Beyonce's Superbowl Performance

Let me state art the outset that I never watch Superbowl half time performances. To me, they are all the same: Five hundred kids run onto the field, some artist I never heard of or whose music I don't listen to sings three songs, and it all ends with a bunch of smoke bombs going off. Thus, I did not see Beyonce's performance yesterday.

Having now seen the reports and the costumes, I am appalled and outraged. I well remember the Black Panthers.. I didn't have a high opinion of them then. I don't have a high opinion of them now. In addition, the New Black Panther Party is even worse in my view. At least the originals were established at a time when racial reform was needed in our country. However, it was at the same time that there was a legitimate and successful civil rights movement led by people like Martin Luther King. History has shown that those like King, who preached a non-violent approach, were right. Those who favored violence, like the Black Panthers, were wrong. In addition, one of their leaders, Huey Newton, was a cop killer. Another, H Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah al Amin, is serving life in prison for killing a cop.

For Beyonce to use her performance to make a political statement in glorifying an organization who contributed nothing to integration and reconciliation and who advanced nothing but hatred and violence leaves me disgusted.