Saturday Night Live is notorious for their hilarious, satirical skits that are often politically charged. They're famous for digital shorts like Bern Your Enthusiasm, which was filmed right here on the Queens College campus. Some may even criticize SNL by saying that they go too far when making fun of a relevant celebrity or continuously revisiting a skit that is just no longer funny. This weekend on February 13th, SNL went at it again with with their digital short "The Day Beyoncé Turned Black".
The skit, centered around Beyonce's newest music video for "Formation" and her unforgettable Super Bowl 50 performance that sparked controversy both on the Internet and in real life, was a funny and relevant look into contemporary racial culture.
Last weekend's Super Bowl 50 anticipated an extravagant halftime performance like it does every year. This year, Beyonce stole the spotlight from Chris Martin of Coldplay to back her Black Lives Matter agenda--that is, because she's black. The rest of the country did not seem too enthusiastic that she chose this venue to use her influential voice.
One side of the argument here is that Beyoncé was promoting racism, advocating anti-police rhetoric, and the super bowl was the wrong place to present these controversial subjects. The NFL is notoriously conservative, and it was almost inevitable that there would be an immediate backlash to her actions.
The other side of the argument here is that the super bowl was an appropriate and wide-reaching setting to pledge her allegiance to the Black Lives Matter movement especially because Beyoncé is an extremely powerful and successful figure in the mainstream media. She knew what she was doing, outshining Chris Martin with Bruno Mars, starting up the conversation of race in America, what it means to be black or white, and why it's important that we're bringing it up now. Being black, to Bey, is something she is proud of, something that many people overlook about her, which is what might have inspired the writers of SNL to write this skit.
Although many Americans view the BLM movement as being "anti-police" and racist in itself, its true intent is to promote the idea that Black people in America are not treated with the respect and equality that is expected in the 21st century (i.e. being watched in a department store under the suspicion of stealing).
Saturday Night Live's take on the ordeal stems more from Beyoncé's music video than from the Super Bowl controversy. The skit sheds light on the fact that white people (like myself) have viewed Beyoncé in the past as a colorless artist, or "white washed" (which is an extremely negative term, suggesting that Bey is not and was not ever "black enough" by what most Americans will consider black) by walking the binary line between black and white, but empowering women of all colors. The skit shows pandemonium among all the white people who held Beyonce up to a high moral standing and were let down by the essence of her identity.
