Is it a tribute to Beyonce or a culturally insensitive parody?
In January, Beyonce released the video for her song “Formation.” Set in New Orleans, the song and video talk about staying connected to one’s humble, country roots and address police brutality, racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. It mocks the obsession with the “illuminati” and refers to white haters as “albino alligators.”
Beyonce’s version showed the singer on top of a patrol car that’s sinking in floodwaters and showed images of defiance, including a black child in a hoodie facing police and graffiti on a wall that reads “Stop Shooting Us.”
Comedian Amy Schumer and actress Goldie Hawn created a tribute to – or parody of – the song while the two were shooting a movie in Hawaii. Schumer, Hawn and others, including some women of color, dance in muddy slip dresses, strut and lip-sync to Beyonce’s song.
Schumer’s video, which was released by Tidal – the company owned by Beyonce’s husband, Jay Z – garnered little negative attention at first, but was greeted with claims of racism when Schumer shared it.
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