Bad Bunny and the Racism That Never Rests

My FYP has been working overtime lately. Probably because the algorithm’s been off for a while, so when the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime performer was announced — oh, it went wild. So many people were BIG mad, and their racism was out on full display.

Now, mind you, my FYP is generally queer and POC-centered. So, when people started in on the Bad Bunny hate, my people came out swinging. I’ll be honest — I’m neither a diehard fan nor a hater, but I know he’s got bangers, he’s wildly popular, and he’s an activist. He’s used his platform to advocate for Puerto Rican rights and independence, uplift LGBTQ+ people, and speak out against gentrification and gender-based violence.

So, when you take all that into account, and remember we’ve descended deeper into the bad timeline — where ignorance and racism collide daily — it makes sense that he’d become a target. Because the performer in question is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known professionally as Bad Bunny: a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and producer who’s broken language and genre barriers without even trying.

Ok, and? Well, apparently the fact that he’s Puerto Rican pisses some people off. The rhetoric that he “isn’t American” started trending before the press release even finished circulating. Let’s be clear: he is American. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Its people are U.S. citizens. But apparently, citizenship only counts when it looks, sounds, and performs the way white America expects it to.

And yes, he sings and raps in Spanish. Oh. My. God. Can you imagine? Spanish being spoken in this day and age? On arguably the most important day for football fans, a Puerto Rican headlining the Super Bowl must make the racists, red hats, and “speak English” crowd absolutely sick.

And it has. They’ve been quick to flood the internet with their “concerns” — which, let’s be honest, are just thinly veiled racism and xenophobia. My FYP turned into a parade of people pretending to care about “American culture” while openly hating anything that doesn’t center whiteness.

We’ve seen this before. When Kendrick Lamar headlined the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show — the most-watched in history with 133.5 million viewers — they complained too. They didn’t get it. They didn’t want to get it. But for those of us who did, it was revolutionary.

Now, with Bad Bunny set to headline next year, the backlash has taken an even darker turn. Reports suggest the administration is politicizing the halftime show announcement, ideas about ICE “monitoring” or an “increased security presence” during the event. Weird, but ok. It’s like they don’t even realize Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen. Then again, like that matters anymore.

Not in a country where ICE routinely detains citizens, where Latinx and Indigenous people are profiled for existing, and where being Brown automatically makes you “suspicious.” And speaking Spanish? Well, according to a recent Supreme Court ruling out of California, that alone can now make you a target.

And as if that weren’t dystopian enough, some lawmakers are reportedly using this whole thing as fuel to push for an English language law — seriously. Trying to pass legislation because they’re threatened by someone knowing and speaking another language. It’s beyond absurd. It’s just further proof that racism never ends, it just shapeshifts. They see culture, expression, and pride — and call it a threat. Unless they can somehow colonize it. Remember “Spa Water”? Which was really just Agua Fresca. Sigh. This timeline is so gross.

Photo by Devin Berko on Unsplash.

The whole thing feels like a mashup between a halftime show and a propaganda reel. It’s giving “There is no war in Ba Sing Se” — the perfect catchphrase for this timeline, where the state pretends everything is fine while broadcasting its racism in HD.

Maybe that’s why Bad Bunny as a choice feels both chaotic and poetic. Because his presence, his language, his entire being is resistance. Whether he performs “DtFM,” “Tití Me Preguntó,” or something entirely new, he’s a reminder that we exist, that we create, and that we belong — even when they pretend we don’t.

And just like Bad Bunny said in his SNL monologue: you have four months to learn Spanish if you want to understand what he’s saying. Or not. Either way, he’ll still be there — and he’s going to do his damn thing.