# What did Beyonce do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713 "2016-02-10T14:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/21 "2016-02-10T18:14:08Z")
What I wonder is… why aren’t the people who complain about how whiny and easily offended people are ‘these days’ jumping on this and using it as an example? It’s certainly odd that they’ll criticize black people protesting the confederate flag, but go silent over this. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/22 "2016-02-10T19:00:28Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > For the life of me, I can not figure out how her costume relates to the Black Panther Party uniform. Doing google image searches of “Black Panther Party” doesn’t show me any sort of cohesive image that would imply they dress in similar clothing. Adding ‘uniform’ to that search brings up things like [this](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/87/36/87369ca225198011222062c98899dbdc.jpg?itok=ikJoBDPm) and [this](https://spreadtheinfestation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/panthers31.jpg). > That’s not what Beyonce looked like. > > Clearly, I’m missing something. > > Honestly, the best I can come up with is her back up dancers wore leather tops and berets and the black panthers wore leather jackets and berets. If everyone that wears leather above the waist and a beret, we’re going to have to take down a lot more people than just Bey and co. > > Just to be clear, I don’t know anything about the song (or the video) Formation. I’m just curious why people are saying that her costume resembles that of the Black Panther Party. I can see it, once it was pointed out to me. The berets are representative for sure and the black leather and its trim is kind of militant. Are black arm bands part of BP uniforms? I don’t know but I could see their black garters as being a sexy riff on that. All that plus the [lyrics](http://genius.com/Beyonce-formation-lyrics) to her new song are a sort of a black anthem. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/23 "2016-02-10T19:22:45Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > For the life of me, I can not figure out how her costume relates to the Black Panther Party uniform. Doing google image searches of “Black Panther Party” doesn’t show me any sort of cohesive image that would imply they dress in similar clothing. Adding ‘uniform’ to that search brings up things like [this](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/87/36/87369ca225198011222062c98899dbdc.jpg?itok=ikJoBDPm) and [this](https://spreadtheinfestation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/panthers31.jpg). > That’s not what Beyonce looked like. > > Clearly, I’m missing something. > > Honestly, the best I can come up with is her back up dancers wore leather tops and berets and the black panthers wore leather jackets and berets. If everyone that wears leather above the waist and a beret, we’re going to have to take down a lot more people than just Bey and co. > > Just to be clear, I don’t know anything about the song (or the video) Formation. I’m just curious why people are saying that her costume resembles that of the Black Panther Party. Black clothes and a black beret (and I suppose black skin) equals the Black Panther “uniform”. Not that I would have made the connection without the media, because lots of people wear black clothes and a beret who aren’t Black Panthers. The half-time show wasn’t very “in your face” with the symbolism. You had to do some research, in my opinion. That, or already be familiar with Beyonce’s message, lyrics and the back story to this song/album. Which I doubt includes the Fraternal Order of Police. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/24 "2016-02-10T19:29:40Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > What I wonder is… why aren’t the people who complain about how whiny and easily offended people are ‘these days’ jumping on this and using it as an example? It’s certainly odd that they’ll criticize black people protesting the confederate flag, but go silent over this. Really? They went silent? It was all over my facebook feed. The usual “love the cops, no matter how many kids they murder” brigade was out in full force after the game, posting a lot of outrage and memes about how Beyonce is a racist hypocrite because she has used police security in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/25 "2016-02-10T20:21:39Z")
Well, all I could think of Juliani’s “Police officers protect us and keep us alive” was “There are a lot of people who disagree with that sentiment given that police kill about 1,000 people a year, often for specious reasons…” ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/26 "2016-02-10T20:21:49Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Really? They went silent? That’s true, they’re not silent on the topic of Beyonce, but are silent on the issue of people being too easily offended now, not like the good ol’ days. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/27 "2016-02-10T20:25:34Z")
