Jessica Williams Sounds Off Against Beyoncé Haters

The morning after the Super Bowl, conservative media issued an outcry against Beyoncé's halftime performance. Fox News thought she inappropriately invoked the Black Panther movement, while former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani shamed her for not upholding the wholesomeness of football's most anticipated event — and for encouraging an "attack" on police officers. Thankfully, the world has at least one sensible commentator capable of shutting all this nonsense down. Jessica Williams — The Daily Show's official Senior Beyoncé Correspondent — explained exactly why Fox got it wrong, addressing haters point by point and zeroing in on exactly what they got wrong. One criticism that came up about the performance was that race didn't need to factor into the halftime show in the first place. Williams had a tongue-in-cheek, but totally appropriate, reality check rebuttal. “Race was brought in because Beyoncé was brought in and — brace yourself, you might want to sit down for this — but Beyoncé is...Black!” Williams pointed out. “And as a black person, you walk around every day constantly reminded that you are Black. "We're more likely to get paid less, more likely to get sent to prison and more likely to win a dance competition," she joked. "What? It's not all bad." But seriously: The idea that Beyoncé should somehow whitewash her Super Bowl performance to pander to people who don't think race is always part of the equation is actually ludicrous. Listen to Williams break it down in the full segment below.