Beyoncé took her music to a whole other level when she released her new single and video "Formation". The video included her standing on a drowning cop car, her daughter sporting her natural afro, a child standing in front of police officers, and a wall with the words "stop shooting us" spray painted. Directed by Beyonce herself, in New Orleans, Beyonce dropped that song so she could inspire people of color to celebrate their beauty from their features to their hair.

The star decided to perform the song at the Superbowl and some who were watching were unhappy with the performance. They thought it was racist and saw it as an assault to police officers. They also thought that the dancers who had the Black Panthers gear made it even more racist because to them the Black Panthers were anti-white. What people fail to realize, however, is that the song showed only truth and stated facts about America and how racism still exists in this country.

The question that has been stated several times since Beyonce preformed was: “why was race brought into the Superbowl?” It’s not why it’s more of a because. Because Beyoncé has every right to speak about what she finds important and has every right to sing her new song, even if it is the Superbowl or the Grammys or any event where she can bring light to something, she has the right to use it to her advantage. Coldplay brought light onto their pro-LBGTQ performance at the Superbowl and yet no one seems to talk about that? But when it is an empowering black woman talking about race, everyone decides to bash on her ideas.

The outfits were one more thing that was criticized. Some said it was inappropriate because of the Black Panthers gear. The outfits were in fact a salute to the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were not anti-white, they represented strength. The Black Panthers were and will never be a hate group, they wanted the ultimate justice for the people, but now some fail to remember that and remember them as just a “hate group”.

Beyonce did not want to convey a message to hate other people that were not black, no. Instead, she wanted to convey the message of black pride because it needs to be shown. She has every right to speak what she feels, she is not hurting anyone and she is not forcing her ideals on anyone. People fear what they don’t know and what they do not want to know, they fear the truth.