Now I’m confused again. I thought the berets were a Lewinsky thing. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/28 "2016-02-10T20:26:20Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Really? They went silent? It was all over my facebook feed. The usual “love the cops, no matter how many kids they murder” brigade was out in full force after the game, posting a lot of outrage and memes about how Beyonce is a racist hypocrite because she has used police security in the past. I think what **Pantastic** is saying is not that that the offended complainers are silent, but that the people who _criticize_ offended complainers are silent. As in: Complaint: “We’re offended by the fact that the state capitol is flying a flag strongly associated with white supremacy.” Criticism: “Oh, you poor special snowflakes! The world doesn’t cater to your delicate sensibilities!” vs. Complaint: “We’re offended that a singer has lyrics we don’t agree with.” Criticism: ::crickets:: Maybe the reason is that the people who usually do the criticizing are the ones now being offended and complaining, and failing to see the irony. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/29 "2016-02-10T20:37:51Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Yeah, a long culture of, “Sit down and shut up. That’s some groovy beats though, we’ll be taking those.” As an aside, I always felt a little squicked by the fact that in Back to the Future, we couldn’t even let **Chuck Berry pioneer rock and roll all on his own.** We had to have a white boy intercede to make it possible with a time loop by giving him his own idea. Except Marty didn’t give it to him. Marty was playing what he knew as Chuck Berry’s music. It was Marvin calling Chuck and having him listen over the phone. The whole paradox is where did the music come from originally? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/30 "2016-02-10T21:17:34Z")
Best part is, I’d have totally missed the whole message (I was sorta preoccupied with doing shots and making a second batch of guacamole during halftime) had the outraged not made a big deal of it. Something to thank the haters for, I guess. Good for Beyoncé–I wonder if the NFL reviewed the show in advance and were just ignorant, or if someone was complicit in letting the show go on as planned. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/31 "2016-02-10T23:02:24Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Now I’m confused again. I thought the berets were a Lewinsky thing. It is the uniform of the POTUS blowers. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/32 "2016-02-10T23:27:02Z")
Somebody was listening to the lyrics. Red Lobster’s sales jumped 30% after her singing about going to Red Lobster after having sex. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/33 "2016-02-11T04:14:10Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Do any rational people care? No. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/34 "2016-02-11T05:34:38Z")
You know what? If you have a problem with Beyonce’s message, you can at least take solace that in the mainstream media the acceptable responses _begin_ and _end_ with shrivelled white asshats like Rudy Giuliani. Seriously, **that’s** what irritates me about these stupid flaps, that I read the paper or go to a website and if you’re not whiter than an XBox 360 you have _no voice whatsoever_. ESPECIALLY when it’s about a gross injustice done to a minority group, which I think the Mario Woods case certainly qualifies as! Hmph. This country sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/35 "2016-02-11T17:26:15Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Oh dear god, what “evil organization?” The NFL? The Black Panther Party. From Wikipedia: [ul] [li]“October 28, 1967 Oakland police officer John Frey was shot to death in an altercation with Huey P. Newton during a traffic stop. In the stop, Newton and backup officer Herbert Heanes also suffered gunshot wounds. Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter at trial, but the conviction was later overturned. In his book Shadow of the Panther, writer Hugh Pearson alleges that Newton, while intoxicated in the hours before he was shot and killed, claimed to have willfully killed John Frey[/li][li] April 7, 1968, seventeen-year-old Panther national treasurer Bobby Hutton was killed, and Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther Party Minister of Information, was wounded in a shootout with the Oakland police. Two police officers were also shot. Although at the time the BPP claimed that the police had ambushed them, several party members later admitted that Cleaver had led the Panther group on a deliberate ambush of the police officers, provoking the shoot-out[/li][li]April 1969: Twenty-one members of the New York chapter are indicted and jailed for a bombing conspiracy.[/li][li] May 1969, three members of the New Haven chapter tortured and murdered Alex Rackley, a 19-year-old member of the New York chapter, because they suspected him of being a police informant. Three party officers — Warren Kimbro, George Sams, Jr., and Lonnie McLucas — later admitted taking part. Sams, who gave the order to shoot Rackley at the murder scene, turned state’s evidence and testified that he had received orders personally from Bobby Seale to carry out the execution.