Lauren Cherry
    Copy Editor

Unless you live under a rock, I’m assuming you’ve seen the Super Bowl halftime performance that everyone has been losing his or her minds over.

Beyoncé performed her new song, Formation, at the Super Bowl, a day after it’s release and everyone in my circle loved it. I suggest watching the unlisted music video to fully experience my new personal anthem. If you happen to be one of the few who don’t like, understand or are enraged by the song, I suggest looking up some reviews by someone who looks like me — a black woman.

In the video, Beyoncé sets the scene in New Orleans poised atop a police car, submerged in water. “Y’all haters corny with that illuminati mess / Paparazzi, catch my fly, and my cocky fresh,” she starts. Beyoncé doesn’t wait to call out her haters who swear to no end that her and Jay-Z are illuminati members. I mean, really, is that even a thing?

“My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma,” she proclaims proudly of her heritage; both of her are parents black, with her mom having African, Native American and French roots based in Louisiana. Perhaps this is where critics lost their minds during her performance. Or maybe it was the beret-topped afros of her dancers who sported all-black-everything — see what I did there — with their fists unapologetically in the air in tribute to the Black Panther Party that really pissed people off.

It was deemed ‘too political.’ I find it funny how Chris Martin’s performance, that was most likely dedicated to marriage equality with the words ‘Believe in Love’ displayed atop a rainbow, was never criticized once for his ‘political performance.’ That’s interesting.

SNL’s skit described it perfectly when they parodied the response of several white people on social media exclaiming, “Beyoncé is black?!” Newsflash people — yes, Beyoncé is black, hence the very pro-black anthem that is Formation. As a proud black woman, one of my favorite lines has to be, “I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils.” What exactly is so wrong about being proud of the features you were born with, especially when they’ve been looked down upon with subtly racist comments like, “Oh, you’re pretty for a black girl.” No, I’m just pretty, period; thank you very much for noticing.

The music video features a group of gorgeous, fro-flaunting women slaying in formation — a nod to the historically black sororities who are known for stepping in formation. Oh, and to everyone who hated on baby Blue Ivy’s gorgeous natural fro, “I like my baby heir, with baby hair and afros,” Bey says.

The video also features an adorable black boy around the age of nine, dressed in all black with a hoodie. Sound familiar? He dances in front of a line of policemen with shields who, ironically, surrender to him with their hands up. Apparently, this scene and another showing a wall that read, “Stop shooting us,” has been perceived as anti-police. Critics need to realize that being for black lives does not necessarily equate with being against the police or non-black lives.

Before critics voice their opinions, they should also understand whom this song was written for: people like me. This pro-black anthem is not for anyone else outside of its intended audience — again, people that look like me — to critique.

There is an actual Anti-Beyoncé protest rally scheduled to take place outside of the NFL headquarters in New York, on Tuesday Feb. 16—which is, obviously, before this article is printed.

The organizers are called Proud of the Blues and formed for the singular purpose of boycotting Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance, citing that they were offended as Americans by her supposed race-baiting performance. The EventBrite form reads, “Come and let’s stand together. Let’s tell the NFL we don’t want hate speech & racism at the Super Bowl ever again!”

Fortunately, the Beyhive, her fans, will be counter-protesting this stupidity at the exact same time. Something tells me they’re going to “twirl on them haters.” Oh, and by the way, saying the word ‘hater’ is not hate speech.