I didn't find a lot of Good News to go around this week, but still trying to start out on the up side, I thought I'd do this just for the fun of it.So at the Superbowl halftime show, Beyoncé nodded to the Black Lives Matter movement and, symbolically, to the Black Panthers, which, like the Superbowl, was born right about 50 years ago. And the right wing was outraged, outraged I tell you!
How dare she! Rudy Guliani, he of the "a noun, a verb, and 9/11," blustered that it was an "attack on cops." Parenthetically, he also said Superbowl halftime entertainment should be "wholesome," which I expect is true, coming as it does between two 30-minute timed segments of made-for-TV concussions. Still, he was outraged!
In fact, some outfit called "Proud of the Blues - civilian fleet" ("blues" meaning cops, of course) issued a call for a protest!
Beyoncé's performance was "a race-baiting stunt," they said. It was "hate speech and racism," "a slap in the face to law enforcement" and what's more, "the Black Panthers is a hate group!"
They encouraged everyone to protest! this grievous affront by picketing at the New York City headquarters of the NFL on Tuesday, February 16. "Wear blue!" attendees were told. "As much blue as possible!"
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| Crowds protest Beyoncé |
A total of two anti-Beyoncé protesters straggled in over time, heavily outnumbered not only by the pro-Beyoncé counter-protesters across the street but by the number of news outlets that came to cover the, um, event. Actually, three anti-Beyoncé protesters if you count the one who wound up pretty much agreeing with the concerns of the pro-Beyoncé counter-demonstrators.
Some members of the anti-Beyoncé crowd are now claiming that the call for a protest was a hoax - which is admittedly possible, but still doesn't explain why those anti folks didn't show up.
We still don't know the answer to the question from the '60s "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" But now we do know the answer to the question "What if the reactionaries called for a protest and nobody came?" This is what the word "FAIL" was invented for.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.abc-7.com/story/31235964/the-black-panthers-are-back-and-never-really-went-away
http://nypost.com/2016/02/08/giuliani-blasts-beyonce-for-attack-on-cops/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/of-course-rudy-giuliani-had-a-problem-with-beyonc%C3%A9s-super-bowl-performance_us_56b8d632e4b08069c7a829df
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anti-beyonce-protest-rally-new-york-tickets-21446744791?aff=efbneb
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/02/anti-beyonc-protest-becomes-pro-beyonc-protest.html
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