Okay Ladies, Now Let’s Talk About “Lemonade”

It’s been a little over three years since Queen Bey released her record-breaking album Lemonade, and, whether it’s raves or rages, we are still talking about it. In short, Lemonade tells the story of a bad marriage, assumed to be Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s but never confirmed, and expresses all the emotions that go into addressing infidelity and recovering from it. But aside from the rumored cheating of Jay-Z, the stunning hour-long music video, the recording-shattering amount of downloads and the fact that all 12 songs were on the Hot 100 list, the most controversial, headline-grabbing aspect of this album’s release was that Beyoncé seemed to have… become Black.

Personally, whenever I hear that, I cringe. Because I sort of know what people mean when they say it, but it’s a strange thing to try to conceptualize; especially in the case of Beyoncé’s Lemonade and how the courty reacted to it. What people mean when they say Beyoncé’s “become Black” is that she’s just never explicitly said it in her music before releasing Lemonade in 2016.

If we want to entertain the idea of Beyoncé “becoming” Black, one could say that her music up until Lemonade had been “racially ambiguous”, and thus, for everyone. (Although, it had never really been gender neutral. It’s arguable that her music is for young women, but that’s for another day). From “Single Ladies” to “Love on Top”, there was nothing in any of her songs that wasn’t for people of all racial backgrounds. That’s why she’s one of the most popular and powerful women in music; everyone loves her! Anyone can enjoy lyrics like “I will love you ’til the end of time” and “You woke up, flawless”. No one has to worry about race or politics when listening to Beyoncé, and people loved that. No one likes being reminded of the dark and scary world they live in, and it’s always nice to have a space where you don’t have to think about it.

But everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Beyoncé said “hot sauce in my bag, swag”, wore braids, made comments on police brutality and racially charged violence, addressed the corrupt system that is American politics, and then suddenly, like magic, she became Black. A majority of Black women were featured in her visual album, and all of her commentary was either The bubble had been burst, reality was setting in, there would be no escape. Beyoncé, like football, was no longer safe.

The way people reacted to Lemonade, specially “Formation”, and even more speicially Beyoncé’s Super Bowl 50 half-time, reminded me a lot of Colin Kaepernick’s story; until they told everyone “Hey, I’m Black”, no one seemed to realize it. It truly takes Americans by surprise when Black people say “I’m Black, there are problem that affect me and people like me, we need change.” Before 2016, Beyoncé had never been seen as “the other”. She wasn’t Black, she was Beyoncé.

“When Black people protest and talk about their pain, it is never in the right way or at the right time. No matter if it’s marching, kneeling, rioting, or sitting, Black people are always supposed to find a better way or do it somewhere else.