Was the Superbowl halftime show racist?

Travis

Misanthrope of the Mountains
Travis
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Mar 31, 2007
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Ever since the Superbowl happened I have been doing two things: 1) trying to hypnotize myself into forgetting puppy-monkey-baby ever happened and 2) dealing with a constant flood of facebook status posts stating that Beyonce is racist against white people.

Maybe I'm weird but when I watched the halftime show I saw dancers in leather. Last thing on my mind was "this means white genocide!" But apparently I wasn't watching it with my Idiot Glasses™ on. Someone that was watching it with their Idiot Glasses™ on was Sandy Rios of the American Family Association. She took some time out from accusing Obama of being a Muslim jihadist to mash together some words on the matter of Superbowl anti-white racism.

“It’s just in-your-face black racism. And also cop hatred.”
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Well of course it was.Then she goes on to say this will usher in the Antichrist because of course she does. Read it all here.

Sandy wasn't alone of course. Someone else that would need surgery to have his Idiot Glasses™ removed is Rush Limbaugh. His take?

"This has everybody up in arms. She gets a police escort to the game. They sweep everybody off the highways so she can get [to] the Super Bowl on time. She didn't have to go hours early and wait. They parted the traffic for her so she can get there with not much downtime before she had to perform and does that routine ripping the cops, promoting Black Lives Matter."
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Yep, Rush is part of that select group of humanity that thinks wanting cops to stop murdering black people means you hate cops. In a shocking revelation it also seems Fox & Friends agrees.

"Beyoncé got a police escort there and then she gives a salute to the Black Lives Matter movement."
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I'm not sure what brand of bleach conservatives drink as kids but it sure does kill the part of the brain that allows one to realize not liking the cops that murder is not the same as hating all cops!

Sigh...then on the very same Fox & Friends show Rudy Giuliani drops this logic bomb.
"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. And what we should be doing in the African-American community, and all communities, is build up respect for police officers."
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I'm guessing a good way to get respect built up is to do something about the cops that murder black people. But maybe I'm weird in that I tend to not respect people that want to kill me and those that protect them from the legal consequences of said murder.

*double sigh*

The Fox News spinoff channel has a host, Stuart Varney (shocker, a white man!) who doesn't seem to get what racism is like all about.

"Is there anything in America which can exclude race? I mean, why is race brought into the halftime show at a Super Bowl game, why?"
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In other news it appears that you can become a Fox News host despite being completely ignorant of: slavery, Jim Crow, church bombings, the Tulsa riots, Selma, lynchings, and the KKK. Also the Superbowl was, last time I checked, the most watched event in America so it would seem logical to use it to advance social messages you think are really important. Note the halftime show also included a message to "believe in love" which, apparently, too many people completely ignored in order to continue believing Black Lives Matter is just a bunch of cop hating weirdos.
 
For those of us who aren't American and didn't see it could you give a short description of what the controversial actions were?
 
First I've heard of any of this.
I liked the half time show, after we got past the Coldplay part.
 
For those of us who aren't America and DID see it could you give us a short description of what the controversial actions were?

The only thing I took away from the HT show is that Coldplay are boring and Beyonce really can't dance.
 
It was the first Superbowl half time show that I've seen that at least pretended to have something marching band-ish about it. Yay for them.
 
Good afternoon.
I watched the Super Bowl and the half time show. If they were trying to send an anti cop message I missed it. I may have been distracted by the David Blaine like audience reaction shots to the show.
It was right up there with something Lewis Black once said about an earlier super bowl half time show.
"I have N'Sync and Aerosmith and Britney Spears. I have a trifecta from hell."
 
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Does pointing out that "Black Lives Matter" mean one is anti-cop?

(honestly, I don't even remember seeing that during the show, but admittedly, I was watching for more formations.)

(eta: I guess Beyonce's song is called "Formations"? heh)
 
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The people Travis quotes typically hold a high-standard for what constitutes racism, so I'm forced to conclude the half-time show must have been outrageously racist.
 
Issue number one was that the dancers wore berets, black ones. This reminded them of the Black Panthers.

Issue number two is that her song lyrics address cops killing unarmed black people.
 
OK...I went to the store to get more beer during halftime, so maybe we can recap what happened that was "racist".

ETA: ninja'ed by Travis
 
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Travis said:
Issue number one was that the dancers wore berets, black ones. This reminded them of the Black Panthers.
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Or maybe they were supporting the troops:
From Wiki
Since June 14, 2001, the black beret is worn by all United States Army troops unless the soldier is approved to wear a different distinctive beret. In the U.S. Army there are three approved distinctive berets: Maroon, tan, and green.
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Issue number two is that her song lyrics address cops killing unarmed black people.
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I'm fairly certain that they have an boatload of people responsible for approving songs for the half time show, and I bet a bunch of them are white...and would not approve a song that didn't fit with the image of the NFL.

Sounds like to me, somebody's got their panties in a bunch over nothing.
 
I observed that Coldplay didn't use very many black keys on the piano. Does that mean he's racist, or...not? So confused. Black piano though, so...nope, still confused. Maybe he just likes his progressions in the keys of C, G or F. (Like some racist).
 
I Wtf 'd when she said something about having a negro nose in the lyrics. I thought maybe it was a modern "I'm black and I'm proud" theme a la James Brown.
 
