- The singer, 43, wore a T-shirt with the Buffalo Soldiers on it during her tour
- Fans were offended over the soldiers’ role in fighting Native Americans
- READ MORE: Beyonce’s unexpected career announcement
Beyonce is facing fierce backlash from her progressive fanbase after wearing an ‘offensive’ T-shirt.
The diva, 43, sparked outrage at the Paris stop of her Cowboy Carter tour after donning a T-shirt emblazoned with the Buffalo Soldiers, who were some of the first African Americans to serve in the US military.
While on its surface the shirt seems like a celebration of an often overlooked part of America’s history, there’s more to Bey’s T-shirt than meets the eye.
In the 1800s, the Buffalo Soldiers fought on the side of European colonizers against the Native Americans in the Indian Wars.
Fans pointed out that not only did Beyonce wear a shirt with the Buffalo Soldiers on the front of it, the back of the shirt also featured controversial passage about the Native Americans that they went up against.
According to ONTD, one verse on the garment reads, ‘Their antagonists were the enemies of peace, order and settlement: warring Indians, bandits, cattle thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries.’
A number of Beyonce’s loyal fans were outraged by the text and took to social media and Reddit to express their outrage.
‘Not everything in Black history needs to be revered and turned into an aesthetic,’ wrote one.
‘The Buffalo Soldiers did awful things to indigenous people. The way she waves away their atrocities against indigenous people is gross. Beyoncé’s romanticism of this is beyond the pale.’
Another wrote, ‘Beyoncé wearing a Buffalo Soldiers shirt, an American army unit comprised exclusively of African Americans that helped European and white American colonists fight back Native Americans and seize control of their land, is not the serve she thinks it is.’
They added, ‘That Cowboy Carter album got her feeling all kinds of patriotic in all the wrong ways.’
A third commented, ‘I’m glad I’m seeing so many posts against Beyoncé peddling this Buffalo Soldier nonsense because I love her music but she’s not beyond being rightfully criticized especially for selling merch calling Native Americans enemies of peace, like how dare you.’
Another wrote, ‘Saying that Indigenous and Mexican people defending their land from Americans looking to take it makes them “enemies of peace” is f***ing insane… I think this is terrible.’
One commented, ‘I love her but I really wish that there was much more thought put into this before giving it the green light.’
Another fan complained about Beyonce’s ‘silence’ on political issues.
‘We have no idea what her intentions are with this shirt or even this whole album and tour,’ they wrote.
‘Beyoncé hasn’t come out unequivocally against/for anything. Her silence protects her but also invalidates her.’
Another commented, ‘That shirt… ma’am someone in your team should’ve done a triple check. That’s tone deaf as hell.’
Initially the name Buffalo Soldiers was used for the men of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, which was formed by Congress in 1866, though was later expanded to include the 9th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry regiments which were created at the same time.
Their nickname was given to them by the Native American tribes they fought against during the Indian Wars, and supposedly came about because of a private by the name of John Randall who was attacked by dozens of Cheyenne warriors while escorting a hunting party.
Despite being shot in the shoulder and lanced 11 times, he held the Cheyenne off using only his pistol until help arrived.
Afterward, the warriors described a man ‘who had fought like a cornered buffalo; who like a buffalo had suffered wound after wound, yet had not died; and who like a buffalo had a thick and shaggy mane of hair.’
