ABSTRACT
Madonna's Like a Prayer music video invites a textually and historically oriented analysis that takes into account the racial themes it contains. Like a Prayer, similar to many of Madonna's more videos that contain images of people of color, promotes the idea of equality and encourages the viewer to make the right choices. This chapter provides an analysis of the images and narrative in Like a Prayer from a black perspective. One challenge to that stability is the subtle yet consistent depiction of black religion, via visual images, as being practiced far differently from the more sedate, less emotional mainstream religions of whites. For African Americans, the church has countered negative arguments by showing that African Americans are also created in the image of God, that they are the color God wanted them to be, and that justice and equality are inherent human rights. MTV has subsequently added more minority images to its programming.
