Bryan Madison
CRT 100
Professor Barnes
12 September 2023
Discussion 2
- Messages and themes that Beyonce displayed in her music video are empowerment with one’s self and being colored as well as lack of awareness towards the subject towards police brutality. Throughout the video she displays the importance of self advocating as to what are the standards for modern women in today’s society as well as the portrayal of lack of sensitivity towards police brutality.
- The theme I stated is something I sensed watching the video while reading the lyrics. She states how beautiful it is being a person of color with the beginning of her song strating that she “Likes her negro nose with jackson 5 nostrils.” That quote tells me how much she values her heritage as well as wearing a badge of honor. Her lyrics is constantly recalling to the fact that she “Slays” and how shes the next black bill gates in the making however the video is where she starts the propaganda towards police brutality, for starters throughout the video she is lying on top of a police car that is sinking implicating how we should not upbring them due to their actions in the past as well as in current events. The biggest example from the video was the whole entire swat team being in front of an unarmed child while his hands were up, implying that they need to take such precaution on a person who isn’t a threat.
- Melina Matosoukas conveys beyonce’s vision towards the political side by having the little boy put the hands up in front of the police while showing signs about the current state witn police “Don’t shoot us” seems to be the one that stands out from the rest due the state the world is in with the current subject matter. She also brings to life her political views regarding police brutality as well as black empowerment with most of the cast in the music video being predominantly black as well as conveying scenes throughout black history.
- One example would be the use of Hyperbole, where she points out the current events with police brutality not as an exaggeration but putting more emphasis in a much more dramatic way to emphasize and get her point across. Another example would be the use of euphemisms describing how she likes her men as well as what the rewards are for treating her right.
- The Song became controversial due to the fact that the lyrics and the music video not being far didstrant from each other but emphasizing more on black empowerment as opposed to making the video be a mirror image from the song. People will always have an opinion on when is the right time to be controversial and touch base on topics that need more awareness but any time is the right time to spread awareness even when it’s an ongoing problem. People try to stay away from controversy due to the fact that they either have opinions that rather stay unclaimed or they just rather not touch base on it because it doesn’t concern them as much as others. Most people rather just look at it for what is and not what they try to push it to be.
