Why We Need to Get in “Formation”: The Rhetoric of Beyoncé

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Why We Need to Get in “Formation”:
The Rhetoric of Beyoncé
Kira Marie Pratt | University of Denver

Following the 2016 releases of the single “Formation” and the album Lemonade by singer Beyoncé,
America broke into contentious debate regarding the political and thematic content of the songs and
their accompanying videos. This essay explores the rhetoric of Beyoncé’s music video and song
“Formation” and a portion of the visual album for Lemonade, analyzing how her depiction of black culture
effectively opposes the dominant colorblind ideology of contemporary society. Furthermore, this analy-
sis seeks to make an argument for why this current “moment” in popular culture actually has significance
for the expanding national Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice and equality.

The popular music industry, composed of
catchy songs with little substantive ideologi-
cal matter, is often considered to be a site of
bland frivolity and normative compliance.
On occasion, however, a major release that
deviates from the standards of triviality can
be embraced by national audiences and pro-
voke controversy that may generate
profound social implications. In February of
2016, the song “Formation,” by popular
music icon Beyoncé, became one such
instance of this phenomenon. Circulation of
the hit song and its music video coupled
with a highly polemical Super Bowl half-
time performance only days later prompted
a fervent debate about race in America.
Containing poignant imagery of black cul-
ture and blatant references to black power,
Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party, as
well as the Black Lives Matter movement—
which has itself incited a rift in American
society over the last few years— “Formation”
effectively roused the attention of the nation.
Following the halftime performance, dis-
sension, primarily between black and white
communities, had some exalting the display

and others denigrating it, calling it a
“race-baiting stunt” of “hate speech and
racism” (Moyer). In spite of this, the
“Formation” movement only gained greater
momentum. In late April of 2016, Beyoncé
released Lemonade, the visual album from
which the song derives. Despite rumors
swirling that the record was solely about
troubles in her marriage with rapper Jay-Z,
the theme of black culture featured through-
out was too prominent to be dismissed.
Contrary to what one would assume, even
with her intensely political themes, images,
and messages giving voice to black America
and its persisting social justice struggles,
Beyoncé has successfully captivated audi-
ences across racial, ethnic, and class lines.
This ability has aptly been attributed to the
“conundrum of Beyoncé”—the notion “that
she is for everyone, and yet she is not for
everyone” (Blay).

In a society where social perceptions and
interactions are guided by a predominating
ideology of “colorblindness,” it makes little
sense that a musical project like Beyoncé’s
could thrive as much as it has (O’Brien and

70 | Young Scholars in Writing

Korgen 356). Under colorblind culture, the
idealized demonstration of race moves
toward “ethnic ambiguity” in both aesthetic
appearance and cultural displays. The socie-
tal shift to “multiracialism is now so marked
that some believe the time has come to dis-
miss race altogether as a useful social
indicator”; as one individual in a survey for
The Guardian describes it, “Trying to define
people by the old race labels just doesn’t
work any more” (Arlidge). Colorblind ideol-
ogy fosters the belief that “the barriers
between black and white are really coming
down,” and at a surface level, this may
appear to be true (Arlidge). However,
according to cultural theorists Eileen
O’Brien and Kathleen Korgen, the perpetu-
ation of colorblindness enables the
“minimization of racism” or the denial of
actual differences in social experiences and
outcomes due to race (359). Racial discrimi-
nation is then believed to be something
“that is rare, and occurs only in isolated,
fluke incidents, if at all” (359). This belief
generates “a great ‘perception gap’ between
blacks and whites about the extent of con-
temporary discrimination, with whites
largely underestimating it”—ultimately, to
the detriment of race relations (359).

