Photo: Screenshot
Everyone knows Beyonce stole the show at the Super Bowl last night (despite the fact that it was technically Coldplay's halftime show), but some might have missed how politically charged it was - with explicit references to the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and the Black Lives Matter movememnt.
The singer's backing dancers were dressed in black leather and wore black berets - an unmistakeable reference to the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary black nationalist organisation formed in the US in 1966.
Towards the beginning of her performance, both Beyonce and her backing dancers raised their firsts in the air, a reference to the black power salute that began with Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics. Beyonce appears at around the 7.10 mark in the video below.
Backstage later, the dancers recreated the salute for a photograph, and held up a sign that read, "Justice 4 Mario Woods" - a black man who was shot dead by police at the end of last year.
Beyoncés dancers in black berets at #SB50 paying homage to the Black Panthers 50 years after their #formation in '66 pic.twitter.com/YXpzBkkm6s
— The Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) February 8, 2016
The performance came just one day after Beyonce dropped the video for surprise new single 'Formation', which references both Hurricane Katrina and the recent mass protests in the US over the killing of unarmed black people by the police.
