Beyoncé didn’t only upstage headline act Coldplay, fronted by Chris Martin, in Sunday’s Super Bowl half-time show; she frankly consigned the game itself to the footnotes of the many reports that naturally follow the biggest annual sporting event on the calendar.
Eventually joining Martin and Bruno Mars, who is not exactly padding either, Mrs Z’s sector would have been noteworthy enough simply for its slickness and entertainment value. Add an unexpected element of politics to the mix, and anyone who used the interval to whip up a snack, sneak a cat-nap or catch up on their social media messages missed the best bit of the whole five-hour TV event.
Even before the performance, when images of the former Destiny’s Child singer’s backing artists were posted from backstage on social media, people were picking up on the visual reference – the berets of the militant Black Panther Party, formed by Huey P Newton in 1966 and therefore, like the Super Bowl, commemorating its 50th anniversary.
The Panthers group, who eschewed the non-violence message of Dr Martin Luther King Jr in favour of a more robust form of defence against violence suffered by Black people at the hands of police and immune by privilege civilians, was ironically founded just forty miles down the road from Super Bowl 50’s host city Santa Clara.
Sadly, the on-field Panthers were unable to capitalise on the other irony, sharing a name with the erstwhile Black activists. But then since they didn’t win, maybe the irony continues!
In case the assembled crowd and multiple millions watching on TV didn’t get the black outfits, the berets or the afro hair-dos, Beyoncé and her backing dancers raise a fist into the air at one point, mimicking the Black Panther salute last witnessed by an international TV audience watching a sports event back in 1968, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a gloved fist from the podium during the medal ceremony for the Olympic 200m final in Mexico City.
Less obvious was when the dancers created an ‘X’ formation, surely referencing a certain Malcolm Little, who adopted the letter in place of the surname he said was bestowed on his father via a White slaver.
Then there was the arrow formation – mimicking the motif that was once repeated all over the prison uniforms worn, often unjustly, by Blacks serving long sentences for crimes impartial jurists would know they could not have committed.
While not strictly part of the performance (at least that’s what Beyoncé’s people may have to say), images later did the rounds on social media of some of the dancers displaying a hand-written a sign calling for justice for Mario Woods while in the centre of the field. Twenty-six year-old Woods was shot dead by police in San Francisco in December.
It might not be a surprise that not everyone who picked up on the Black Power references was impressed by them.
In America on Monday morning’s episode of Fox & Friends, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani criticised Beyoncé’s routine as an “attack” on police officers.
“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,” he said.
“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,” Guiliani continued. “But the vast majority of police officers risk their lives to keep us safe.”
Giuliani ended by asking for “decent, wholesome entertainment” for future halftime shows.
Describing Beyoncé’s half-time performance as anti-police is a stretch. But if Mr Guiliani reads the news, he should be aware that any Black person in the nation of which he seems so proud has every reason to be anti-police.
Beyoncé used the platform she had been given not to lavish praise on America nor solely to titillate the world’s bum-fetishists. In there she brought attention to crucial issues in America’s Black community – a duty many before her have abdicated.
The impact that Beyoncé has had on all of America and the world beyond in just a matter of a few days shows that Americans realise they have as much to be embarrassed about as the Germans or as White South Africans. The difference is that America’s past, as the family of Mario Woods and countless others in recent memory will attest, hasn’t really passed at all.
