Summary

Jerkins writes a review about Beyoncé’s album, Lemonade, for Elle.com. She mourns through the hour-long special, thinking of her relationships that she had never had (202). She describes the sequence in which Beyoncé enters Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain along with other women, in a "reformation" ritual (201). Her mother joins in watching the special and is moved. Lemonade's message is not only about "uplifting black people in general, but rather black women specifically" (203). The French film Girlhood (Bande de filles) is about Marieme, a 16-year-old black girl, who engages in a gang of girls. Jerkins praises the film while addressing problematic statements by the white filmmaker, Celine Sciamma, who said that her film is not about race or racism (204-205). She adds that Sciamma controls a story that was "never hers to begin with" and that she "confiscated" the black girl's bodies...