It’s Black History Month, but white people are still trying to make it about themselves.

Despite heated accusations of “reverse racism,” anti-police sentiment and exploitation of tragedy from viewers across the nation, a New York City protest planned for Tuesday in response to Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance and her music video for “Formation” didn’t live up to the hype.

The rally, organized by pro-police group Proud of the Blues, only amassed a handful of people following a week-long public outcry in the form of the hashtag #BoycottBeyoncé. The outrage comes from the pop star’s Black Panther party-esque costumes and the images from her music video: Beyoncé lounged atop a police car sinking in a New Orleans flood zone, a little black boy dancing in front of police in riot gear and a wall with “Stop Shooting Us” written on it.

Unlike older people who view anything pro-black as anti-white, it’s important that young people step back from the controversy and face reality. Beyoncé isn’t the villain here — she is simply using her position as a pop icon to send an Afrocentric message and bring important matters to light.

Race is still an issue in this country, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. One only has to look at the disproportionate number of shooting deaths of unarmed black men and the slow response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to see that.

Bringing attention to police brutality isn’t racist — it’s necessary. Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin are not the only black boys who have been treated with excessive police force in the past few years. According to Mapping Police Violence, police killed 102 unarmed black people in 2015. Of those 102 killings, only nine resulted in officers being charged.

And while those who claim that race isn’t a problem love to argue that police primarily shoot white people, this is a misleading statistic.

For one thing, this does not take population into account: black individuals make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population. Because of this makeup, it makes sense that there would be more white deaths overall as white people make up the majority of U.S. citizens. This argument also does not take into consideration that black people were five times more likely to be killed unarmed than white people in 2015, as reported by Mapping Police Violence.

To say that race isn’t of concern as far as police violence goes is to be ignorant. Instead of condemning Beyoncé’s Black Lives Matter message, there should be a greater shift toward embracing it. The movement is not an attack on white people or the police, but rather a spotlight on the racism that continues to oppress black people in their relations with law enforcement.

But it should be acknowledged that Beyoncé’s message regarding institutionalized racism transcends police interactions and is reflected by the government’s handling of disasters in communities of color.

While some believe that Beyoncé exploited the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in her music video, it is important to think about the context. The government’s lackluster response to the 2005 catastrophe was a racial issue in itself. In regard to the delayed aid to the people of Louisiana, New Orleans, City Councilman Oliver Thomas was reported by CBS Radio News to have said that people were too afraid of looting and violence by black people to try to save hurricane victims.

Syracuse University student organization Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment (SASSE) discussed the “Formation” video and the backlash that Beyoncé’s stance has received in their meeting on Tuesday night. In addition to talking about the pro-black sentiments of “Formation,” the members of SASSE present noted the culturally conscious references to Hurricane Katrina in the music video.

“We really liked the background of the song as well… During that time, black people or people of color weren’t in those areas while other people were,” said SASSE Vice President Amy Quichiz, a junior women’s and gender studies major and sociology minor. “All the houses they showed in the video were sinking. The metaphor and the imagery of her sinking in with the cop car — it just talks a lot about police brutality and the system not being for them at all.”

This type of postponed, racially-biased response is echoed in the ongoing crisis in Flint. Since April 2014, people in Flint have been drinking water so contaminated with lead that it qualifies as toxic waste under the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition. This didn’t even come to the public’s attention until earlier this year and it’s clear why: politicians and government agencies were in the habit of neglecting predominantly black neighborhoods like Flint.

Rather than appropriating tragedies like these, Beyoncé’s music video is bringing awareness to them. Nobody can deny that she is wealthy and relatively immune to the troubles facing people of color in places like New Orleans and Flint, but she should not be criticized for advocating for these groups. This is especially true because of Beyoncé’s ties to the south: she is from Houston, and her sister, Solange, lives in New Orleans.

Like those who tried to organize a protest that fell flat, Beyoncé’s most vocal critics were concerned with her use of Black Panther imagery in the halftime show. Although the civil rights group has often been denounced as radical, it is an important part of black history.

Whether or not everybody approved of their methods, the Black Panther Party aided in a movement toward equality. And in the same way, Beyoncé will continue to make history as a woman of color in the music industry, regardless of the disapproving and uninformed white masses.

People shouldn’t be angry at Beyoncé — they should be angry with the oppressive forces that gave her a reason to speak up in the first place.

Tayler Knapp is an undeclared freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at tmknapp@syr.edu.

Published on February 17, 2016 at 1:46 am