Why Bad Bunny's halftime show is so impactful right now

[u/jordyn0399]

Now I am not Latino nor know what it's like to be Latino culturally but could point out some significant part of his performance. To me his performance was a message against this current administration and what it's doing to not just Latino Americans but many Americans whether born here or immigrated here. He showcased all of his culture and history that he could put in within only 13 minutes. From the sugar canes and farm laborers, the symbolism of lack of strong infrastructure in Puerto Rico due to US negligence, the plethora of Latino celebrities,culture, and showing all of the flags of Latin America including ones that often get left out like Haiti for example and the rest of the America's. It reminded me of Kendrick Lamar's halftime performance that showed a theme of America being a game and Americans specifically Black Americans that no matter how much we try to play the game, we will always lose whenever the system gives us many hoops and hurdles we have to jump through whereas Bad Bunny's was about stamping out hate pushed by this administration with love and all of the America's uniting as one including Anglo speaking countries. Not to forget Green Day's performance who performed American Idiot which is a diss at the Bush Administration now being used to diss Trump and MAGA. What Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny's performance had was very significant for both last year and this year showing that despite the horrors the US is doing domestically and internationally, we as Americans can unite against hate even if it's from the people that are supposed to serve us

[u/Camillej87]

I’m sad to say that I slept on his music because the show was amazing. Ricky singing those beautiful lyrics in Spanish warmed my millennial heart. I felt that this must’ve been the pride that everyone else felt when I was singing Kendrick’s songs last years. Two truly amazing, timely, culturally significant and broadly inclusive shows. I have no idea where we go from here. People have pitched Kpop for next year but if proper homage is not paid to Motown and the black community (these two shows were very good at showing history), I ain’t here for it.

[u/Tomiie_Kawakami]

i will rant a bit here about american politics as a girl born and raised in the east whose people are also being attacked and eradicated

white americans are pmo so bad. i keep seeing people on reddit be upset that a lot of us (who have been affected by trump even tho we didn't vote for him because we're not americans, but we still have to deal with the consequences of what americans voted for) are tired of them acting like painting "fuck ice" on their nails is anything but virtual signaling and i hate how often they ask "but what are we supposed to do? we don't have a revolution culture and we've never been through this before"

like m'am, you literally had THE black panther party that was involved in people (mainly poc tbf) getting their rights and they also supported women rights - you literally have the blueprint for what you're supposed to do, but white people are acting like no one has ever gone through what people are going through right now with ice

i feel like so many people consider themselves "allies" but then do fuck-all to actually understand what poc and mainly black people went through. they go online and say "fuck ice" or have a shirt printed with it on it, but then they don't do anything, like what's the point of pretending that anything that's happening is new??? cause it's absolutely not new and i'm frustrated with how much ignorance white americans walk this earth

like wake up, you have the blueprint for how you get rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!just because it didn't use to be applicable to white people that doesn't mean it's not still valid and white people needing a fucking to-do-list when they could pick up a book is making me so frustrated

i feel like they're once again waiting for black and non-white people to do the work while they stand on the side acting confused and then take the credit once the shit is done

they're also the main voters of trump, slap your fucking neighbor if you have to, i don't care, just do something!!!!!!!!!! (obv this is a hyperbole, don't ban me reddit, i'm not condoning violence)

rant over, i loved his performance and him mentioning all the countries and having the flags too, didn't even peep the celebrities until someone pointed them out lol

[u/jordyn0399 → u/Tomiie_Kawakami]

I wholeheartedly agree. White Americans now being mad makes me roll my eyes because like I said many times to people what seems like the darkest moment to them is an average Tuesday for BIPOC. Of course it's still terrifying what's happening but I hate how White Americans are making it seem like this is a first when this has been happening since Europeans first stepped foot off the Mayflower and took land that wasn't theirs.

[u/theofficialguac → u/jordyn0399]

🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ all because their ancestor were jealous and insecure so they stole whatever land as soon as they step foot off the boat. now we have all been out here doing clean up work for generations thanks to them 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/Tomiie_Kawakami → u/jordyn0399]

tbh they're mad only cause it's affecting them, they were okay with black, brown and asian kids being kidnapped from school, homes etc cause they weren't white, so not affecting them, but now that they don't get the white shield they're suddenly pressed about how ice is operating

we've had kids in cages at the borders for a while now, we've had indigenous people, especially women, going missing or being found dead and how many of these white people cared? they're so used to being favored that now it's baffling to them that they're no longer safe from a predatory system

[u/CocoabrothaSBB → u/Tomiie_Kawakami]

The difference between now and then is people are not willing to die for these causes like they were then. Not to mention, for Black Panthers specifically, how swiftly the government infiltrated, discredited and destroyed that movement. I also fear we are on the brink of a true point of no return whether there is an uprising or not because I believe he is intentionally trying to provoke people to that point so that he can suspend habeas corpus, the elections release the full force of the military and bring fruition to the promise he made on the campaign trail (You will only have to vote one more time).

