There were plenty of things to get infuriated about during Beyoncé’s Black Panther – themed Super Bowl 50 halftime show. Arguably the most egregious, however, is the Black Panther salute being given by several of Beyoncé’s dancers as they posed with a sign saying “Justice 4 Mario Woods.” Woods, it turns out, was a thug who was killed by police after stabbing a man and then refusing to put the knife down when confronted by cops. A pretty cut-and-dry case, but something Bey’s dancers decided needed to be paid attention to.
Now, according to the U.K. Daily Mail, Beyoncé’s camp is denying all knowledge of the “Justice 4 Mario Woods” sign, with the media blaming the whole incident on — get this — two women who won a radio call-in contest to go to the Super Bowl. Really.
Rheema Calloway and Ronnishia Johnson, both 25, say that they somehow managed to sneak the sign past guards at Levi’s Stadium in their panties and bras, managed to get to the dancers, then managed to give the sign to the dancers and take a picture of them, which just so happened to go around the world, all without Beyoncé’s knowledge. I’ll take “(Im)plausible Deniability” for $200, Alex.
Beyoncé’s dancers in an X formation — a tribute to Malcolm X — and the dancers who held up the Mario Woods sign.
“We did not know Beyoncé was going to have a Black Panther theme to her performance even though she had dropped the ‘Formation’ video the day before which has a lot of black culture references,” Calloway said.