I didn't watch the half time show. I was still in shock over Lady Gaga actually doing a good job on the national anthem. :eek:
 
s4zando said:
I observed that Coldplay didn't use very many black keys on the piano. Does that mean he's racist, or...not? So confused. Black piano though, so...nope, still confused. Maybe he just likes his progressions in the keys of C, G or F. (Like some racist).
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Coldplay isn't a he.
 
^Indeed. Fit the tone of my post better. Meant to say Coldplay is sexist.
 
I'm actually a Coldplay fan (particularly Viva La Vida), and I gotta say, the whole thing was cringe-worthy.
 
Brainster said:
I'm actually a Coldplay fan (particularly Viva La Vida), and I gotta say, the whole thing was cringe-worthy.
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My half time conversation:

Wife: I love Coldplay!
Me: WTF? I'll bet you also like Nickleback.
Wife: I love Nickleback!
Me: OMG.

Then Beyonce and Bruno started and we shut up. If there was any racism in there, it was far too subtle for me. But, as the wife says, sometimes a sledgehammer is too subtle for me.
 
What is the obsessive need for some people to brag about what they didn't watch?

Know what I didn't watch last year? The Masters. Know what I didn't do? Tell everyone constantly how about how I don't watch The Masters.
 
I really liked the way the halftime show was shot and produced. I had no idea about the "controversy" because I didn't watch the beginning that closely.

I guess Bruno Mars is off the hook for giving everyone The Finger several times, and I bet Seth Rogen is beside himself for getting by with saying "Biggest caucus" in front of a billion people.
 
Super Bowl 2016 rating: 49

Masters 2015: 17.

No one else watched the Masters either, no matter that those comparative stats are extremely high over the rest of the viewing audience. Better to say you didn't watch last years SB.

It's more boggling that people watch it for excuses to take offense. Honestly, Travis, you had it in one when you alluded to the fact that the commercials were more offensive than the game. I mean that literally. If this SB reminded us of anything, it's that defense wins championships.(Unless it doesn't). I took, nor saw, much offense in that game.
 
s4zando said:
Super Bowl 2016 rating: 49

Masters 2015: 17.

No one else watched the Masters either, no matter that those comparative stats are extremely high over the rest of the viewing audience. Better to say you didn't watch last years SB.

It's more boggling that people watch it for excuses to take offense. Honestly, Travis, you had it in one when you alluded to the fact that the commercials were more offensive than the game. I mean that literally. If this SB reminded us of anything, it's that defense wins championships.(Unless it doesn't). I took, nor saw, much offense in that game.
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Nice double entendre.
 
Thanks TGC..

It's hard this year. Last year was easy, with the deflated balls contantly waved in your face.
 
Clearly, it was racist against...oh, let's say...blue lobsters. Beyonce clearly says that she only takes her man to *red* lobsters if he, um, does her right.
 
Travis said:
Issue number two is that her song lyrics address cops killing unarmed black people.
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What were those lyrics? When I heard the song, it sounded mostly nonsensical. When I looked up the lyrics they looked mostly nonsensical. I don't see the lyrics about cops killing unarmed black people. Am I completely missing it, or is it in some sort of code I don't know?
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
What were those lyrics? When I heard the song, it sounded mostly nonsensical. When I looked up the lyrics they looked mostly nonsensical. I don't see the lyrics about cops killing unarmed black people. Am I completely missing it, or is it in some sort of code I don't know?
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Probably is the same code Obama uses to divide the country.
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
What were those lyrics? When I heard the song, it sounded mostly nonsensical. When I looked up the lyrics they looked mostly nonsensical. I don't see the lyrics about cops killing unarmed black people. Am I completely missing it, or is it in some sort of code I don't know?
Click to expand...

I did an Internet search and found this explanation:
The music video is worse: set in post-flood New Orleans, the video contains a line of white cops standing by as a black teenager walks up to them – and then a wall with graffiti reading “STOP SHOOTING US."​
 
Ladewig said:
I did an Internet search and found this explanation:
The music video is worse: set in post-flood New Orleans, the video contains a line of white cops standing by as a black teenager walks up to them – and then a wall with graffiti reading “STOP SHOOTING US."​
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That is probably it. They saw the video and were appalled to hear the same song at the show.
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
What were those lyrics? When I heard the song, it sounded mostly nonsensical. When I looked up the lyrics they looked mostly nonsensical. I don't see the lyrics about cops killing unarmed black people. Am I completely missing it, or is it in some sort of code I don't know?
Click to expand...

The lyrics don't actually say anything about cops - they're about Beyonce being proud of being black - and a black woman from Houston with southern roots in particular. The *video* shows a cop car being flooded in New Orleans, and a bunch of riot cops surrendering to a black kid dancing around in a hoodie (and the basic protest message "Stop shooting us"), but still nothing explicitely anti-police so much as anti-bad-policing.

But a lot of people, including here, simply can't seem to make that distinction.
 
Mumbles said:
The lyrics don't actually say anything about cops - they're about Beyonce being proud of being black - and a black woman from Houston with southern roots in particular. The *video* shows a cop car being flooded in New Orleans, and a bunch of riot cops surrendering to a black kid dancing around in a hoodie (and the basic protest message "Stop shooting us"), but still nothing explicitely anti-police so much as anti-bad-policing.

But a lot of people, including here, simply can't seem to make that distinction.
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That's because black people should be subservient.
 
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