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Beyoncé‘s 2018 Coachella performance was incredible for several reasons. First and foremost, she’s Beyoncé; it’s a blessing any and every time she graces us with her presence. Her set was more than just entertaining, though. Throughout the performance, Beyoncé paid tribute to black culture, specifically historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

She started her commentary right at the beginning when a loud voiceover dubbed the show “Beyoncé Homecoming 2018.” It played into the HBCU theme of Bey’s set, while also nodding to the fact she’s the first black woman to ever headline Coachella. This overarching concept was accompanied by drum lines, choirs, and step squads in between Beyoncé’s outfit changes—all hallmarks of HBCUs. She also channeled Wakanda, the fictional nation in Black Panther, during the show, which augmented its black empowerment theme. Thousands of people, specifically black women, left Beyoncé’s Coachella set feeling inspired and more represented than ever before. Beyoncé followed this up by announcing she’s giving $100,000 in scholarship money to four HBCUs:

But Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncé’s mother, was originally concerned about how the performance would be perceived. The famous matriarch revealed on Instagram this week she thought Coachella’s “predominately white” audience wouldn’t understand her daughter’s messaging. Beyoncé, however, wasn’t fazed by that.

“I told Beyonce that I was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and black college culture because it was something that they might not get,” she wrote on Instagram, next to a photo of a quote about the Coachella performance. “[Beyoncé’s] brave response to [my concerns] made me feel a bit selfish and ashamed. She said, I have worked very hard to get to the point where I have a true voice, and at this point in my life and my career, I have a responsibility to do what’s best for the world and not what is most popular.”

Knowles-Lawson added that Beyoncé said she hoped that “after the show, young people would research this culture and see how cool it is, and young people, black and white, would listen to ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ and see how amazing the words are for us all and bridge the gap.” (“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn Beyoncé performed during Coachella that is often referred to as the “black national anthem.”)

“I stand corrected,” Knowles-Lawson wrote at the end of her post. Not only was Beyoncé’s Coachella performance understood: It was embraced.

See Knowles-Lawson’s post for yourself, below:

This $10 Mascara Held Up Through Beyoncé’s Entire Coachella Performance

Sorry BeyHive, Beyoncé Didn’t Actually Change Her Nails During Her Coachella Performance

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“Boobs” is a fun word to say—if you’re 7. Unfortunately, that’s a little young to be appearing on CNN, which is why it was shocking when a fully adult male guest on CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin’s show wouldn’t stop repeating the word—to the point where she had to shut down the whole live interview. Before you ask: no, the interview had nothing to do with mastectomies; no, he wasn’t an expert on breast cancer; no, he wasn’t a sex expert talking about nipplegasms (which are real). He was Fox Sports Radio’s Clay Travis, who was there for a discussion about calls from the White House saying ESPN should fire anchor Jemele Hill (she’d called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter).

He was one of two guests during this segment of Baldwin’s show; the other, former ESPN senior editor Keith Reed, was there to presumably present a different opinion.

Travis contributed to what could have been an intellectual debate with the following: “I’m a First Amendment absolutist. I believe in only two things completely: the First Amendment and boobs.”

Baldwin stopped him and said: “I just want to make sure I understood you correctly, as a woman anchoring this show. What did you just say? You believe in the First Amendment and b-double-o-b-s?”

Travis nodded, serenely. “Boobs. The only two things that have never let me down in this entire country’s history: the First Amendment and boobs.”

“I’ve been a journalist for 17 years—the past seven spent at CNN hosting a live show,” wrote Baldwin in an op-ed published on CNN.com on Saturday. “I’ve seen and heard some things. But when I first heard ‘boobs’ from a grown man on national television (in 2017!!!) my initial thought bubble was: ‘Did I hear that correctly?? There’s no WAY he just came on my show and said what I think he said. … DID HE?’ And I let it hang.”

Baldwin had the added pressure of live television to figure out what to do next. Travis had just introduced a heavily sexualized part of the female anatomy into a completely unrelated discussion. As producers scrabled to figure out what they’d just heard (“Booze?”), she continued by asking an aghast Reed what he thought.

“Listen, I’m astonished at almost everything I’ve just heard,” he said, before adding, “For someone to come on CNN and to say something like, ‘The only thing I believe in and the discussion about..”

“I’m just, I’m still there too,” Baldwin interrupted. She addressed Travis: “And I just want to make sure I’m hearing you correctly: b-o-o-z-e? Or b-o-o-b-s? Because as a woman—”

“I said boobs!” Travis doubled down. “I believe completely in the First Amendment and in boobs. Those are the only two things I believe 100 percent in.”

Baldwin continued in her op-ed: “I thought again: ‘It is 2017, and this grown man is on my show talking with me—a female host—about boobs. Is this seriously happening?’

In the interview, Travis tries vainly to bring it around to Hill, but the damage is done. “Guys!” Baldwin says. “Why would you even say that live on national television? And with a female host? Why would you even go there?”

Valid question. “I say it live on the radio all the time!” Travis says before reiterating the only point he’s made.

“And then,” Baldwin writes, “I did something I’ve done only a handful of times in my career. I told the control room to kill his mic and said ‘bye.’ I invite a variety [of] people on my show with wide-ranging opinions —sometimes even my jaw hits the floor, too—but I let them speak. Whether it’s left, right or center—I want to expose my viewers to other perspectives. Agree with them or not, the nation needs to listen.

But this … was different.”

What Travis, who identifies as a “Southern white conservative,” didn’t realize is that even if you have the right to say whatever you want, you’re not exempt from the consequences of your words. (Most people learn this before they learn “boobs”.) Travis had literally one job to do—express his view, hopefully in an eloquent, insightful manner—and he messed it up on word eight.

Baldwin is a strong advocate for women’s issues and dedicates her time outside of her two-hour daily show on CNN to a project called “American Woman.” As she writes, “I want to help lift women’s voices. And I realize, in doing that, I need to use my own.”

The Peabody finalist won’t be asking Travis back again, she wrote. As she ended her op-ed, “Maybe he should learn from folks over at Fox News—being demeaning to women does have consequences.”

Watch the interview yourself:

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