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  "path": "/p/bad-bunny",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-09T20:58:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://evebarlow.substack.com",
  "tags": [
    "“Kid Rock makes music for guys who are only allowed to see their children every other weekend, but don’t.”",
    "link",
    "Subscribe now"
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  "textContent": "It’s been a while since I wrote a piece on a Superbowl halftime show. In fact the last time, I think, was when I reviewed Jennifer Lopez and Shakira for the _Guardian_ in a past life. Alas, now I must write about a halftime show because according to an unhinged demographic of people last night, the United States is being destroyed by Latin trap music.\n\n\n\nI have recalled a feeling I have not had since I was a teenager: embarrassment while watching so-called adults police a good time. I don’t know if this is a new thing. I don’t know if the racism is new, or if it was there all along and I didn’t notice how ingrained it is, or if people are just acting like children because they’ve forgotten that the entire world doesn’t revolve around them. I don’t know if these years of political polarization have completely destroyed people’s ability to show any compassion or - what’s the word - _grace_ towards others, but the response to a performance by Puerto Rican popstar Bad Bunny at yesterday’s Superbowl has left my jaw on the floor.\n\n_He should have sung in English!_\n\n_It ’s not white enough!_\n\n_What is all this twerking and foul lyrics?_\n\n(Wait, I thought the problem was you didn’t understand what he’s saying?! Pick one)\n\n_This is a surreptitious political attack against ICE and the soul of America!_\n\nI even saw tweets from allegedly serious conservative voices complaining that Ricky Martin didn’t sing in English. I’m sorry I don’t remember us having an issue with ‘Livin La Vida Loca’’s song title before. I don’t remember that the Spanish language was a barrier to Los Del Rio’s ‘Macarena’ becoming an international mega hit in the ‘90s. Do they think the vibes on Santana’s cover of Tito Puente’s cha-cha classic ‘Oye Como Va’ would have hit harder if the chorus instead went: “listen to how it goes”? Granted these people never go to the opera, but forewarning the opera is in Italian usually, so if you go, try not to have a meltdown halfway through because there are no subtitles. _C ómo se dice “_culture” _en espa ñol?_\n\nMy head is in my hands here. _No mames!_ Seriously? I guess I had led myself to believe that conservatives had given up racism as a strategic counterpoint. And yes it is racism. Take up your issues with Bad Bunny’s politics all you want, his performance was not political – and thankfully so. My god, we should be so grateful today that this wasn’t a hair-raising woke-ageddon nightmare. It was a joyous celebration of his roots. It included a real wedding ceremony - between a man and a woman, calm down. It was about love and unity. I understand why some conservatives find it hard to stomach receiving lessons on love and unity from leftists who have been sidling up to Hamas for three years, but pick and choose your battles carefully. This isn’t the hill to die on. In fact, this is the reason why leftists dominate culture. They’re smarter at marketing their ideas. They’re fun. They know how to boss aesthetic. And sorry but they happen to have taste.\n\nThis is the bar. If you can’t beat it, close your mouths and start using your brains.\n\n\n\nThe Bad Bunny halftime show is the most watched in Superbowl history - 135 million. According to media stats. Who knows any more if the media’s reporting on itself is true or exaggerated. But based on what I actually saw, I will say - from a professional point of view - Bad Bunny smashed it. He brought the heat.\n\n\n\nWhat did Turning Point USA offer as an alternative? Kid Rock. I may no longer be a progressive but I still have eyes and ears. Kid Rock? I was once told that Kid Rock would potentially join a trip I was taking to Israel post October 7, and I did not agree to participate until Kid Rock was a definite no. Can you imagine being at Kfar Aza with Kid Rock? “…Cos I wanna be a cowboy, baby!”\n\n\n\n\n\n“Kid Rock makes music for guys who are only allowed to see their children every other weekend, but don’t.” This is the tweet that won the Superbowl for me.\n\nSince being cancelled I can hold several truths at once. You see, I may make too much sense for the people I used to share a working environment with, but I haven’t lost my goddamn mind. Kid Rock is not art. Arguing that Bad Bunny hasn’t earned his place at the Superbowl, and then insisting that Kid Rock is a viable alternative is like offering Kraft Singles in place of brie. What is all this faux outrage over a less than 15 minute concert that gifted us with an unexpected turn from our Latina sister Lady Sanchia Gloria Gagita?\n\n_Suavemente_!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI would pay to see some of these cranks look Jennifer Lopez in the eye and tell her Puerto Ricans are not American. My favorite genre of movie is in fact any movie starring Jennifer Lopez wherein someone tells her she can’t do whatever it is her character wants to do because she’s Latina, and all _infierno_ breaks loose.