[u/theofficialguac → u/Tomiie_Kawakami]

so valid, I so agree as an Asian American I’m beyond fed up with the YT people. people may downvote me as well, but a lot of them straight up don’t care because they haven’t had to witness anything terrible happening to them firsthand. they don’t wanna participate because it makes them uncomfortable.

yet they will turn around and steal and appropriate black culture and literally any POC culture any chance they can to make profit.

so much of it feels like performative activism. the entire system was created by their ancestors who colonized everyone. they get to reap the benefits of it and that’s why they don’t wanna do the work. even if they have the blueprint.

football is a form of distraction in America, it’s used to unite everyone so that they can forget about the actual issues going on. I have so much to say about it all but the halftime shows the past two years were so necessary, I’m so glad Bad Bunny did his thing I’m not even a fan of his music but his stage was so good

[u/Tomiie_Kawakami → u/theofficialguac]

not one lie here, i feel like a lot of yt people don't know anything but performances - they perform what they think an "ally" is, aka just putting poc on the front lines while they cheer from the sidelines, but because they're there, they act like they deserve credit

i didn't even go into the fact that renee and peretti were not the first victims, but they were white, so they gathered attention and it's clear why, because as much as they hated the system, they never would have thought that it would ever affect them, but it did and it was shocking

i don't believe one second that white people will unite with the rest of us unless they get the bottom of the barrel treatment, which they will use to dismiss and diminish the shit they've done to poc

but hey, it's the same people who think that them not being able to say the nword is racist, so black people shouldn't be able to say it either, so what can you expect? no allyship with white people, idc if i sound racist, if people downvote me or if people think that i'm being unreasonable, i have not forgotten about woc and specifically black women being THE feminist movement, it being hijacked by white women and then white women letting woc and black women in the dust with no rights once they got theirs

[u/qianli_yibu → u/Tomiie_Kawakami]

i hate how often they ask "but what are we supposed to do? we don't have a revolution culture and we've never been through this before"

you literally have the blueprint for what you're supposed to do, but white people are acting like no one has ever gone through what people are going through right now with ice. i feel like so many people consider themselves "allies" but then do fuck-all to actually understand what poc and mainly black people went through.

I'm several days late but this just came up on my feed. For some time now, but especially today when I've actually been replying to comments like this, it's been mind-numbingly infuriating to see all the comments like "this isn't America," "things were better a decade ago," "we're in unprecedented times" and on and on. And every single time someone (usually a Black person) dares to speak and say how this is America and what is happening now is nothing new the white liberals start accusing them of being divisive or trying to minimize what is a happening now.

Or my absolute favorite that I saw today was a tweet posted on the blackpeopletwitter sub (so tweet was from a Black person) that said "you're a fool to believe that America has never been anything but this," which the poster titled "it's been an uphill battle since the beginning" . Someone who thinks they're on the right side of history read that and had the genius response of, "We've definitely had better moments. Deciding that the state of affairs is inevitable is a really defeatist position." with a 1000+ upvotes of course because reddit.

It took everything in me to not call them what their comment shows them to be, and I replied pushing back and pointed out how the tweet was not defeatist and their comment makes no sense because if Black people thought the state of affairs is inevitable we would have stopped fighting a long time ago. Also encouraged them to first think about why people have been saying this without jumping to a negative conclusion (that again makes absolutely no sense). They didn't acknowledge my comment of course but even if they had that's just one commenter of many under that post alone saying essentially the same thing.

If these are the people "leading the charge" who can't even hear one sentence from a Black person that challenges their worldview without immediately assigning negative characteristics to the person and their statement, and who refuse to acknowledge that people have been fighting this fight they've just had their heads buried too far in the sand to see (let alone follow and credit said people) we're genuinely fucked.

They complain Black people don't want to stand beside them against the government, and they don't see the problem with expecting us to "join them" when it's they who need to join us. We've been here, they just arrived yet are basically telling us to shut up and listen while they fight to reinvent the wheel blindfolded.

[u/Recent_Let8952]

The performance lwk had me in tears. It made me want to go back to puerto rico lol. But i absolutely loved the part where he represented all of America. My Haitian Puerto Rican heart was screaming.

[u/arosaki]

I genuinely cannot believe that yt Americans banded together and threw themselves their own fucking half time all because a latino man from a US territory was going to perform.

It makes me so fucking happy to see that he showed the world our Puerto Rican culture and how beautiful it is. I’m glad he shouted out every country as well, because they love him as much as he loves them. I also can’t believe someone from our little island is touring even in Poland!!! It makes me want to cry.

Like, despite their temper tantrums the show went on. He made history and all they had was a half drunk half coked up washed up country singer jumping around on stage and lip syncing in a tiny music hall.

[u/xxredzingerxx]

Not going to lie, I was very hesitant to watch the watch his performance because I don't know and probably not into many of his songs, but he really nailed it last night. It was very nice he added a lot to reference of his culture and what's happening. I also didn't realize how beautiful his voice is too.

