Madonna, Like a Prayer Controversy Evaluation

The music video of Madonna's song, "Like a Prayer" is debated to be one of the most controversial music videos of all time in the industry. This music video is believed to be very controversial for various different reasons. most of which are related to religion (Christianity) and ethnicity towards the black community. These will be the two areas I will be covering in this essay.

As soon as the video starts at around 0:10 we see burning crosses. It still hasn't been portrayed to the listener what the context of the music video is going to be. But initially, with the appearance of the burning crosses we feel a bad vibe for the video.  We also get a shot of a black individual getting arrested at about 0:30, enforcing the stereotype against black people and the context about police brutality.

Throughout most of the video we get controversy because Madonna is shown dancing in church with a lot of cleavage being exposed, this brings controversy between religion and sexuality. We are also shown that Madonna brings a crying black saint to life by doing a prayer and kissing him on the foot, this transmits the message which dictates that there is still a sense of racism in the world through showing that the black community is sad due to inequality between their race and the white race. But then again, we see Madonna dancing is front of burning crosses which emphasises the video's controversy because we see her feeling sorry for the black community and then we see her dancing in front of the burning crosses. The symbolism related to the burning crosses has a historical background including the KKK. Basically, every time a member of the clan would capture and kill a black person they would burn a cross to show what they've done.

What also makes this music video very powerful is the fact that some white people assaulted Madonna in the streets and as soon as a black person steps in to save her the police man arrest the black person because they assume he's guilty due to his ethnicity. Therefore, apart from only creating conflicts with ethnicity and religion, the music video also cerated tension with police brutality.

In the video we are also shown Madonna and the saint she brought to life kissing and eventually having sex in the church. This is extremely controversial against religion because Christianity dictates that there should be no sex until marriage, yet the two still do it in church. Something else which is debated to be sinful is the fact that Madonna represents herself as being Jesus since the grabs the knife and accidentally cuts both her palms symbolising Jesus' palms when he was crucified.