moving. This is because, Beyonce, the Creole woman, is the only person who is free.

In the 1700s, the French ownership of the now American territory, Louisana, resulted in a sexual culture, mixing the three present races and creating a fourth. Creole people, a mixture of African slaves, French, and Native American, became a standard of beauty; resulting in the women being labeled seductresses and often forced into to sexual acts by French men who owned negro slaves. Beyonce is either cursing the history of her haunted people, or feeding the seductress stereotype. A look at the remainder of the video for Formation will put everything into perspective.

Beyonce, Madam of the Brothel-1800s

One scene in the Formation music video showed Beyonce and her dancers in the hallway of a Southern mansion, dancing seductively. Another displayed the image of Beyonce and other colored women, dressed in frilly French dresses and sitting in a seductive posture. Both of the scenes represent a point in Louisiana history that many people have forgotten.

This question often arises: did black people own slaves? The technical answer to the question is no: while free blacks often traded slave with in the United State, they did not own slaves. However, Creole people did. Beyonce’s sitting room scene hints that she is the woman in charge of the “Creole cottage,” where white men could go for pleasure. They would pay the Creole owner, but not the negro women.

So, Beyonce singing for the ladies to “get in formation” may be more of an order than a call to the bonds of sisterhood. But what Beyonce does next, turns everything around.

Beyonce and the Black Lives Matter Movement-2016

It’s not so much the images that Beyonce the producer places strategically in the forefront of the camera, but more like the writings on the wall. In fact, in Formation, Bey’s purpose for the video is literally written on a cement wall that reads, “stop shooting us,” just before the police vehicle on which she sits finally sinks. The perfect finish to the powerful message, is when Beyonce sinks with the cop car. Her song and music video release was followed up by the epic Super Bowl performance, which takes us back in time again; this time it’s to the 1900s, with the help of Bruno Mars. According to Daily Mail, Beyonce’s “formation,” was a letter “x” in honor of the late Black American civil rights leader, Malcolm X.

In her song Formation, Beyonce addresses the “haters,” who branded her a member of the Illuminati over the years. What Beyonce failed to mention was that she was not in the Illuminati, but instead a supporter of the Black Panther party. Now, who saw that one coming?

[Feature image via Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]