Information About My ‘Formation’ 
 
 Amy Schumer Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 27, 2016 
 
 Saying I love Beyoncé’s album “Lemonade” is a huge understatement. I believe it is one of the greatest pieces of art of our time. 
 
 While we were shooting our movie in Hawaii this summer we were all crazy for the album and also for Hillary Clinton. We would rush back to our televisions or phones to watch a stream of CNN to see the convention and watch Hillary and Michelle and so many extraordinary women speak. All of the women on set were bonded together from this music and from the election simultaneously. It was such a powerful time. 
 
 I love how in the lyrics of “Formation” Beyoncé is telling us to get in formation. And also I like to think she is telling us ladies to get information. I did not mean to detract any of the meaning from the video. I am of course horrified and sickened by the events that are addressed throughout that video and didn’t see this as minimizing that and still don’t. It was a way to celebrate bringing us all together. To fight for what we all want. And to do it together. 
 
 “Lemonade” brought us all together. We listened to the album and danced every day, always making everyone feel better no matter what we were going through. We were so into it that we learned the dance to “Formation.” It got us through this summer. Meredith, my stunt double even got a “Lemonade” tattoo because of how real and meaningful it was to her, to us. We would use each location we shot at and do a part of the song. To have Goldie Hawn dancing with Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack and Raven Goodwin and all the female writers and producers and crew from all over the world doing this together felt very powerful and right. 
 
 It was NEVER a parody. It was just us women celebrating each other. The video Beyoncé made was so moving and I wouldn’t ever make fun of that. There is absolutely no way to. I make fun of myself a few times in the video as I do in everything I am a part of. I loved every second of working with those women to make this thing that lifted us up. 
 
 If you watched it and it made you feel anything other than good, please know that was not my intention. The movie we made is fun and the women in it are strong and want to help each other. That’s what it was about for me. Of course I had Beyoncé and Jay Z’s approval. They released it on Tidal exclusively for the first 24 hours. 
 
 You have every right to feel however you feel about the video and me but I want you to know I’m not going anywhere. Use whatever hashtag you like. My mission is to continue to work as hard as I can to empower women and make them laugh and feel better and I won’t let anything stop me. #strongertogether #alllove 

 
 
 Amy Schumer accepts the Critics’ Choice MVP award at the 21st annual Critics’ Choice Awards on Jan. 17. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) 
 
 Update: Schumer posted a note to Medium Thursday night saying the video was “never a parody.” “It was just us women celebrating each other,” she wrote. “The video Beyoncé made was so moving and I wouldn’t ever make fun of that.” Read her full statement here. 
 
 Amy Schumer earned the Internet’s wrath after releasing a parody video of Beyoncé’s “Formation,” but the negative reaction is more than just the Beyhive at work. 
 
 In the video, Schumer dances, twerks and lip-syncs to the lead single from Beyoncé’s acclaimed album “Lemonade,” alongside other famous women including Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack and Wanda Sykes. The video’s rotating cast of extras are mostly women of color. 
 
 According to CNN, Schumer had Beyoncé’s permission to do the parody, which makes sense considering it was first released on Tidal, the music service owned by the singer’s husband. That didn’t stop critics from slamming the video as cultural appropriation and citing it as the latest in a string of racially insensitive humor from the comedian. 
 
 But the controversy represents an issue much larger than Schumer. Women of color, particularly black women, continue to feel excluded from mainstream feminism. Schumer’s response to the criticism, posted to her Instagram account Monday, didn’t do much to move the conversation forward. It effectively silenced it. 
 
 “You know you that b—- when you cause all this conversation,” Schumer wrote, borrowing a line from “Formation.” She added: “We had so much fun making this tribute. All love and women inspiring each other.” 
 
 You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation. Thanks for the exclusive release Tidal! We had so much fun making this tribute. All love and women inspiring each other. #strongertogether A post shared by @amyschumer on Oct 24, 2016 at 1:10pm PDT 
 
 Schumer’s response makes no attempt to understand why anyone would be upset by her video. If a sizable portion of black women, including prominent feminists, say that the video offends them, does it truly represent “all love and women inspiring each other”? The women of color in the parody are used largely as accessories. One particularly problematic sequence finds Schumer and a friend flanking a black woman in a mall play area. 
 
 Amy Schumer uses the facets of Black womanhood that serve her best while casting Black women as extras and props in centering her own body — I Will Block Ya Mama (@FeministaJones) October 25, 2016 
 
 Another scene features Schumer and her stunt double Meredith Richardson wearing “Texas Bama” shirts. USA Today points out that “Bama” is Richardson’s nickname, but it’s also a clear reference to this pointed (and somewhat controversial) line from “Formation”: “My daddy Alabama/Mama Louisiana/You mix that negro with that Creole/Make a Texas Bama.” 
 
