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Anti-Beyonce Rally: Backlash To Beyonce’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance Continues

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 06:51 PST, Feb 12, 2016

Beyonce’s controversial Super Bowl Halftime performance is still receiving backlash, and now an anti-Beyonce rally is scheduled to be held in front of the NFL headquarters building in New York City.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, an Eventbrite page was created by an unknown organizer who plans to hold the anti-Beyonce rally on Tuesday, February 16 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Are you offended as an American that Beyoncé pulled her race-baiting stunt at the Superbowl?” the page reads. “Do you agree that it was a slap in the face to law enforcement? Do you agree that the Black Panthers was/is a hate group which should not be glorified? Come and let’s stand together. Let’s tell the NFL we don’t want hate speech & racism at the Superbowl ever again! #BoycottBeyonce #BlueLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter.”

The anti-Beyonce rally was scheduled after Beyonce’s halftime performance on Sunday, February 7 at Super Bowl 50. When Beyonce took to the field, she was wearing a black leotard and a gold cross-body harness. Her backup dancers were donning similar black leather leotards and berets in reference to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, which was a group founded in 1966 to patrol black neighborhoods and fight against police brutality.

Protesters are calling Beyonce’s performance racist due to her salute to the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement. Not only have they planned the anti-Beyonce rally, they have also created a Boycott Beyonce sign-up page and a social media hashtag, #boycottBeyonce, for people to use when the address the performance.

Professor Noliwe Rooks, the director of Graduate Studies at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center, spoke about Beyonce’s halftime performance and said it has brought attention to the racial tension that is still very evident in the United States.

“Black women around the country, on both social media and in mainstream publications have rushed to praise the video and the artist for affirming the political moment of Black Lives Mattering, and the uplifting embrace of forms of southern Black culture,” Rooks told FOX411. “On the other are pickets and boycotts and rage, mostly by whites. What this moment tells us is that as much as we might wish differently, race often still functions as a hard and fast dividing line. It also tells us that Black women who perform at the Super Bowl bring simmering cultural tensions to a full boil, along with really high ratings.”

Although Beyonce’s performance has sparked a controversial debate, there are those who support her performance and praise her for standing up for what she believes is right. A group by the name of Black Girl Rising also created an Eventbrite page to counter the anti-Beyonce rally.

“When Black women affirm Blackness/Black womanhood, they are attacked and silenced,” the event page reads. “This is a counter protest to a racist, ahistorical attack on the Black Panther Party and Beyonce, plus an excuse to celebrate a very awesome song and #BlackGirlMagic moment.”

“Sisters, dress in your ‘Formation’ video/Super Bowl performance-inspired gear and make this a moment a joyous one! Allies and friends, show up and show your support!” the page continues. “We have asked our biggest stars to get political and Bey went there. Don’t let anyone make her powerful statement about the value of Black life be overshadowed by those who don’t believe that our lives matter.”

The anti-Beyonce rally and the anti-anti-Beyonce rally will take place on the same day tickets to her “Formation World Tour” go on sale.

What do you think about Beyonce’s Super Bowl 50 Halftime performance? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Matt Slocum/Associated Press]

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