Beyonce's latest single, "Formation," is shot through with politically charged imagery alluding to Black Lives Matter, the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, and Hurricane Katrina, and some critics are turning their backs on it.
Though labeling the song's accompanying video "dirty,"
Rolling Stone magazine posted it on its website.
The Washington Examiner reported Monday that members of the National Sheriffs' Association "turned their backs on Beyonce during a Super Bowl halftime party, angered the NFL allowed her to sing a song they consider anti-police."
On Facebook, one commenter echoed the sheriffs' sentiment, excoriating the pop idol.
"As the wife of a police officer, I am offended by this entire video," one woman wrote on Beyonce's page,
Business Insider reported.
Many critics took particular issue with the portrayal of the Black Lives Matter movement and a piece of graffiti seen in the music video that reads "stop shooting us," saying it slanders the men and women who risk their lives to protect and serve communities across the nation.
Beyonce released the song and video a day before the Super Bowl, and included it during a halftime performance in which she sported a bandolier and led a "phalanx of women dressed as Black Panthers,"
according to The Atlantic. During one part of the performance, the women formed an "X," an apparent reference to Malcolm X,
Fox News reported.
According to Billboard, in the music video itself, "a young hooded black boy dances in front of a line of SWAT officers," a likely allusion to Trayvon Martin. At one point in the video, the officers and hooded boy make what appears to be the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," gesture that became a rallying cry after the death of Michael Brown.
Elsewhere, Beyonce and a cop car are swallowed by floodwaters, a likely allusion to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.
The majority of the video takes place in New Orleans, and displays Creole culture prominently.
The location and imagery itself sparked some controversy when two documentary film makers accused Beyonce and her production team of stealing their footage without permission,
CNN reported.
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