Last Saturday the Queen herself had a surprise release of her new visual album "Lemonade." After screaming when finding out that Queen Bey had released an album and finally sitting down to experience it, my first thought was how could Jay-Z do such a thing? I was livid, I was upset that Jay-Z was after "Becky with the good hair" when he literally had a goddess lying in his bed every night! I was in complete and utter shock, but then I gave the album another listen, watched the video again, and realized "Lemonade" isn't just about infidelity, and anger, this album is about the mistreatment of black women, a way to build up women of color, "Lemonade" is more than just an album, "Lemonade" is an anthem.
The visual album consisted of 11 chapters: Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, Hope, and Redemption. When I first watched the video, the first thing that came to mind while watching this was that the names of the chapters resembled the stages of loss and grief. Beyoncé and all of these women had lost something very important to them and they had to grieve, recollect themselves, and begin the process of moving on. I knew when first listening to this album that it was going to be an emotional roller coaster, and I knew that Beyoncé had been silenced for far too long and had so much to say and this was her chance to say it. If it wasn't picked up the first ten times after watching the visual album, Beyoncé covers infidelity, her strained relationship and how she fixed it, sisterhood, Christianity, and feminist empowerment, all while making sure she made it a point to show how strong and powerful black girls are.
As a young black girl living in a world that was never really catered to her, I needed something to lean on, some sort of hope and a message for me to tell me about the amazing things that not only I can do but every black girl around the world can do. I go to a predominately white university, I'm from a predominately white city, and I live in a world in which racial inequality has come back in full swing. Watching all of the videos and seeing all of these strong black women and hearing Malcolm X say that black women are the most disrespected people in America, was what made me realize that "Lemonade" was an anthem for black women being mistreated in media, society, politics, and even by men in our own community. This was when I realized how great it is to be a black woman, and how real black girl magic is. I'm so happy to say that I'm going to grow up in a world and raise a family in a world where people like Beyoncé, Serena Williams, and Zendaya will remain strong and willed to build up the women of my community. Thank you Beyoncé for giving mistreated and hurt women the anthem we needed.