I posit that this is where Beyoncé enters
the scene. By disseminating racially-driven,
political messages that draw attention to
the realities of the black experience in con-
temporary America, Beyoncé can effectually
send shocks to the prevailing system, which
can encourage social awareness and, in turn,
improve racial dynamics. Of course, imply-
ing that her music and videos will invariably
have such a definitive and complete impact
is, perhaps, a naïve approach to analyzing
them rhetorically; doing so would require
refutation of widely accepted media theo-
ries that concede that consumers have a

more negotiated understanding of media
messages as a result of their various predis-
positions and experiences (as opposed to
their submission to a “hypodermic needle”
influence). While it may be practically
impossible for Beyoncé alone to have a
definitive impact on race relations, I argue
that it is still reasonable to assert that
“Formation” and Lemonade are invaluable in
revolutionizing national conceptions of race.
By analyzing crucial elements of the song
and music video for “Formation” and the
visual album for Lemonade, I intend to illus-
trate that Beyoncé and her recent creations
do not merely constitute another fleeting
“moment” of substance in an otherwise
superficial world of popular culture. In
order to form a more holistic consideration
of Beyoncé’s current impact, I felt that it
was also imperative to conduct empirical
research in order to discover how general
audiences and even academic scholars were
responding to the projects. Synthesizing the
breadth of my textual analysis and primary
research along with existing criticism, it
becomes evident that the value of Beyoncé,
“Formation,” and Lemonade far transcend
their simple pop culture allure. Due to their
promotion of social awareness and justice
through authentic depictions of the black
experience, as well as their visibility and
potential to mobilize and unify across racial
lines, these pieces, I propose, are impactful
enough to contest colorblindness and assist
in advancing the national movement for
racial equality in America. For this compre-
hensive analysis, I will first rhetorically
analyze Beyoncé’s songs and videos of
“Formation” and Lemonade; then, in the sec-
ond half of this essay, I will discuss the
results of my research including general
population surveys and interviews with
scholars. I will then conclude this inquiry

Author | 71

with the reasons that I purport this current
Beyoncé spectacle to be of salience.

Analyzing the Rhetoric of Beyoncé:
Using Black Signifiers and Emblematic
Visuals to Appeal to Black Collectivism
One aspect of Beyoncé’s projects that
makes them important in this national
movement is their genuine portrayals of
what it means to be black in contemporary
America. As Johnnetta B. Cole asserts in
“Culture: Negro, Black and Nigger1,” an
essay for The Black Scholar (1970), “One of
the many offshoots of the Black Liberation
movement is an increased awareness of
being black…turning attention to the com-
plexities and glories of Afro-American
history, probing the psychology of being
black, and seeking the boundaries of black
subculture” (40). The imagery and the-
matic overtones throughout “Formation”
and Lemonade explore this very space. They
simultaneously celebrate the vitality of
black culture to the appeal of black audi-
ences and foster cultural understanding in
white audiences; moreover, they openly
address critically relevant topics of greater
contention, such as police brutality.
Beyoncé’s allusions, carefully integrated
into “Formation” and the rest of Lemonade,
are pointed statements that draw attention
to the social injustices that continue to sub-
jugate black communities. Undoubtedly, to
a society that holds stock in a colorblind
ideology, such direct references to “black-
ness” and all that the concept connotes can
be inflammatory. Yet, by forcing “white
fans…to engage with her blackness and
black issues in a real way,” Beyoncé’s work

at the very least provides an outlet for indi-
viduals to begin a racial sensitization
process that recognizes the fallacy of
post-racialization and additionally serves as
“a subtle reminder that black culture is
taken for granted” (Blay). Even though
many of the expressions may require deeper
deliberation as to their meaning, they serve
as effective rhetorical appeals to black and
white audiences alike.

Achieved through clever nods to that
which is inextricably black, Beyoncé’s exal-
tation of black culture utilizes what
scholars have long referred to as black “sig-
nifiers”—vernacular and visual inclusions
that are generally associated with black
communities. In Stuart Hall’s articulation,
evocation of black culture “in its expressiv-
ity, its musicality, its orality, in its rich,
deep, varied attention to speech, in its
inflections toward the vernacular and the
local, in its rich production of counter-nar-
ratives, and above all, in its metaphorical
use of the musical vocabulary” often draws
extensively from use of the black signifier
(378). In simplified terms, Henry Louis
Gates explains “[s]ignifyin(g)…is the figu-
rative difference between the literal and the
metaphorical, between surface and latent
meaning” (82, 75)—a black rhetorical
device of sorts.

