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Caroline Ferreira

Ms. Young

ENG 1010

6 March 2017

Beyoncs powerful call to Freedom

In the latest Beyonc album called Lemonade, among the 12 songs she released, one of

them is called Freedom, which features Kendrick Lamar. In this particular song, Beyonc sings

to express her emotions on a lot of difficult issues that are ongoing in todays society like racism,

African Americans not being treated as equal as white citizens, unnecessary brutal violence from

police officers against African Americans, etc. Perhaps those topics could also be considered

sensitive, delicate and personal for a lot of people, because usually its not something that we like

to talk about considering the history behind it. The topic that is issued is also how we all, in a

certain way, need to be free from something and in order to be free we need to stand up and fight

for it. In this case, Beyonc is inviting her audience to stand up and fight against the ongoing

racial and discrimination obstacles the African American community still faces today. The

rhetoric is effective thanks to the appeal to use ethos at one of her performances at the B.E.T.

awards which targeted an specific audience who attended and watched her performance, logos

using historical images in her music video and pathos expressing how she feels about her

freedom helps her connect with her audience in a personal level.

Beyoncs appeal to ethos at the B.E.T awards during her performance was incredibly

effective because the targeted audience was narrower. When she released her album her targeted

audience was any one that would like to buy her album or listen to her music no matter the age,

race or social status. However, at the B.E.T awards the focus was on the people who watch the
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Black Entertainment Television, the majority are African Americans. It was effective because

she started her performance with parts of Dr. Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and

the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every

American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as

white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the

pursuit of Happiness.
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are

insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to

cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the

security of justice.

This part of Dr. Martin Luther Kings speech is the base of what her song is about which

is life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Dr King reminded us all of when the Constitution

was written, the architects of our republic wanted us to be one free united nation who would

have equal rights in any circumstance in life. Beyoncs choice to open her performance with this

quote created a foundation to what her song is about. While this quote is being played her

dancers are marching to the stage from the audience. When they all get the stage, they line up

with Beyonc, and they march to the front of the stage right before she sings Ima walk, Ima

march on the regular/ Painting white flags blue. The dancers march, the quote from Dr. Kings

speech and her lyrics on her first verse reminded us of her idea of how there is still inequality in

our society today. In her lyrics she tells us what she is particularly doing to overcome this

challenge.

Beyoncs appeal to pathos was effective because she can get peoples attention to where

freedom is, in the chorus of the song. Its also effective because she can connect with her
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audience when she express how she is also looking for freedom just like the people who suffer

from racism on a regular basis. As the song title says and what Beyonc is trying to accomplish

with it is to obtain freedom, or least to let people know that there is some type of captivity still

going on. On the chorus she asks and looks for it like when we look for someone who is lost. The

chorus goes

Freedom! Freedom! I can't move

Freedom, cut me loose!

Freedom! Freedom! Where are you?

'Cause I need freedom too

It is interesting how it sounds like freedom is a person. In her official music video when

she is singing this part of the song, she is sing it on, what it looks like, is a stage. In the middle of

the stage there is a pole and she is tied to it. She is telling freedom (or the person who might be

freedom) to come to the rescue, to help her because she cannot move, to help her because she is

tied and she needs its help to cut [her] loose. She yells like when we look for someone who is

lost. The only way for her to get out of this situation is if she can find freedom, who is lost.

Beyoncs appeal to logos was successful when, in her official music video, she showed

African American woman sitting on a type of tree where slaves used to be beaten by their land

owners. This imagery is effective because it portraits how the suffering, anguish, pain and

humiliation is still alive in their memory. Although we dont have land owners beating on their

slaves today, there is a difference kind of violence done towards African Americans today. There

have been some cases of police officers are overly aggressive with African Americans who died

because of those aggressive acts. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner are some of

the examples of this situations who ended in death. The mothers of those three young men were
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invited to be part of the music video. What Beyonc was able to accomplish with this was to

show that even though time passed African Americans are being treated the same way as they did

way back when slavery wasnt illegal in the United States.

Beyonc was successfully able to appeal to the ethos, pathos and logos. She is able to

connect to the audience the in a very sensitive and personal level. Her lyrics are based on facts

that have been happening recently with African Americans on how there is a lack of justice and

freedom for them to reach their full potential as citizens of this country. Its not because she is

influential and famous that she cannot feel the same way as those people who have been

mistreated. That is why her pathos and ethos are so effective, she builds up this emotion about

being treated unfairly and has the credibility to do so. Maybe one day her powerful call for

freedom will be granted.