[/li][li]Spring 1971: the Newton and Cleaver factions engage in retaliatory assassinations of each other’s members, resulting in the deaths of four people[/li][li]August 1974: Newton murders Kathleen Smith, a teenage prostitute. He flees to Cuba. [/li][li]December 1974: accountant Betty van Patter is murdered, after threatening to disclose irregularities in the Party’s finances.[/li][li]October 1977 Flores Forbes, the party’s assistant chief of staff, led a botched attempt to assassinate Crystal Gray, a key prosecution witness in Newton’s upcoming trial who had been present the day of Kathleen Smith’s murder. One of the two surviving assassins, Flores Forbes, fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, with the help of Panther paramedic Nelson Malloy. Fearing that Malloy would discover the truth behind the botched assassination attempt, Newton allegedly ordered a “house cleaning”, and Malloy was shot and buried alive in the desert. Although permanently paralyzed from the waist down, Malloy recovered from the assault and told police that fellow Panthers Rollin Reid and Allen Lewis were behind his attempted murder.”[/li][/ul] Is that evil enough for you? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/36 "2016-02-11T17:58:53Z")
If anyone else (besides me) may be interested in just what is a “video Easter Egg”, you might find the following writeup illuminating. I’m afraid that I still don’t get it and if anyone would care to explain this in terms that someone who is not very technically aware might be able to understand, I know that I’d sure appreciate it. Specifically, what is the relationship between the following explanation of a “video Easter Egg” and what Beyonce did at the Superbowl half time? > **[Easter egg (media)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_%28media%29)** > > An Easter egg is a message, image, or feature hidden in software, a video game, a film, or another — usually electronic — medium. The term used in this manner was coined around 1979 by Steve Wright, the then-Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, to describe a hidden message in the Atari video game Adventure, in reference to an Easter egg hunt. The earliest known video game Easter egg is in Moonlander (1973), in which the player tries to land a Lunar module on the moon;... Oh dear! I’m afraid that I may be in for a “pasting” here. Lord have mercy? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/37 "2016-02-11T19:15:57Z")
I guess it means we weren’t supposed to recognize the berets and the X formation without a closer look. If it’s that it’s not exactly an ‘easter egg’ as the term is usually used. Those things weren’t really hidden in the sense they needed to be uncovered or magnified. It might be an “I see what you did there” kind of thing if that’s used outside this board (I am really not hip to the lingo). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/38 "2016-02-11T19:25:22Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > She paid tribute to an evil organization and got criticized for it. However, no rational person cares what a singer’s political opinions are. > [@Pantastic](#): > > What I wonder is… why aren’t the people who complain about how whiny and easily offended people are ‘these days’ jumping on this and using it as an example? It’s certainly odd that they’ll criticize black people protesting the confederate flag, but go silent over this. Not sure if puddleglum complains about how easily offended people are these days or not, but there does seem to be at least one person who thinks the message is offensive but ultimately not a huge deal. ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/39 "2016-02-11T19:29:57Z")
I, for one, was completely outraged by Beyonce’s half time performance, and don’t think things like that have any place in a football game. Especially the Super Bowl. Seriously, HEELS on the playing field?!?! The field was dug up enough before the show. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713/40 "2016-02-11T19:40:55Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > She paid tribute to an evil organization and got criticized for it. However, no rational person cares what a singer’s political opinions are. Ah. So “rational” people ignore political statements that come from people who make their living from singing. Are there any other methods of making a living that these “rational” people automatically thinks invalidates what people have to say? Personally I actually look to artists for interpretations, insights and creative input. I happen to be part of another group of people who actually think that is their job. To mirror, reflect and create our culture. And since “politics” is a very important part of that culture, not only do I think it’s “ok” that Beyonce did this, I think it is EXACTLY what she is supposed to do. The fact that some conservative white guys get all upset about the “uppity negro” is just icing on the cake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-beyonce-do/745713.md?page=3)