Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’ Video Criticized as Anti-Police, Some Boycott Super Bowl Performance in Protest
Beyoncé’s new music video for “Formation” has its usual share of instant-classic dance sequences, but it also includes several politically-charged scenes, touching on both Hurricane Katrina and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Visuals of a boy in a hoodie confronting a line of cops and graffiti on a wall that reads “stop shooting us” has led several people on Facebook to criticize Beyoncé as being anti-police, with a few using some pretty polarizing language. One wrote: “Horrible video and horrible display of hate against law enforcement. You disgust me and your racist ways.” Some even started using the hashtag #BoycottBeyoncé to protest her Super Bowl halftime performance.
As for that performance, when Beyoncé finally showed up, following Coldplay, she appeared alongside an all-female contingent of back-up dancers wearing berets – a likely nod to the Black Panther Party of the 1960s. Those using #BoycottBeyoncé were unsurprisingly vocal on Twitter but the majority of users cheered her performance as the high point of a show which she technically wasn’t even headlining.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was among the outspoken critics, and on Monday he told Fox News: “This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that [Beyoncé] used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive.”
To coincide with her Super Bowl performance, Beyoncé also announced a solo world tour, which, depending on your perspective, you’re either really really psyched to attend or really really psyched to boycott.
You can watch streaming concerts on the Live Nation channel on Yahoo. To see our upcoming lineup, just visit here.
