Since the Superbowl half-time back in February when Beyoncé gave her “scandalous” performance of "Formation" and dropped the announcement of her world tour, fans have been anxiously waiting for her album to drop at any minute, like she did with her self-titled album back in 2013. Her visual album premiered April 23 on HBO. She met her fans' standards, and then raised them even higher.
While almost every media headline I’ve seen has been about Jay Z’s infidelity to Beyoncé, Jay Z is a mere side note to what her album tackles. The best summary that I’ve seen yet was from a journalist at The Guardian, Ijeoma Oluo. She writes:
Recommended for you
"We are the women left behind. We are the women who have cared for other women’s children while ours were taken away. We are the women who work two jobs when companies won’t hire our men. We are the women caring for grandchildren as our sons are taken by the prison industrial complex. We are the women who march in the streets and are never marched for. We are the women expected to never air our grievances in public. We are the women expected to stay loyal to our men by staying silent through abuse and infidelity. We are the women who clean the blood of our men and boys from the streets. We are the women who gather their belongings from the police station. When our love and commitment and struggle is met with disregard and disloyalty, we are not expected to be angry. A black woman who shows her anger is quickly scorned.”
Beyoncé not only takes her own experience with this anger, but incorporates many black women with the same. Serena Williams, who has been publicly body shamed in the media, is featured in Beyoncé’s video "Sorry." Serena is featured twerking next to Beyoncé with the lyrics, “Middle fingers up, put them hands high,” a big screw you to everybody involved with the racist and sexually inappropriate comments about her body.
"Lemonade" truly sums up what #blackgirlmagic means. The significance of this is so important to reach mainstream media. Among some of the influential women featured in her album are Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, Amandla Stenberg, and Warsan Shire. Every black woman featured in the "Lemonade" visual album features different lifestyles, cultures, and beauty of black women. From the home videos of mothers with their children to Southern culture and dress to dance sequences, Beyoncé represents what society fails to represent in what it means to be a black woman. Her video for the song "Don’t Hurt Yourself" is interrupted by the famous speech from Malcolm X that states, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman, the most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman." "Lemonade" incorporates so much, and speaks to those four sentences, while also going further to present black woman as respected, cultured, and beautiful -- a presentation that is missed much too often in media.
Probably the most important cameo in Beyoncé’s visual album is the mothers of those who have lost their sons to police brutality. The mothers are shown solemnly holding photographs of their slain sons leading up to the song "Freedom," whose lyrics from Kendrick Lamar comment on police violence when he raps, “Eight blocks left, death is around the corner / Seven misleading statements about my persona / Six headlights wavin’ in my direction / Five-O askin’ me what’s in my possession.” Having the portrayal and commentary on police brutality and the effects on family and community is a powerful anecdote that fits perfectly with the rest of "Lemonade." The message that the mothers of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and many more present gives light to Oluo’s commentary on what black women have to endure with silence and without anger.
I have merely scratched the surface of symbolism in this album. Whether or not the rumors are true about Jay Z’s cheating history, Beyoncé's visual album is much more important for the depiction of many black women. I want to read more headlines praising black women over diminishing Jay Z. Instead, let’s focus on the many aspects of "Lemonade" present in relation to positive representation of black women in America.