 Like Beyoncé’s stunning visual album “Lemonade,” the song and its video, which debuted in February, are near-sacred territory. “Formation” was hailed as a celebration of all things black — the song called for solidarity among black women — and was political in a way we hadn’t yet seen from the superstar, evoking the Black Lives Matter movement and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Beyoncé faced some criticism for the video’s approach to these elements). 
 
 But it’s hard to figure out the point — any point — of Schumer’s video. Even as she addressed the controversy, Schumer described the video as a “tribute.” Is it even comedy? (It’s not particularly funny.) As noted by Refinery29 and others, the parody was filmed in Hawaii while Schumer and Hawn were filming a mother-daughter action comedy that also stars Cusack and Sykes. So, in a way, it’s promotion for a film. 
 
 So now Schumer is calling that mess a "tribute." So I guess in addition to snacks, I am now buying a keg for the #AmySchumerGottaGoParty. — Olivia A. Cole (@RantingOwl) October 25, 2016 
 
 Amy Schumer is the epitome of white feminism. She claims she fights for all women. But when she's in the wrong, she just "brushes it off" NO — Gucci Dionysus Bag (@pradacasket) October 25, 2016 
 
 “I enjoy playing the girl who [from] time to time says the dumbest thing possible and playing with race is a thing we are not supposed to do, which is what makes it so fun for comics,” Schumer wrote last year after being called out for questionable material in past stand-up routines. “You can call it a ‘blind spot for racism’ or ‘lazy’ but you are wrong. It is a joke and it is funny.” 
 
 “Inside Amy Schumer,” the comedian’s Comedy Central show, has included a few skits that channel that ethos successfully; “Urban Fitters,” which featured Amy as a white shopper awkwardly trying to avoid describing the sales rep who helped her as black, is a good example. But it’s hard to imagine that “playing with race” or amping up some naive white girl shtick is what Schumer was attempting to do with her “Formation” video. 
 
 Comedian Amy Schumer is being criticized for telling jokes that some say are racist. Here are some examples. (Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post) 
 
 And if she was, her response, as well as other recent controversies, suggest that she lacks the awareness needed to mine meaningful humor from such a hot-button topic. Just last month, Mic reported that Schumer posted (and promptly deleted) a tweet implying that men of color are more likely to harass women on the street. She was also embroiled in the negative response to Lena Dunham’s tone-deaf comments about Odell Beckham Jr., which the “Girls” creator gave in a Lenny Letter interview with Schumer. 
 
 When it comes to the “Formation” video, those pointing to Beyoncé’s alleged approval or the appearance of Sykes, who is black, as proof that it couldn’t be problematic are missing the point. If Schumer can’t see that the backlash extends far beyond her, she’s missing it, too. 
 
 This post has been updated. 
 
 In a surprise release a day before her Super Bowl performance, Beyoncé dropped the song "Formation" and its music video. Here's a guide to the video, the lyrics and things you might have missed. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
 
 Related: 
 
 Amy Schumer responds to criticism by insisting she’s not racist, just funny 
 
 Is Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ music video offensive? That’s what people say, mmm mmm. 

 Published on Aug 28, 2016 
 
 Music video by Beyonce performing Formation.• © 2016 Quad Recording Studios. 
 
 
 
 LEMONADE the Visual Album Available Now! 
 
 iTunes: http://smarturl.it/LEMONADEitunes 
 
 Amazon.com: http://smarturl.it/LEMONADEcd 
 
 TIDAL: https://lemonade.tidal.com 
 
 
 
 Follow Beyoncé 
 
 Website: http://www.beyonce.com/ 
 
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyonce 
 
 Twitter: https://twitter.com/beyonce 
 
 Instagram: https://instagram.com/beyonce/ 
 
 
 
 Subscribe to wannermusic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6hx... 
 
 
 
 "Formation" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé for her sixth studio album Lemonade (2016). It was written by Khalif Brown, Jordan Frost, Asheton Hogan, Mike Will Made It and Beyoncé and produced by the latter two alongside Pluss.
– Amy Schumer is taking heat for making a "parody" video of Beyonce's "Formation," a song and music video that were seen as "a celebration of all things black." Critics of Schumer's version said she was guilty of cultural appropriation and was making light of a song that centers around important topics like the Black Lives Matter movement. In a response published on Medium Thursday, Schumer insists that her video was never intended as a parody (she's referred to it in the past as a tribute)—and that Beyonce and Jay Z approved it, releasing it exclusively on Tidal for its first 24 hours. Schumer believes Beyonce's Lemonade, on which "Formation" appears, "is one of the greatest pieces of art of our time." And while filming her latest movie, "we were all crazy for the album and also for Hillary Clinton. We would rush back to our televisions or phones to watch a stream of CNN to see the convention and watch Hillary and Michelle and so many extraordinary women speak. All of the women on set were bonded together from this music and from the election simultaneously. It was such a powerful time." She insists her video wasn't an attempt to minimize the importance of the police brutality and other events depicted in Beyonce's video, but was rather "just us women celebrating each other" and celebrating "bringing us all together. To fight for what we all want. And to do it together." Read her full piece here.