Beyonce came to Super Bowl 50 to slay, and she delivered. She reduced Coldplay to her opening act when she and her posse of back-up dancers strutted onto the field. Bey started by singing her new single “Formation,” which in addition to being one of the best songs she’s put out in the last five years, it’s also (arguably) the most political. “Formation” is being called “Woke Beyonce” and “BeyonceSoBlack.” So, when she came to the field with her dancers, many of us enjoyed the imagery she evoked – the femme Black Panthers, complete with black berets. The costumes were meant to invoke militancy, or more significantly: black militancy. Beyonce and her dancers even raised their fists in the air in a “Black Power” salute. And that has Fox News in a tizzy. Rudy Giuliani is very, very upset.
Beyonce’s “Black Power” salute during the Super Bowl halftime show divided people with some praising her stance and others, like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, slamming her.
“I think it was outrageous,” Giuliani said on Fox News Monday. “The halftime show I thought was ridiculous anyway. I don’t know what the heck it was. A bunch of people bouncing around and all strange things. It was terrible. This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive. And what we should be doing in the African-American community, and all communities, is build up respect for police officers. And focus on the fact that when something does go wrong, okay. We’ll work on that. But the vast majority of police officers risk their lives to keep us safe.”
You know what I think is disgusting? The knee-jerk, purposeful way that conservatives consistently misconstrue the Black Lives Matter movement or any and all black-centered political movements. So Beyonce did a Black Power salute? So what? Why is this equated to “attacking cops”? What, did Beyonce NEED YOUR PERMISSION? I could maybe (MAYBE!) see his point if he was talking about her latest music video, which includes a shot of graffiti with the words “Stop Killing Us.” But even then, that is an entirely legitimate political statement considering cops keep killing black people.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
