A handful of old, rich white men across the globe are seeing red following Beyonce‘s Super Bowl halftime set.
Bey easily stole the show from headliners Coldplay at this year’s spectacular, during which she performed her brand new politically-charged single, Formation.
However, not everyone was impressed. In fact, the white political establishment was outraged.
Among the naysayers (unsurprisingly) was Australian media personality/career douche Andrew Bolt, who denounced Bey as a “racist” for daring to celebrate her identity and mention (gasp!) racial politics at a public event.
In a Herald Sun op-ed entitled Beyonce dances to the music of racial division (embedded below so you don’t have to reward it with a link-click), Bolt asserts that Bey “used the greatest sports event in America” to give voice to a terrifying “new racism”, which he warns us is “spreading here, too”.
Beyonce’s Formation video spotlights a number of significant issues facing people of colour in the United States, from the inadequate assistance given to the mostly-black victims of Hurricane Katrina, to the growing trend of black victims being targeted by undue police violence.
And if you listen to Bolt (which no human ever should), Bey calling attention to these issues at the Super Bowl was basically an act of war.
“The Texan superstar performed her new single Formation at halftime in the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday and, watched by 110 million people, rammed home a message of black power – even black supremacy,” he wrote.
“All her 30 back-up dancers were black – no whites allowed,” he continued. “…And Beyonce’s troupe ended their performance with raised the fists of the Black Power salute.”
“Get used to this,” Bolt warns us apocalyptically. “We are being divided by race, and by people with no idea that they are the racists they claim to be fighting.”
“…In the US as well as here it is becoming dangerously fashionable to draw a line between the ‘races’ – ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’ and declare there’s a war on, or at least unfinished business,” he concluded.
“Who dares stand against this crude new racism?” (Only you, our one true saviour Andrew Bolt!)
In his article, Bolt also paints the Black Lives Matter movement as a fearsome militia, sneers at the allegations of police violence against blacks in the US, drops the word “Muslim” like it’s the most damning insult that could ever be hurled at anyone and essentially portrays Beyonce as a dangerous extremist and harbinger of some inevitable race war.
It would almost be hilarious if he wasn’t so legit. But Bolt’s rant is – at best – completely bent, as this Twitter user eloquently pointed out:
BEYONCE: what if we stopped systematically killing people of colour
ANDREW BOLT: why did the Anglosphere abandon Rhodesia— andycam (@andycam_) February 10, 2016
And at worst, utterly terrifying.
Over in the States, the right-wing white commentariat was also left gasping in horror at Bey’s Super Bowl performance.
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, offered another hot take on the issue when he appeared on (oh my god this is so surprising!) Fox News.
“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,” Giuliani said.
We can only assume that, like fellow pissed off rich white dude Andrew Bolt, Giuliani is referring to the issues of police brutality presented in Bey’s Formation music video. But that’s only an attack on police officers if you whole-heartedly believe that police officers should be allowed to kill whoever they want to.
How is calling Beyonce a racist any different from calling a women’s rights activist like Emma Watson sexist? Or an LGBT rights activist like Laverne Cox heterophobic?
Perhaps Andrew Bolt and Rudy Giuliani would understand if they’d ever been discriminated against because of their race, gender or sexual preference.
Read Bolt’s rant below, and then feel free to print it out and wipe your arse with it.
here. do not click on his shitbag site pic.twitter.com/kSY68r52C4
— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) February 10, 2016
