Written by Justin Wm. Moyer at WashingtonPost.com
It seems like eons ago that the Denver Broncos sent the Carolina Panthers packing in Superbowl 50. Yet, Beyoncé has been under fire for her provocative halftime performance ever since the game’s third quarter. The singer, if you’ll remember, blessed Panthers fans with a tribute to a very different member of their species — the Black Panthers — as well as shout-outs to Malcolm X and a young black man killed by police who has been championed by Black Lives Matter movement.
Now, after a page posted to Eventbrite advertised what’s billed as an “Anti-Beyoncé Protest Rally” at NFL headquarters — and an ‘Anti-Anti-Beyoncé Rally” was planned in response — the showdown between Bey sympathizers and Bey detractors is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 a.m. That is, if the Bey detractors — who, heretofore, have avoided talking to the media even as they post provocative comments online — show up.
What may be a faux imbroglio began last week when a mystery someone or someones spoke out against the provocative halftime performance.
“Are you offended as an American that Beyoncé pulled her race-baiting stunt at the Superbowl?” the Eventbrite page read. “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!”
The message linked to 2006 article by conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel. When Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, she wrote of the world’s Muslim population: “One down, 1.8 billion to go.”
“It’s been a long 40 years under the Panthers reign of terror in America,”Schussel wrote of the group. “The Black Panthers’ 40 years has been marked by violence, murder, cop-killing, anti-Semitism, anti-White racism, pan-Islamism and a host of other things that are no good for any free and democratic society.”
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