One signifier that Beyoncé uses is the
afro hairstyle that she and her black dancers
flaunt in “Formation” and at different times
throughout Lemonade. Lyrically, she even
expresses reverence for the characteristically
black silhouette, stating: “I like my baby
heir with baby hair and afros” (Beyoncé,
“Formation”). With associative use of the

1 The author and editor have, with reservations, decided to preserve Cole’s original writing of what was then and is
now culturally recognized as a racial slur, rather than censoring it to “N*****” or equivalent, specifically because of
Cole’s purpose in printing the word to begin with.

72 | Young Scholars in Writing

word “heir,” Beyoncé ascribes the hairstyle a
status of regality. This choice of diction is
noteworthy because the afro is a common
black quality that has generally been
excluded from societal standards of beauty.
As Quamesha Brown, a student from
Washington University in St. Louis,
explains, the “white ideal of beauty,” con-
sisting of “lighter skin tones, straighter hair,
and makeup that covers the natural sheen of
black skin tones” has long been presented as
desirable over that which is naturally black
(10). Brown notes that pressure to adapt to
“a more white washed [sic] version of black-
ness” has been reinforced through media
idols such as Beyoncé herself; over the
course of her career, she has famously
donned straight, blonde tresses (10). By
returning both figuratively and literally to
her black “roots,” Beyoncé rejects the norm
that insinuates that blackness is inherently
lesser; it is a minute gesture, but by embrac-
ing identifiably black features, she effectively
takes a stand against a very perceptible form
of social discrimination that devalues black
individuals in their natural state. Highly
praised feminist scholar bell hooks even
affirms this quality of Lemonade, agreeing
that its “intent, its purpose is to seduce, cel-
ebrate, and delight—to challenge the
ongoing present day devaluation and dehu-
manization of the black female body” (n.
pag.). But Beyoncé’s stance is not simply
limited to the black female aesthetic; along
similar lines, she presents another signifier
in the lyric in which she venerates the
“Negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils”—a
more universal black trait (Beyoncé,
“Formation”). By giving recognition to these
greatly underappreciated black physical
qualities, Beyoncé not only appeals to her
black audience but also initiates the racial
sensitization process across communities,

urging discourse to redefine what is valued
in society.

These signifiers that, according to hooks’
analysis of Lemonade, “[shift] the gaze of
white mainstream culture” and “[challenge]
us all to look anew, to radically revision
how we see” black features (n. pag.), are
actually critically relevant to another
Beyoncé lyric that delves deeper into the
issue of socia l-systemic oppression.
Listeners have latched onto the infamously
provocative line in the song “Sorry” from
Lemonade that coldly declares, “He better
call Becky with the good hair” (Beyoncé,
“Sorry”). However, there seems to be little
awareness of the connotations the senti-
ment engenders. Many initially speculated
that Becky was the name of the alleged mis-
tress of Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z. However,
further inquiry produced another theory
that identified the potential signification in
it. According to the conjecture, “Becky” is
supposed to symbolize a female—likely
white—with “good hair” being used as a
“damaging colloquial term that often refers
to someone whose hair doesn’t naturally
kink or curl—hair that’s, historically, been
labeled as the opposite of aspirational”
(Bryant). The idea of “good hair” has roots
in the era of slavery, when the degree of
kink in hair was used to separate slaves into
chores of housework or the more grueling
fieldwork; the women with the curlier, more
discernibly African hair were sentenced to
the fields (Bryant). This weighty inference,
if accurate, is truly an example of the black
signifier at its finest. By its definition, signi-
fying “can mean the ‘ability to talk with
great innuendo,’” especially in “making fun
of a person or situation” (Hall 75); whether
or not it was used in response to the situa-
tion of possible infidelity in her marriage,
symbolically, the line makes an acerbic

Pratt | 73

point regarding the societal deprecation of
black individuals. Due to its intrinsic dou-
ble entendre, the signifier allows Beyoncé to
unite the black community in shared expe-
rience and understanding while only
inviting white audiences in if they make the
effort to learn the latent implications,
thereby encouraging racial awareness.

