The Super Bowl is a much-anticipated weekend for many people. It’s a time where the football fanatics, food lovers and music lovers come together and all agree on the same TV channel for once and no one complains about watching commercials.
And of course, no one’s getting up to go to the bathroom during the halftime show, especially when Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyoncéé were all expected to perform. This year’s halftime show was filled with color, crazy dance moves and incredible vocals.
We can’t forget to give a shout out to Lady Gaga for her breathtaking and soulful national anthem, too.
However, this year’s halftime show was more than just a performance, but more of a statement. Not only did Coldplay show support for the LGBT community, Beyoncé also debuted her new song, “Formation.” Beyoncé’s performance was fierce and entertaining as always, but this time she used her platform to send a message, causing controversy in the media.
The day before the Super Bowl, Beyoncé dropped not only her new single “Formation,” but also the music video. The music video is incredibly appealing to the eye and is extremely well done. The video shows Beyoncé embracing her black heritage and references the harsh occurrence of Hurricane Katrina and police brutality toward black people. The video shows Beyoncé sitting on top of a New Orleans police car in a flooded town after Hurricane Katrina. Later, the video shows graffiti with the words, “Stop shooting us,” and a little black boy dancing in front of a line of policemen. Clearly, it’s sending a message regarding the police brutality toward the black community that we’ve seen in the media, such as the cases with Ferguson, Eric Gardner and Mario Woods. Beyoncé used the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show to express the same significance her music video portrays.
Beyoncé started off her part of the show with a number of backup dancers, all of whom were black. Their outfits resembled the same attire of the Black Panther Party, a black socialist organization founded in 1966 to help protect the black community from police brutality. Toward the end of Beyoncé’s piece, her dancers got in lines to form an X. Many people in the media recognized the X as a reference to Malcolm X, the well-known human rights activist.
As Beyoncé is a prominent member and clear supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement I understand why she uses her enormous platform to speak to people of her same decent. She’s using her power and voice to empower the black community. “Formation” says to own your heritage, that people have the power to be greater than the labels stuck on them and that police brutality against Black citizens must end.
As much as I love and support the Queen Bee and agree with the idea that you are more than a stereotype and the neighborhood you grow up in, I do believe the message was misdirected. I believe there is still racism in the world and I do believe that some cases of police brutality deserve re-evaluation of certain precautions taken by those police officers. However, I also believe in the idea that all lives matter, not just black lives, as it isn’t only black people who end up dead after certain encounters involving the police.
Even though I am not African American, which may distort my perception of this controversial issue, I believe the message should not just be directed toward the police, but also the members of the black community. You cannot wait or ask for change, you must enforce change.
As much as you should love your background and represent your culture with pride, as Beyoncé reminds us, I believe you must also do so through your actions. As much as racism in our country should end, so should the reoccurring violence between citizens of the United States, black or white.
