Beyonce has had enough.
Beyonce has had enough of y'all talking about her baby's hair.
She's had enough of y'all talking about her man's big nose.
She's had enough of her people being killed by the very people sworn to protect and serve them.
She's had enough of y'all giving the "Illuminati" credit for all her success when she's been working her ass off for years.
And speaking of her ass, yes, she can shake it in her videos and on stage and still be a feminist.
"Formation" is not here for your feminism.
"Formation" is "black southern country fence-jumping feminism," as Dr. Zandria F. Robinson so perfectly states.
"Formation" is the very essence of intersectionality.
Beyonce is not here for those trying to police her feminism or her expression of her sexuality.
She does not care if you find her video or her lyrics shocking and if you long for the days of Destiny's Child, the days she made music that didn't make you uncomfortable.
She knows respectability will not save us.
Beyonce wants to know if you're ready.
And she wants you to know that Southern blackness is "back by popular demand."
She wants you to know that this is not a pity party.
"Formation" is a celebration.
"Formation" is a celebration of natural hair, melanin, and black girl magic.
"Formation" is hot sauce and cheddar bay biscuits.
"Formation" is a celebration of the South, the New South.
"Beyoncé places her own reckless, country blackness–one of afros, cornrows, and negro noses, brown liquor and brown girls, hot sauce, and of brown boys and cheddar bay biscuits–in conversation with and as descended from a broader southern blackness that is frequently obscured and unseen in national discourses, save for as (dying, lynched, grotesque, excessive) spectacle," Dr. Robinson writes.
"Formation" is a call to action
A call to slay
A call to recklessly be yourself
A call to dream
A call to work hard and grind 'til you own it
A call to get in formation
A call to get information
A call for coordination - the kind of coordination that will make black girl magic more than a hashtag, but a movement
A movement that will slay sexism and white supremacy
A movement in which we may have to sacrifice ourselves to the water, but only to be baptized and to re-emerge and find ourselves finally free.
Cross-posted at SeeJaneWriteBham.com.
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