Furthermore, in some ways, there is a
degree of empowerment through the recla-
mation of the black identity in Beyoncé’s use
of signifiers. She takes what has historically
been used to repress the culture—like black
physical features—repossesses them, and
renegotiates their place and influence in
today’s society. It is similar to the way that
she and many other black individuals have
reclaimed the term “negro”—or racist deriva-
tives of it. For example, in Cole’s “Culture:
Negro, Black and Nigger,” the defined sub-
culture of black America, comprised of the
elements of “soul and style,” is openly referred
to by a fair number of black individuals as
“Nigger culture” (42). Gates clarifies this trend
in his work on the topic: “To revise the
received sign…literally accounted for in the
relation represented by signified/signifier at its
most apparently denotative level is to critique
the nature of (white) meaning itself…” (47).
Essentially, revitalizing the meaning of
“negro” innately produces a degree of power
for black communities due to its negation of
the (white) connotation.

In the survey I conducted, which inquired
about the ways people were receiving these
messages, one individual repeatedly voiced a
level of discomfort with how Beyoncé uses
language, “such as the word ‘negro’,” in her
projects. The respondent explained that “she
normalizes the use,” which is “negative…
because it allows white people to think its
[sic] okay to sing.” But this kind of a
response ignores the convergence capability

such signifiers have for the black audience.
Additionally, it fails to recognize that the
multifaceted meanings of the signifiers can
be particularly impactful for white audi-
ences, as well—primarily for gaining social
and cultural understandings of what it
means to be black. So, be it a proud declara-
tion that “baby hair and afros” and “Jackson
5 nostrils” are worthy of boast or a denuncia-
tion that “Becky with the good hair” is the
aspirational goal, Beyoncé’s signifiers are
effectively employed, creating “something so
specifically for black people that it cannot be
denied,” while also offering an edifying
opportunity for white listeners (Blay).

As imperative as Beyoncé’s lyrical use of
signifiers are for crafting a narrative of black
culture, her symbolic visuals in the videos
for “Formation” and Lemonade also rein-
force the national movement for equality
and racial justice. Her controversial scenes
invoking the real-life tragedies of police
brutality and the coalitional efforts of the
historical Black Panther Party are brazen
appeals for black communities to unify and
for white communities to awaken socially.
As media studies scholar Charles Benson (a
pseudonym) describes it in an interview I
conducted with him, Beyoncé “[reminds]
audiences, both white and black, that she is
a black woman with a black woman’s con-
cerns about the world,” and she compels
that same level of social awareness in her
audience.

The first deeply provocative visual comes
from the video for “Formation,” in which
a young black boy is pictured dancing
before a line of militaristic police officers.
The panning of a wall tagged in sprawling
graffiti letters to say “Stop shooting us” sub-
sequently follows cuts of the scene
(“Formation (Explicit)”). The emblematic
juxtaposition of the black child against the

74 | Young Scholars in Writing

imposing force of the police line is an out-
right commentary that can be likened to the
Black Lives Matter movement that arose on
social media in 2012 (Sidner). Black Lives
Matter is dedicated to instigating “a civil
rights movement-type of change that shakes
up politics and breaks the cycle of violence
and silence” that disproportionately afflicts
black communities—particularly within the
criminal justice system (Sidner). Projecting
this scene in her video, Beyoncé makes a
clear effort to appeal emotionally to her
audience for the purpose of fostering public
solidarity for the movement.

In this manner, Beyoncé’s work begins to
embrace aspects of black academia—specif-
ically, the established field of Critical Race
Theory (CRT). With concerted energy
devoted to the “embrace of race-conscious-
ness, Critical Race Theory aims to
reexamine the terms by which race and rac-
ism have been negotiated in American
consciousness, and to recover and revitalize
the radical tradition of race-consciousness
among African Americans and other peo-
ples of color—a tradition that was discarded
when integration, assimilation and the ideal
of color-blindness became the official norms
of racial enlightenment” (Rabaka 40).