\n\n\n\nBad Bunny said “God bless America” and protected the football. What more do you want from him? Yet if you don’t get it, and Bad Bunny isn’t your thing, how hard is it to make your commentary less racist??!\n\n\n\nDo I see the unhinged racism of this because I live in the Mexico-bordering state of California? Nah. Even far right groyper king and neo-fascist Nick Fuentes has managed to not be a racist about it.\n\n\n\nTo all those tweeting “this is why we need closed borders”, do you not understand that Puerto Rico is _part_ of America? President Trump called it “disgusting,” “absolutely terrible,” and an “affront to America”, complaining that nobody understood it, and this is why I never rely on politicians for cultural takes. It’s giving grouchy grandpa.\n\nSince moving to America eleven years ago, I have made friends from across States including Arizona, Texas, New York, Florida, and the vast majority of them have seamlessly adopted elements of Latin culture into everyday life. Latin culture is not exclusionary, as some of Mr Bunny’s critics are arguing. I’d say the opposite. Latin culture is aggressively inclusive. Just try exiting a concert in Hollywood without buying street corn. In Los Angeles, the only place you can get a decent meal past 2am is at a taco truck in a parking lot.\n\nAmerica is a country where restaurant condiments extend beyond ketchup and mayonnaise to Cholula and Tapatio; where you can order “ _agua_ ” instead of a glass of water; where every sign is in Spanish as well as English; where the people who do the jobs nobody else wants to do bring their portable hot plate so they can make barbacoa for their own lunch behind your house while listening to Carlos Vives. Why on earth would any of this, and/or Bad Bunny’s performance, be offensive to you?\n\n_Muchisimas gracias por todo, Se ñor Conejo._\n\nSpanish language and the heart of Latin America is intertwined with the very essence of the United States. _San Diego. Los Angeles. San Francisco. El Paso. Las Vegas. Santa Fe. Fresno. Palo Alto. Amarillo. Nevada. Rio Grande. Alcatraz. Toledo._ Should we change all the names of these places because they sound too Spanish? Honestly, Bad Bunny’s detractors have exposed some racism I really didn’t see coming.\n\nLast week, I made my feelings very clear about Robert Kraft’s $15million ad spend during the Superbowl. It’s not my business how rich people choose to spend their money, unless it undoes the work that I myself and my colleagues have been doing with zero billionaire philanthropy back-up for almost ten years now. By this point, I assume most of you know the advert I refer to…\n\nA thirty second clip of a dweeb-y Jewish boy in High School walking to his locker, looking nervous and meek, as his classmates whisper about him, and he discovers in his locker that someone has put a post-it on his backpack with the words “DIRTY JEW”. But fear not, because a much taller, more athletic and physically superior Black student comes over to the weak Jew to place a blue post-it note over the offensive one, then introduces himself and says to not react to the Jew hate. Leave them alone. Ignore it!\n\nWhere to begin. The only thing the ad got right was the statistic at the end: two out of three Jewish American teens are experiencing antisemitism right now.\n\n\n\nFirst, ask any Jewish high schooler what their experience is of Jew hatred, and they are not going to tell you it’s being called a “dirty Jew” unless they were thawed out after being cryogenic-ally frozen in 1985. Young Jews are experiencing societal exclusion for being “Zionists”. They are being intimidated by students in keffiyehs. They are being called “child killers” and “genocide apologists”. They are facing on-campus encampments at universities. They are experiencing expulsion from sports teams. Their Hillels are being defaced and in many extreme cases burned down. I must have missed the part of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising where we solved that kind of Jew hatred with post-it notes. Anyway, are we forgetting the fact that we don’t need post-it notes, because we have the IDF? And what is the IDF’s approach to Jew hate?\n\nThe victim narrative is the wrong message. No ally is coming to save us, especially not the young Black community who have been turned against us by the propaganda of the antizionist BLM movement. If you behave as a victim, you will be treated as a victim. If a dog barks at you and you run away, the dog will chase you. If you stay calm, and show the dog no fear, the dog shuts up. If you make yourself prey, the predator will eat you. So Jewish kids, learn to keep your head held high, your chest out, and fight back.\n\nWhat Bad Bunny did yesterday was what Robert Kraft’s organization should have done, and I called it last week, when I tweeted this:\n\n\n\nThe only way to overcome bullying and prejudicial hate is to show unfettered pride for your own culture and community. That is exactly what Bad Bunny’s halftime show was about. You can watch it at this link on the NFL’s YouTube channel. Bravo to him. (That’s Spanish for well done).\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Bad Bunny"
}