Comments

  2. joeschoeler says

    I think I’m missing some context. There was controversy about the Beyonce music video? Because she mentions hot sauce? I saw part of her video when it was posted a few days ago, but didn’t finish because her music isn’t really my thing.

    *watches video *

    Oh, this is about the cops and “stop shooting us” sign, isn’t it?

  3. says

    Though there is of course an interesting discussion here about colourism and black identity. Beyoncé is very light skinned and it certainly hasn’t harmed her in her career. There’s an interesting article by Simone Drake* about her collaboration with Shakira and the embracing of “Latin@ identities” as an intentionally vague and not black racial identity. If you watch the video you will note how the visuals heavily emphasise the “sameness” between those two women with very different racial backgrounds.

    Therefore yes, it is a big deal that Beyoncé has made an “unashamedly black” song and video.

    *Drake, Simone C. Critical Appropriations: African American Women and the Construction of Transnational
    Identity. Baton Rouge : LSU Press, 2014. Ebook.

  5. biogeo says

    I can’t remember the last time SNL produced something that made me laugh that hard. That was beat-for-beat perfect.

  6. Holms says

    Was… there any doubt about her being black? It was obvious to me she had at least one black parent, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised by this ‘revelation.’ Or is this yet another dishonest conservative attempt to smother / disparage mentioning racism, black lives matter and such as she did in her single?

  7. marcoli says

    SNL has been funny for about two years now, at least IMO. To me, they have 1 or 2 funny skits per episode, mixed with drek.

  8. cactusren says

    Holms @6:

    It’s not really that people were unaware of her skin tone, but that the subjects of her previous songs hadn’t dealt with specifically “black” issues. Thus, white people had no trouble identifying with the music, and thinking it was made for them. This sketch specifically shows white people saying, “I don’t get this song…it’s almost like it wasn’t made for me.”

    Thus, the revelation isn’t so much about Beyonce’s skin color, but about the fact that not all art is aimed specifically at white people. The chaos that ensues is the bursting of their bubbles of privilege.

  9. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    The outrage by the white conservs about her SuperBowl Halftime performance is what the SNL skit was lampooning.
    Even Rudy Guiliani got all butt-hurt that she was calling out cops for shooting blacks. He thought it was an insult being thrown at cops for doing their jobs, yada yada yada,
    Outrage over the similarities of her backup singers costumes to the Black Panther uniforms was another outrage I could only listen to with WTF?
    yet. I saw the skit as satire, lacking any real humor, but worth noting positively. The outrage over Beyonce’s recent single is well worth mocking. *applause*, SNL

  10. Pierce R. Butler says

    Connect the dawts, sheeple: Michelle Obama convinced Beyoncé to do that half-time show in a way that would give Antonin Scalia terminal apoplexy so that her husband could cancel the election and make people forget about the massacre of LaVoy Vinicum and Zika chemtrails in our immune boosters!!1!

  11. robro says

    I love the way Fox News describes the dancers as wearing “Black Panther inspired costumes.” As the New York Daily News puts, “during the performance Beyonce back up dancers were dressed in all black and wore afro wigs which was how the group dressed back in the 1960s.” I assume “the group” refers to the Black Panthers, not the dancers. You remember the Black Panthers. There’s that famous picture of Huey Newton and Bobby Seales guarding their headquarters with a shotgun and 45 wearing high cut leotards, short black leather jackets exposing their midriffs, and afro wigs. Sure you do. Just like that.

  12. andyo says

    Damn so I just watched the so-offensive SB half-time video. They’re offended by THAT? My god, the horror. Conservatives are really losing the plot here.

  14. Tethys says

    I think it odd when people dismiss songs, or a performance, as unimportant pop culture. Songs are one of the more enduring products of cultures. The video that accompanies the song is all about color, right down to the different colored costumes that change according to actions and settings.
    Watch Formation and just take note of all the different uses of color symbolism. The predominant shades are red, white ,blue ,black, sepia, and gray.

    I am not a film critic, but I think a lot of the dance sequences are referencing Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation, which is pretty explicit about the need to break the colorlines, end racism, and work together. I remember people freaking out about Black Panthers when that video came out too, due to the military costumes and the three seconds of Black Panther hand jive that is incorporated into the choreography.

    I notice that Guilani and ilk have nothing to say about the references to the racial tragedy of New Orleans and Katrina, even though the songs first words are “What happened after New Orleans? I’m black, back by popular demand.” They are awfully upset about a black women referencing black history during half-time at the Superbowl? No, no, best to react with white privilege and racism. Fear-monger about Black Panthers every time a black person even so much as references Black Power.

    Perhaps he truly is worried that little black boys will force all riot police to surrender, via their awesome dance moves?

  15. Tethys says

    Sorry for embedding the video. I must have misplaced a “. Preview is not working at all today, though I wasn’t having any issue with it yesterday.

  17. jrkrideau says

    Well, it was not a surprise but I only noticed that she might be black about a week before the Superbowl. Of course, that was the first time I remember seeing a picture of her. I think it was in a Toronto paper mentioning the Super Bowl.

    As my interest in music is more an interest in avoiding about 99.9999% of it, I could not care less is a musical type is black, white yellow green or mottled with an overlay of zigzag strips as long I don’t have to listen to them. If it is at all possible I will leave any venue that plays modern jazz as I find it physically painful.

    For some reason I was surprised that that famous musician–what’s his name–who is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery was black when someone mentioned a few weeks ago.

  18. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    For some reason I was surprised that that famous musician–what’s his name–who is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery was black when someone mentioned a few weeks ago.

    Jim Morrison? No, not black.

  19. taco_emoji says

    I had stopped watching SNL probably in the early aughts, but my partner got me back into it about a year ago and it’s pretty consistently hilarious.

    The talent is really top-notch now. The cast is like 90% ringers (including all of the ladies) and 10% solid backup players. And the cast’s diversity has strengthened the writing, because when a diverse group is all in on the fun, it’s easier to tell whether or not race or sex or whatever *is* the joke. So everything ranging from biting socially commentary to goofy absurdism comes across more easily.

    Sketches are still hit-or-miss, but that’s been the case since 1975 anyway.