The musician’s modern classic reflects the party’s effort to draw a connection between marginalized communities and the liberty they’re too often denied.
An attendee holds a sign stating "Freedom" during the second day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images
As every brokenhearted Beyoncé fan will remind you, the rumor was wrong: The global music phenomenon was never scheduled to perform at the Democratic National Convention.
But while Beyoncé wasn’t there in person, she was there in another way. Just before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, Beyoncé’s 2016 song, “Freedom,” kicked in.
For the past month, the track, which is a propulsive blend of hip-hop, gospel, and R&B, has been Harris’ unofficial campaign anthem. And with good reason: It neatly reflects Democrats’ effort to draw a connection between marginalized communities and the freedom they’re too often denied.
During her keynote address, Harris referenced “freedom” a dozen times, always to stress the kinds of rights and liberties — including reproductive freedom — that are at risk in November, especially for vulnerable Americans.
“In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake: the freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities, and places of worship; the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride; the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis; and the freedom that unlocks all the others — the freedom to vote,” Harris said.
The vice president’s defiance — her willingness, even eagerness, to get her hands dirty and battle for equality — echoed the sound and sentiment of Beyoncé’s banger.
“Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move / Freedom, cut me loose! / Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? / ’Cause I need freedom, too!” the singer cries. “I break chains all by myself / Won’t let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I’ma keep running / ’Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
The song is a rousing social justice anthem. The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Oscar Grant III — all Black boys or men who were killed by police — sit next to one another in the “Freedom” section of the Lemonade movie. Beyoncé’s accompanying vocals amplify “the intensity and cathartic potential of the music,” per Salamishah Tillet, a professor at Rutgers University.
Additionally, on his verse, Kendrick Lamar implores: “But, mama, don’t cry for me, ride for me / Try for me, live for me.” And later: “Open our mind as we cast away oppression.”
“Ride for me.” “Try for me.” “Live for me.” In embracing the track on the campaign trail, Harris and her allies are offering a similar message: that they want to champion communities that are usually denied the freedom to live their lives safely and on the terms that they set.
(Worth highlighting is that there seems to be a limit to Democrats’ claim, given the lack of Palestinian representation at the convention. As the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates underscored, while Palestinians “heard their names mentioned fleetingly by a handful of speakers,” they weren’t “granted the right to speak their names themselves.”)
This rhetoric is clever not simply because it’s a message that most voters can rally behind, but also because it reclaims the “freedom” narrative from Republicans — the “freedom fries” that were introduced over the Iraq War, the House Freedom Caucus — and reframes it as freedom from GOP interference.
Put more bluntly, Democrats are giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine. They’re flipping decades-old assumptions about who owns the concept of freedom, as they make the case that the only freedom their GOP rivals care about is the freedom to control when it comes to reproductive care, education, marriage, and other areas of people’s everyday lives.
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois speaks on night two of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Credit: Tami Nguyen / The Emancipator
“When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, said during his acceptance speech.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love,” he added. “Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
Some Republicans are souring on their party, which over the past couple of years has waged war on “woke” and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Several GOP leaders made an appearance at the convention, including John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona. He shared with his strange bedfellows that he no longer feels welcome in his Trumpified party.
“The Grand Old Party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult: the cult of Donald Trump,” he said on the second day of the convention. “I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans, who, like me, are in the political middle: John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind.”
Notably, Democrats’ embrace of “freedom” is aligned with the good vibes that they’ve been generating in recent weeks. According to observers, what voters want is a message that’s joyous — that’s forward-looking. And that’s precisely what Democrats are giving them.
Sign up for Critical Thinking, a newsletter from Editor-in-Chief Jamil Smith. An essential dispatch on race and racism, delivered straight to your inbox.
“This feels like 2008. And part of that is that people have something to be hopeful about. Trump and the GOP have been driving the narrative in this country — and it’s a narrative that’s bleak and dystopian and divisive and hateful,” Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization focusing on political engagement, told Capital B.
“People have this feeling: ‘We don’t have to be like that. We can be something else.’ I really believe that Americans want that. And not only Black Americans. All Americans,” she added. “Americans want to be hopeful and feel good about who we are as a nation. But we’ve been told — for as long as Trump has decided to be on the political scene — that everything’s terrible, including us as individuals. I think that, fundamentally, people don’t want that.”
It might seem surprising, in some ways, that Beyoncé’s music is the soundtrack to Kamala Harris’ Democratic Party. After all, the genre-bending music institution is famously private, and she rarely says even a word to the press.
Yet, at the same time, Beyoncé’s presence in the campaign makes perfect sense. She speaks up when she believes that doing so might matter, as she did when she endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, or when she wants to make a point, as she did when she performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for the country’s first Black president in 2009.
This election follows that pattern. Beyoncé knows that, particularly for marginalized communities, freedom is on the line. And like Harris, she refuses to let it rot in hell.
