Guest Column: Beyoncé Makes Her Point at Super Bowl 50

Just because Rudy Giuliani objects to pop icon’s use of massive platform, doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have used it.

by Kareem Taylor

With more than a few of its nearly 112 million viewers tuned in almost specifically to watch the ads, Super Bowl 50 included a few socially conscious messages from advertisers: Colgate urged us to save our water, while advocacy group No More addressed sexual assault and domestic violence. So why, then, would viewers, including Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, be outraged by Beyoncé’s half-time nod to the Black Lives Matter movement?

Well, a message is just a message — until it hits too close to home. But should issues this potentially controversial have an audience that large? In a word: Yes.

While appearing on Fox & Friends on Monday, Giuliani was asked his thoughts on Beyoncé’s salute.

“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,” he told the program’s hosts.

Giuliani was referring to Beyoncé’s outright shout out — via her and her dancers’ costumes at the Super Bowl half-time show — to the Black Panther party, the organization formed in the ‘60’s to retaliate ongoing police brutality.

The performance should have been expected, though, considering the music video for “Formation” that Beyoncé released the day before the big game.

NPR called the video a “visual anthem,” noting that it’s filled with images corresponding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the shooting of unarmed black teens, and newspaper clippings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s not for everyone. However, it decisively answers critics who have previously suggested the pop icon is too quiet on political issues.

Beyoncé’s message may be particularly tough for to swallow for Giuliani, who was overseer of the five boroughs in 1999 when four NYPD officers fired 41 shots on unarmed African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, killing him on his Bronx doorstep. The city was turned on its back when the mayor defended the officers’ actions, culminating in their acquittal of all charges. Those results angered many and divided the city.

For people who felt that way about the Diallo case, and who also feel strongly about events like last year’s riots in Ferguson, Mo., after a white police officer shot an unarmed black man, this nod to social justice from Beyoncé likely feels like vindication. Or at least acknowledgement. Beyoncé is one of the world’s most popular artists. For her to take this crucial message to the world’s biggest stage during a game filled with players and viewers of all races seems absolutely appropriate.

There are some things that are true for all of us, no matter our color, race or creed. I can only assume that many of us brush our teeth in the morning, and most of us know couples who aren’t perfect. Another percentage of us know what it’s like to be an oppressed minority in America. Who know what it’s like to feel like (and be treated as if) you’re not as human as those around you. Maybe this message from Beyoncé is just for a small group of people who identify with her sentiments. But up and down my social media timelines, it’s evident that Beyoncé’s message is resonating to people — all types of people — throughout the country.

Other big stages have been used this way in the past, and it hasn’t always worked out for the best for the participants. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have said what they said or done what they did.

At the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously held up the “Black Power” salute to an international audience. Suspended from the games and revoked of their passes, they were forced to leave Mexico City earlier than expected. All of that was happening at a time when black men, women, boys and girls were subject to police brutality, unfair judicial practices and disproportionate poverty.

In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, John Carlos said he wouldn’t change a thing: “In life, there’s the beginning and the end,” he says. “The beginning don’t matter. The end don’t matter. All that matters is what you do in between — whether you’re prepared to do what it takes to make change.”

For “Queen B,” all of this comes with a striking duality. Arguably the world’s biggest pop star and one of entertainment’s wealthiest women was escorted to the game by the very police officers she would then artistically criticize. But just her willingness to make this statement means she’s aware of the reality that her fate as a minority in this country certainly isn’t typical.

Of course, just like any other kind of messaging we do, Beyoncé’s message also targeted a specific audience: fans who will pay to see her in concert. It’s no surprise that immediately following Beyoncé’s so called “outrageous” performance, a commercial aired revealing her new “Formation” world tour. Take heed, marketing departments: When you’ve got the world’s eyes, it is advantageous to follow up with something else remarkable.

At the end of the month, another opportunity to experience the remarkable will happen when Chris Rock hosts The Oscars. Amidst all the noise regarding the lack of nominations for nonwhite actors, this may be the perfect audience for the telling of an inconvenient truth.

[Image courtesy of the NY Daily News]

Originally published at brief.promaxbda.org.