Beyoncé makes waves with Super Bowl performance
Protesters planned to hold a demonstration against Beyonce outside NFL Headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday in response to her Super Bowl halftime show, which sparked outrage.
During the performance, Beyonce and her backup dancers wore outfits inspired by the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary black civil rights group from the 60s and 70s, sang her new song “Formation,” and struck the black power salute, using her stardom to promote the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an interview with Essence magazine, Marni Senofonte, Beyonce’s stylist for the show, said, “It was important to her to honor the beauty of strong black women and celebrate the unity that fuels their power. One of the best examples of that is the image of the female Black Panther.”
A sign held by one of the dancers that read “Justice 4 Mario Woods”, a young man who was shot and killed by the San Francisco police in December, was also posted on social media.
Beyonce’s performance has sparked quite the conversation, as viewers took to social media to voice their opinions.
Some people called her performance an attack against the police force, including Rudy Giuliani, New York City’s former mayor.
“This is football, not Hollywood,” Giuliani said during “Fox & Friends,” “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.”
The singer received a similar reaction after her single, “Formation,” was released Feb. 6. Many were offended by her “unapologetically black” performance in the video.
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL) broadcast a spoof of Beyonce’s white fans’ negative reaction titled “The Day Beyonce Turned Black.”
Set as the trailer for a generic disaster movie, the “SNL” cast depicted the uproar white fans had at Beyonce’s black pride. White Beyonce fans were panicking, as if it was the end of the world, as the narrator described it as “the day they lost their damn white minds.”
Panicking, they demanded to know how Beyonce could be black, while black onlookers looked on, confused by the reactions and pointed out you can be black and also be other things.
The spoof was very similar to the outbursts on social media calling for boycotts and protests of Beyonce and her Formation World Tour with the hashtag #BoycottBeyonce.
However, no anti-Beyonce protestors came to the rally on Tuesday, and no real harm has seemed to come from #BoycottBeyonce.
In fact, extra dates for her Formation World Tour have been set due to an overwhelming demand.
If a group of people is offended by Beyonce’s performance or song, then maybe, as one of the hysterical white characters in the “SNL” skit said, “Maybe the song isn’t for us.”