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Beyoncé, Democrats, and the fight for ‘Freedom’
by Brandon Tensley, Capital B, The Emancipator September 6, 2024
Beyoncé, Democrats, and the fight for ‘Freedom’
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This story was first published in Capital B.
As every brokenhearted Beyoncé fan will remind you, the rumor was wrong: The global music phenomenon was never scheduled to perform at the Democratic National Convention.
But while Beyoncé wasn’t there in person, she was there in another way. Just before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, Beyoncé’s 2016 song, “Freedom,” kicked in.
For the past month, the track, which is a propulsive blend of hip-hop, gospel, and R&B, has been Harris’ unofficial campaign anthem. And with good reason: It neatly reflects Democrats’ effort to draw a connection between marginalized communities and the freedom they’re too often denied.
During her keynote address, Harris referenced “freedom” a dozen times, always to stress the kinds of rights and liberties — including reproductive freedom — that are at risk in November, especially for vulnerable Americans.
“In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake: the freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities, and places of worship; the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride; the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis; and the freedom that unlocks all the others — the freedom to vote,” Harris said.
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The vice president’s defiance — her willingness, even eagerness, to get her hands dirty and battle for equality — echoed the sound and sentiment of Beyoncé’s banger.
“Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move / Freedom, cut me loose! / Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? / ’Cause I need freedom, too!” the singer cries. “I break chains all by myself / Won’t let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I’ma keep running / ’Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
The song is a rousing social justice anthem. The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Oscar Grant III — all Black boys or men who were killed by police — sit next to one another in the “Freedom” section of the Lemonade movie. Beyoncé’s accompanying vocals amplify “the intensity and cathartic potential of the music,” per Salamishah Tillet, a professor at Rutgers University.
Additionally, on his verse, Kendrick Lamar implores: “But, mama, don’t cry for me, ride for me / Try for me, live for me.” And later: “Open our mind as we cast away oppression.”
“Ride for me.” “Try for me.” “Live for me.” In embracing the track on the campaign trail, Harris and her allies are offering a similar message: that they want to champion communities that are usually denied the freedom to live their lives safely and on the terms that they set.
(Worth highlighting is that there seems to be a limit to Democrats’ claim, given the lack of Palestinian representation at the convention. As the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates underscored, while Palestinians “heard their names mentioned fleetingly by a handful of speakers,” they weren’t “granted the right to speak their names themselves.”)
This rhetoric is clever not simply because it’s a message that most voters can rally behind, but also because it reclaims the “freedom” narrative from Republicans — the “freedom fries” that were introduced over the Iraq War, the House Freedom Caucus — and reframes it as freedom from GOP interference.
Put more bluntly, Democrats are giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine. They’re flipping decades-old assumptions about who owns the concept of freedom, as they make the case that the only freedom their GOP rivals care about is the freedom to control when it comes to reproductive care, education, marriage, and other areas of people’s everyday lives.
“When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, said during his acceptance speech.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love,” he added. “Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
Some Republicans are souring on their party, which over the past couple of years has waged war on “woke” and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Several GOP leaders made an appearance at the convention, including John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona. He shared with his strange bedfellows that he no longer feels welcome in his Trumpified party.
“The Grand Old Party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult: the cult of Donald Trump,” he said on the second day of the convention. “I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans, who, like me, are in the political middle: John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind.”
Notably, Democrats’ embrace of “freedom” is aligned with the good vibes that they’ve been generating in recent weeks. According to observers, what voters want is a message that’s joyous — that’s forward-looking. And that’s precisely what Democrats are giving them.
Sign up for Critical Thinking, a newsletter from Editor-in-Chief Jamil Smith. An essential dispatch on race and racism, delivered straight to your inbox.
“This feels like 2008. And part of that is that people have something to be hopeful about. Trump and the GOP have been driving the narrative in this country — and it’s a narrative that’s bleak and dystopian and divisive and hateful,” Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization focusing on political engagement, told Capital B.
“People have this feeling: ‘We don’t have to be like that. We can be something else.’ I really believe that Americans want that. And not only Black Americans. All Americans,” she added. “Americans want to be hopeful and feel good about who we are as a nation. But we’ve been told — for as long as Trump has decided to be on the political scene — that everything’s terrible, including us as individuals. I think that, fundamentally, people don’t want that.”
It might seem surprising, in some ways, that Beyoncé’s music is the soundtrack to Kamala Harris’ Democratic Party. After all, the genre-bending music institution is famously private, and she rarely says even a word to the press.
Yet, at the same time, Beyoncé’s presence in the campaign makes perfect sense. She speaks up when she believes that doing so might matter, as she did when she endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, or when she wants to make a point, as she did when she performed “At Last” at an inaugural ball for the country’s first Black president in 2009.
This election follows that pattern. Beyoncé knows that, particularly for marginalized communities, freedom is on the line. And like Harris, she refuses to let it rot in hell.