Last week during the Super Bowl half-time show, Beyoncé was criticized for her celebrating the Black Panthers, and thus showing disrespect to the police, all while being guarded by armed security.
A bizarre sketch from Saturday Night Live addressed the Super Bowl performance, in their sketch, “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black.” The sketch featured white people freaking out while hearing Beyoncé music and seeing her on the television. Black people remained calm.
The sketch was shown as a mock trailer, rated NC-17 for white people, and G for black people.
Some media websites had a field day mocking white people for their reactions to this bizarre sketch. Regardless of one’s skin color, the sketch was a bizarre one. By suggesting that white people may have issues with celebrities like Beyoncé, or Kerry Washington from Scandal, whom the sketch also referenced, being black, or cannot relate to them, is unnecessary and may further perpetrate racism and resentment.
Beyoncé may sing about what she wishes, and if her new song, Formation, offends some people, they don’t have to listen to it.
Michael Che during Weekend Update also criticized those expressing “outrage” at Beyoncé.
Saturday Night Live ought to be criticized for such a bizarre sketch. Not because it makes white people freak out, but because it politicizes the arts.