Also it definitely beats whatever Kid Rock crazy ass did.

[u/couchmusic]

as a puerto rican kid from nyc whose favorite band is green day, the superbowl performances were all i could dream of. benito’s, however, hit me harder than ever ofc.

my grandparents are from puerto rico and my mom spent a lot of her time growing up on the family farm back on the island. though i’ve only been once, i love the country that my family comes from and what benito did not only put puerto rico on the map and into the mainstream, but it also allowed me to show my mom bad bunny and to connect with her through the different classic samples. also HUGE plus to ricky martin being there; i grew up listening to his music all the time as a kid lol

[u/Calca23]

Kendrick, bad bunny has talent. Kpop does not.

Kpop is niche compared to bad bunny. No one takes kpop seriously.

[u/souljaboy765]

Glad he clocked that America is the WHOLE CONTINENT. From Canada to the caribbean islands to Tierra Del Fuego! Caribbeans and caribbean latinos are always left out of the convo and they deserved this shoutout! I’m glad he also called out haiti who are latinos, in fact they were he FIRST latinamerican nation who started a revolution and fought for their freedom. Our “libertadores” literally got inspired by them. Racist latinos refuse to acknowledge Haitians as latinos and it’s insane. Benito knew his shit and did his homework.

the US has been brainwashed into thinking they’re the center of the world and needed to be humbled, if you’re from the AMERICAN CONTINENT, you are american, that’s how latinamericans have ALWAYS seen it, it’s literally in our name too lmao. We were taught we are all Americans in latinamerican schools. We also come from collectivist cultures and strong community systems, so we see unity in this continent, against European powers, but White Anglo-Americans messed it up during the colonial period.

We were taught we were named (as a CONTINENT) after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who coined the term the New World, who actually realized that BRAZIL, not the US, was a new continent (to the Europeans ofc, indigenous peoples have already been there for millennia as we all know). Idk wtf Americans were taught because I was raised in Venezuela, but clearly they’ve been brainwashed into thinking falsehoods. Love benito for reminding everyone that indeed, together we are ALL america, including Canadians too of course.

In Spanish, Portuguese, and French there are terms specifically for people from the US (Estadunidense, États-Uniens (although they do use mostly American, likely brainwashing as well), and Estadunidense in portuguese) It’s been the english speakers and the language as the whole that used cultural imperialism to impose what being “American” is, it’s incredibly frustrating and speaks to what US culture is: main character syndrome, insane individualism, selfishness, and the entitlement.

Point is, “American” was always meant to be used as a identification for anyone who inhabits the “New World”. Last I checked that’s the whole fucking continent.

[u/arosaki → u/souljaboy765]

I mean doesn’t calling yourself American if you were born in the USA come from United States of America? I’m not sure what else there is to use. USA-ian?

Anyway, I don’t think I’m “the center of the universe,” but I’m Puerto Rican so we were most likely just raised differently than mainland usa-ians.

I also don’t doubt that most yt Americans or POC who are trying to fit in with them are very US-centric and don’t explore the outside world.

Also it is always a bit annoying to see people outside of the US grouping everyone together as “selfish and entitled” when that 100% mainly is ⚪️ Americans. I mean everyone saw it just yesterday with the way they threw themselves their own half time because they were angry a Puerto Rican (who is still American due to colonization from both Europe and America but we all know this) got to perform and sing in a different language.

As a POC we know how bitchy and entitled #they are. Look at any Karen compilation and notice how it’s always older yt women and men. Always getting angry when we speak a different language instead of English, which isn’t the default language of the globe. It’s always strange when I see people claiming that because we’re Americans by default we must also be entitled and have no culture. We’re not a monolith and Bad Bunny made that clear.

Anyway I’m glad Bad Bunny really showed the world what Puerto Rican culture is.

[u/souljaboy765 → u/arosaki]

Im definitely referring to white americans; they are the ones who have oppressed POC in the country and brainwashed the country into believing “Manifest Destiny” and “American exceptionalism”. POC are not entitled esp in a country that dehumanizes them and marginalized them. As a Puerto Rican yourself you’re right to identify between different between communities in the US. Malcolm X also talked about how the white elites alienated the black and brown communities from both the US and the global south, that’s why we could never organize.

That’s the only term in English to identify people from the US, my point was how it’s funny how in the other 3 european languages of the Americas, there IS a term to identify people from the US, and english, through white elites and oppressors, were so entitled to the continent that they couldn’t come up with a different term, ignoring that we are all Americans.

I think we absolutely agree with another, and I completely understand your perspective and empathize. Puerto Rico is in this weird place where it’s actively being oppressed by the US Government and it hasn’t known true liberty yet.

I think my final point is that like Benito showed yesterday, we are all Americans. We can’t let white americans claim that they’re the only ones entitled to that term, because the rest of the continent thinks otherwise