Dear Bad Bunny,

Tití says, take a risk.

From Hakim Menikh via Unsplash

Dear Bad Bunny,

In a few months, you’ll have the mic on the biggest stage in the United States, and MAGA-land is furious. A Latino who performs almost exclusively in Spanish??? In the sacred star-spangled BIG GAME? Not on ‘murica’s watch.

Marjorie Taylor Green, Karen extraordinaire, was none too pleased when you said America had four months to learn [Spanish]. Now she’s campaigning—or at least ragetweeting—for an English-only law to pass ahead of the Super Bowl.

Greg Price—some apoplectic Conservative kid I don’t know—kvetched about the NFL giving you the gig because you refused to perform in the United States this past year, fearing ICE would target your fans at your concerts, which is not a huge leap considering Kristi Noem is already threatening your fans who may attend the Super Bowl. To be fair, she’s probably just cranky about not being able to pee near Chicago.

Though some will bitch and moan about you performing in Spanish or that you’ve worn a dress or that you kissed that backup dancer, they’ll watch. Americans can’t help it. They’ll whine and curse, red-faced and spittle-lipped, but they’ll watch. It’s the Super Bowl—the country’s second Christmas.

Even some of the people who supported you for skipping the U.S. tour think taking the Super Bowl gig is a mistake, but you made the right choice. The Super Bowl is too big of a platform to ignore, especially when a puertorriqueño, a Latino, and a Spanish-as-a-first-language U.S. citizen gets the opportunity to perform on the brightest stage in such a dark time for immigrants and Latinos in this country. A Spanish-first Latino performer is a big deal in a time when Latinos are being hunted and persecuted, regardless of their status, by an anonymous, law-breaking paramilitary force.

Don’t waste the moment. Don’t play it safe. A show with symbolism and subliminal messaging is not enough. SAY SOMETHING—explicitly, bluntly, and in no uncertain terms. Use your celebrity. Use the stage. Risk FCC penalties, NFL fines, and petty retaliations from this administration.

It’s important for people in the U.S. to hear, but maybe it’s most important for Latinos to hear, especially those who broke for Trump in this past election and somehow are still rationalizing support for him in spite of how little he thinks of Latinos. Many of them are your fans.

It’s fitting that a Puerto Rican would perform at the Super Bowl in these times, as the relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. is emblematic of the asymmetrical relationship between Latinos and White non-Latinos in the U.S. Puerto Ricans are citizens, but they can’t vote in U.S. elections and don’t have electoral representation. They do, however, pay federal taxes, and some pay federal income taxes.

Latinos in this country may be legal immigrants, residents, or U.S. citizens, but we’re not treated the same. The stain of immigration always lingers and is never forgiven. They’ll say it’s about legality, but it’s comically easy to disprove that flimsy claim. That’s why this administration threatens to end birthright citizenship, revoke green cards, and denaturalize U.S. citizens. Not even being a Latino U.S. citizen in Trump’s America is good enough. Not even being born here is good enough. They’re looking for any excuse to disenfranchise and remove Latinos. Voting for Trump doesn’t amount to protection against his anti-Latino agenda.

So, Bad Bunny, when you step on that stage this February, remember that this is no ordinary Super Bowl, because this is no ordinary United States. We need more than an ordinary performance. We need a clear, unflinching message, but you need to be willing to take a risk to deliver it—a risk Tití would approve of.

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