America doesn’t like to share cultural space. This year’s Super Bowl halftime show and the controversies that came with it revealed how poorly America responds to its own diversity.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show, which was deemed “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER,” has become one of the most-watched halftime shows, drawing over 128 million viewers.
The criticism that stemmed from the announcement of the halftime show wasn’t merely about people not being fans of Bad Bunny. More than anything, the over-criticism revealed a deep truth: America doesn’t know how to share space with other cultures without feeling threatened or slighted, despite Bad Bunny being American. This is especially true when that culture takes up space — or a big stage — without adjusting itself to fit into the “American” lens.
When the NFL first announced the halftime show performer, it only took 11 days for Turning Point USA to announce it would hold a separate “All-American Halftime Show.”
This alone exposes how easily people get offended when “American culture” isn’t the only one being celebrated — even though Bad Bunny is American. Not only that, but some even attempt to do something that will outshine a rare cultural moment altogether, like TPUSA’s halftime show.
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The Super Bowl is a global broadcast, and the halftime show is a global stage. Not every cultural moment will appeal to every single viewer’s taste, and it shouldn’t.
On an episode of Piers Morgan’s podcast titled “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” conservative journalist and commentator Megyn Kelly gave a notable reaction to the halftime show.
“This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country, not for the Latinos, not for one small group, but for the country,” Kelly said. “And we don’t need an ICE or America hater featured as our prime time entertainment.”
Kelly’s comment implies that Latinos and this country are separate, even though they make up about 20% of the United States’ population. The NFL choosing to center another culture is unifying for the whole country in itself. However, when people of another demographic are used to seeing themselves centered, equality can feel offensive and threatening.
If you didn’t like the halftime show, it wasn’t for you. The outrage isn’t coming from musical preference. Instead, it’s coming from the expectation that you’ll always be catered to.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to express his disdain for the show by writing that it failed to represent America’s “standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.” He also complained that no one understood a word Bad Bunny was saying and called the show’s dancing “disgusting,” especially for children. This is an interesting, striking comment given his allegations involving minors, but that’s a topic for another time!
What Trump and many others don’t understand is that language is not a barrier or threat to national pride. If the U.S. truly prides itself on being a country of many cultures, then diversity in language is a fulfillment of the country’s identity. You didn’t have to understand what Bad Bunny was saying to appreciate his performance.
Opposite to what Trump thought, I believe Bad Bunny’s performance actually set the standard of success, creativity and excellence. It was successful in that it drew a global audience and sparked international conversation.
It was creative because it turned the halftime stage into a celebration of Latin joy, history and culture. The abundance of cultural symbolism made the performance more intentional. One example is the homage to Puerto Rico’s labor history and sugar farms, reminding viewers of the endurance of the Latin community.
The performance was excellent because, in spite of national tension surrounding ICE, Bad Bunny used the beauty of his culture as a protest. In what could have been an overtly oppositional performance against ICE, Bad Bunny chose to reclaim his culture and use celebration as resistance.
Kelly referred to Bad Bunny as an “ICE or America hater,” but he ended his performance saying, “God bless America,” named several countries across the Americas, then held up a football that had the words, “Together, We Are America.” Who’s the one who is really rejecting the country’s identity and diversity?
The halftime show didn’t exclude anyone, nor was it an erasure of American culture. It was an extension of it. If the halftime show didn’t resonate with you, that’s okay. It wasn’t meant to reaffirm the narrow definition of America or maintain cultural dominance. That’s what the “other” halftime show was for.
Marginalized cultures coming to the center stage shouldn’t be a threat. If for 13 minutes you felt unseen, offended or underrepresented, imagine feeling that way much longer than a halftime show.
Prayse is a senior in Media.