Most applicable in this allusion to the
Black Lives Matter movement is black exis-
tential philosophy, a concentration within
the field of CRT summarized by Magnus
Bassey: “Black existential philosophy is ‘the
existential demand for recognizing the situ-
ation or lived-in context of Africana people’s
being-in-the-world’,” seeking collectiviza-
tion within the black community, and
genuine acknowledgement of the realities of
black subjugation in the white community
(915). To achieve these aims, imagery that
invokes Black Lives Matter is essentially the
most effective course of action.

For this reason, Beyoncé refers once more
to the movement in her visual album
for Lemonade, striking a slightly different
chord of emotion. In the portion titled
“Resurrection,” featuring her song “Forward,”
Beyoncé dedicates a heart-wrenching trib-
ute to the innocent young black men who
were notoriously killed in the various police
incidents that gave vigor to the Black Lives
Matter movement. Most prominently, the
visual consists of moving video portraits of
the mothers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner,
and Trayvon Martin holding pictures of
their sons in chilling remembrance
(Beyoncé, “Forward”). Although the video
grieves the individuals who fell victim to
the system, the thematic message is, accord-
ing to Bassey, a “protest on behalf of [the]
race as a whole rather than on behalf of the
individual,” further aligning Beyoncé’s con-
tent with Africana critical theory and black
existential philosophy (919). Together, the
scene of the young boy in front of the police
line and the memorial for the nation’s most
notable black victims are powerful demon-
strations that point to the tragic reality
of enduring racial injustice in America.
Racism and oppression have merely
assumed new, more nuanced forms that
Beyoncé’s pointed references—both lyrical
and visual—attempt to unmask. It is criti-
cal to note, however, that there is never at
any point in “Formation” or Lemonade a
moment in which Beyoncé attributes culpa-
bility to any party or community. This is
crucial because it allows her, for the most
part, to communicate her message of the
experiences of modern black America with-
out estranging her white audience. By
avoiding antagonistically assigning blame
and instead focusing on social cohesion
within black communities through collec-
tive empathy, Beyoncé gives strength to the

Pratt | 75

Black Lives Matter movement while also
enabling her white audience to engage with
the issues.

Beyoncé’s actions to unite the black com-
munity through the combined use of
signifiers that speak explicitly to black audi-
ences and emblematic visuals that “prove
that [she] is ‘woke,’ and fully plugged into
what it means to be” black in America are
reminiscent of a historical group that
sought similar organization of black
Americans (Blay). The highly controversial
Black Panther Party—which Beyoncé and
her dancers memorably donned the apparel
of for the Super Bowl performance of
“Formation”—largely focused on forming a
black nation-state, though over the years
their efforts have been oversimplified to the
pursuit of black militaristic power. The
party’s most eminent leader, Malcolm X
—whom Beyoncé has referenced repeat-
edly—was equally “concerned about
African American consciousness as a whole”
and “the meaning of being Black in
America” as he was about black power
(Bassey 919). A black existentialist thinker,
he was a preeminent figure in the promo-
tion of “cultural pride and the celebration of
black people” as well as “Black cultural
expression” (Bassey 919). However, popular
connotations regarding the activist often
evoke him as the more violently inclined
antithesis to Martin Luther King Jr., whose
similar civil rights efforts diverged from
Malcolm X’s through their characteristic
peacefulness. As a result, one of the most
loudly voiced critiques of Beyoncé’s the-
matic content has been that she is endorsing
the use of violence for progressivism. bell
hooks, for example, pressed in her essay on
Lemonade that, “contrary to misguided
notions of…equality…violence does not
create positive change” (n. pag.)

While there is certainly validity to this
point, it must be suggested that hooks and
others like her are missing the central pur-
pose of the black-power-inspired motifs.
Says writer-activist LaSha in Salon magazine,
“Lemonade’s seeming endorsement of vio-
lence does not designate violence as a vehicle
of change,” as some suggest, but, rather, it
“provide[s] validation of those basic feelings”
of anger, frustration, grief, and hopelessness
that the black community has experienced
(n. pag.). And, although hooks takes an
overall opposing stance to Lemonade, there
is some degree of crossover between her
school of thought and that of Malcolm X,
whom Beyoncé has so meticulously interwo-
ven into a supportive role for her project. In
a fairly recent interview with The New York
Times, hooks encouraged people to “think
of anger as compost…think of it as energy
that can be recycled in the direction of
[their] good” as “an empowering force”
(Yancy). In a comparable vein, Bassey argues
that “Malcolm X…awakened black people’s
moral outrage” to redirect it into intentional,
collective activity on behalf of social justice
for the community (917).

