As of Feb. 7, the Denver Broncos are Super Bowl champions, but over a week later, all some people can remember is the supposedly racist halftime performance given by Beyoncé Knowles.

Trying to remind us of the good the Black Panthers brought to the African-American community, Beyoncé’s performance supported Black Lives Matter, but it also held a deeper message of equality, and sadly this is what some are calling racist.

What the people crying racism don’t seem to understand is that The Black Panthers were not a radical hate group. They were not out to attack white people and they did not set out to kill police officers, and they were definitely not the black equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan.

All The Black Panthers wanted was to provide blacks with equal opportunities in education, employment and the justice system. They wanted to be able to protect themselves from the police brutality that was plaguing Oakland, California, which is where the group began. The Black Panthers wanted to legally arm the black community so that they could defend themselves from the dangers that whites were putting them in every day.

Performing a piece of her new single “Formation,” Beyoncé and her backup dancers wore all black and had berets resembling those of The Black Panthers of the 1960s. Once they held their right fists in the air, the internet had enough and the barrage of accusations of racism ensued. The claims stretched from Beyoncé attacking police officers to her trying to start a race war.

“This is football, it’s not Hollywood,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News after the game. “I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive.”

There was a protest organized for Feb. 16 in New York at the NFL headquarters. The organizers’ site said that Beyoncé pulled a “race-baiting stunt,” and protesters were encouraged to wear as much blue as possible in support of the police. According to Newsweek, however, only two anti-Beyoncé protestors showed up.

Beyoncé even received backlash from Canada. Toronto City Counsellor Jim Karygiannis told The Toronto Sun they should investigate her before she is allowed back in the country.

Beyoncé hasn’t said anything about the controversy surrounding the performance, and really, she shouldn’t have to.

So if Beyoncé wasn’t trying to start a war with her performance, what was the point? Most likely, it was to inform us as a country of both The Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement. It was to show us though 50 years have passed, the message of the Panthers is still relevant today. With police brutality being just as big of an issue as it was then, Beyoncé addressed this growing problem that needs to be resolved.

For those still thinking that the performance was racist, here is something to ponder: Racism isn’t brought on by a singular person. It involves many people working to lessen the privileges and the opinions of an entire group of people. This is not what Beyoncé did. She made sure her voice was heard, and she spoke for those who haven’t gotten that chance.