With the influence of these thoughts evi-
dent t hroug hout “Formation” a nd
Lemonade, Critical Race Theory unmistak-
ably marks Beyoncé’s material. Her own
acclamation of blackness, in concurrence
with her concern about social consciousness,
assists in cultivating that collective culture
which is necessary to contest racial inequity.
Much like esteemed black scholar W.E.B.
DuBois “urged[,]…African Americans
‘must develop their own distinct and ‘supe-
rior’ culture within the context of the
American social system while simultane-
ously fighting to eliminate ‘the color
line’—the social, political, economic, and
legal barrier of racial segregation” (qtd. in

76 | Young Scholars in Writing

Bassey 928). Beyoncé’s glorified re-creation
of black culture alongside her political mes-
sages about injustice help reinforce DuBois’
idea. In other words, Beyoncé’s efforts to
unify and awaken black communities are
not insignificant; rather, they may be just
the momentum that is needed for the
national movement to challenge the domi-
nant social system.

Even with the clout of black collectiviza-
tion, it must be acknowledged, as Reiland
Rabaka does, according to the tenets of
Critical Race Theory, with its “criticism…
directed at the established order’s claims of
colorblindness and racially-neutral rule[,]…
it will never be enough for the racially
oppressed to repudiate racism” (39, 40). So,
while it is commendable and necessary that
“Formation” and Lemonade reinvigorate the
concept of black culture and arouse aware-
ness of injustice among black communities
to unite against repression, there is an addi-
tional obstacle that must be overcome for
Beyoncé’s creations to be truly revolution-
ary: the white audience.

Considering the Rhetoric of Beyoncé:
Population Perceptions and Bridging
Racial Binaries
At the apex of the popular music industry,
Beyoncé is in a social position not unlike
those artists of the decades before her (e.g.,
James Brown, Aretha Franklin) who
“[enjoyed] a public voice…to blend the contra-
dictory elements of the Black Power
movement into an uneasy unity and to
create an anti-racist current among whites”
(Gilroy 355). Comparable to her predecessors,
Beyoncé must grapple with the decentraliza-
tion of the Black Lives Matter movement
—which is really only consolidated on social
media—and the predominant perception
that U.S. society is colorblind. The

challenge these obstacles pose is certainly
daunting. However, unlike other popular
culture figures, Beyoncé is fairly uniquely
and advantageously located in society:
“[Her] music is not relegated to urban radio.
She can pack stadiums. She brings different
kinds of audiences to the movie theaters.
She is beloved and imitated, across race,
class, sexuality, generation, and national
borders” (Griffin 138). As a result, this
potency of social capital allots her a marked
amount of influence to impact societal dis-
cussions about race. It is at this point that
the “artistic and political expressions of
people of color” that have already been
determined in academia to have a positive
effect on the “antiracist process of sensitiza-
tion” become pertinent (O’Brien and
Korgen 370). Intersecting Beyoncé’s black
existential philosophy inflections, positive
audience receptivity indicates that the
potential success of racial sensitization is a
reasonable prospect.

My empirical research makes clear that,
with the pivotal juncture between black and
white audiences being Beyoncé and her
music, this inclination towards sensitization
is in fact the effect. This project began when
the popularity of “Formation’s” song, video,
and performance in concurrence with their
inflammatory qualities made me question
whether both black and white audiences felt
that they could relate to the messages of
social justice. I then speculated whether gen-
eral audiences would also view Beyoncé as a
figure for social change. If that were the case,
then it would suggest that her award-win-
ning songs and videos have somehow
successfully facilitated discussions regarding
race in America. However, research on this
aspect of Beyoncé’s cultural impact in
America is currently lacking. Therefore, I
organized my own research inquiry centered

Pratt | 77