Echoes of Exclusion: The Racist Backlash Against Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show and the Long Shadow of Minority Performers in American Sports

Echoes of Exclusion: The Racist Backlash Against Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show and the Long Shadow of Minority Performers in American Sports

The roar of the crowd at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026, will mark not just the clash of gridiron titans in Super Bowl LX, but a cultural milestone: Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, headlining the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show. As the first male Latin artist to lead the performance solo, his selection by the NFL, Roc Nation, and Apple Music was intended as a bold celebration of Latin music's global dominance and a nod to the multicultural fabric of America. Bad Bunny, with his seven studio albums, three Grammy Awards, and status as the most-streamed artist on Spotify for three consecutive years, embodies a seismic shift in pop culture. 

His residency in San Juan earlier this year generated $400 million for Puerto Rico's economy, and his final show there became Amazon Music's most-watched single-artist livestream ever. Yet, mere days after the announcement on September 28, 2025, during a Sunday Night Football broadcast, the triumph soured into a torrent of vitriol. Social media erupted with calls for his deportation—despite his U.S. citizenship as a Puerto Rican—and accusations of anti-Americanism, all laced with xenophobic barbs about his Spanish-language lyrics and gender-fluid fashion. This backlash isn't isolated; it's a chilling echo of the racism that has shadowed minority performers at America's biggest sporting spectacles for decades, from José Feliciano's soulful National Anthem in 1968 to Beyoncé's unapologetic Black power tribute in 2016. In an era where the Super Bowl halftime show draws over 133 million viewers—more than the game itself—these controversies reveal not just cultural fault lines, but a persistent resistance to letting non-white voices command the national stage without apology.

Bad Bunny's ascent to this pinnacle is a story of raw talent colliding with unyielding authenticity. Emerging from Puerto Rico's underground trap scene in 2016, he blended reggaeton, Latin trap, and rock into anthems that pulse with themes of love, identity, and resistance. Tracks like "Yo Perreo Sola" champion women's autonomy on the dance floor, while "El Apagón" critiques the island's post-Hurricane Maria blackouts and colonial neglect. His decision to forgo a U.S. leg on his 2025 world tour stemmed from genuine fears: "Fking ICE could be outside my concert," he told New York Magazine, referencing the Trump administration's aggressive deportation policies that have ensnared even U.S. citizens in bureaucratic nightmares. As a Puerto Rican, Bad Bunny navigates the paradox of American identity—citizen without full statehood, celebrated abroad but suspect at home. His Super Bowl statement captured this duality: "What I'm feeling goes beyond myself. It's for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown... this is for my people, my culture, and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL." It's a touchdown for Latinx representation, but for critics, it's a fumble into "woke" territory.

The backlash hit like a blitz. Within hours of the announcement, MAGA influencers like Benny Johnson decried Bad Bunny as a "massive Trump hater" and "anti-ICE activist" with "no songs in English." Conservative podcaster Robby Starbuck amplified this, labeling him a bigot for past comments dismissing certain "gringos" as non-fans, twisting it into evidence of anti-white racism. On X (formerly Twitter), users demanded subtitles for his performance—"Will there be subtitles? Asking for 90% of the country"—or outright cancellation, with one xenophobe snarling, "This will just bring them in." President Donald Trump piled on during a Newsmax interview, calling the choice "absolutely ridiculous" and claiming he'd "never heard of him," despite Bad Bunny's billions of streams. Trump's adviser Corey Lewandowski escalated the rhetoric on "The Benny Show," vowing ICE presence at the game: "There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else." House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested replacing him with country singer Lee Greenwood, whose "God Bless the USA" aligns with conservative patriotism. Fox News hosts mocked his style, with one quipping about his "gender-fluid" outfits, while others predicted the NFL would "drop" him amid the "huge backlash." Even false rumors swirled of cancellation due to MAGA outrage, fanned by unverified posts on social media.

This isn't mere disagreement over booking; it's a symphony of racism, xenophobia, and cultural gatekeeping. Demands for English-only performances ignore Bad Bunny's crossover hits like "I Like It" with Cardi B and "Mia" with Drake, which topped charts in both languages. Calls for deportation erase Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. territory, reducing citizens to "them"—perpetual foreigners in the land of their birthright. The ICE threats weaponize immigration policy against a performance celebrating Latin heritage, echoing how anti-Latino sentiment has long masqueraded as "protecting American values." As one X user put it, "Kendrick Lamar spoke English and had a red, white & blue theme. They got mad. Beyoncé spoke English and literally did a country music halftime show. They got mad. At some point, you gotta just admit it got nothin to do with the language, and everything to do with you being a racist xenophobe." Bad Bunny leaned into the fray during his October 5, 2025, hosting gig on Saturday Night Live's Season 51 premiere. In a monologue blending Spanish and English, he mocked Fox News' feigned praise and declared, "If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn." A subsequent Yankees game clip showed him seated during "God Bless America," fueling more outrage—though context suggests it was a quiet protest, not obliviousness. Jennifer Lopez, who shared the 2020 halftime stage with Shakira and Bad Bunny as a guest, defended him: "His music transcends language... I don't understand the backlash." Yet, the vitriol persists, turning a joyous milestone into a battleground.

To grasp this moment's toxicity, one must rewind to 1968, when José Feliciano, a blind Puerto Rican guitarist, ignited a firestorm with his rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 5 of the World Series at Detroit's Tiger Stadium. At 23, Feliciano was riding high: his album Feliciano! topped the pop charts, earning him Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Pop Song. Invited by Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell to appeal to younger fans amid Vietnam War protests and urban riots, Feliciano infused the anthem with folk-soul flair—strumming his guitar in a style evoking Bob Dylan, slowing the tempo to emphasize emotion over rote recitation. "I sang it with soul," he later reflected. "I thought, 'José, you've got a great opportunity to express what you feel for America.'" What followed was pandemonium. Boos drowned him out in the stadium; TV switchboards at NBC flooded with complaints. Veterans hurled shoes at screens, and radio stations blackballed his records. Calls poured in to deport him—"Send the Puerto Rican back!"—despite his U.S. citizenship. Cardinals outfielder Roger Maris griped it was "not the proper place for that kind of treatment," while Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich blamed it for disrupting his warm-up. RCA Records capitalized by releasing the live recording as a single, which peaked at No. 50, but the damage lingered: Feliciano's career stalled for years, his "hippie" innovation branded as desecration.

Feliciano's sin? Daring to reinterpret a sacred symbol through a minority lens. In 1968, America grappled with assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Chicago Democratic Convention riots, and the Tet Offensive's grim toll. The anthem, once a drinking song melody from 1814, had ossified into a litmus test of patriotism. Feliciano's version—haunting, personal—challenged that rigidity, much like Bad Bunny's Spanish anthems challenge English monolingualism today. Both men, Puerto Rican Americans, faced erasure: Feliciano as a "foreigner" desecrating tradition, Bad Bunny as a "Trump hater" invading it. As cultural scholar P.B. Johnson notes in a 2018 analysis, Feliciano's performance became a "site of struggle," embodying 1960s fears of integration and youth rebellion. Decades later, it paved the way for soulful anthems by Marvin Gaye (1983 NBA All-Star Game) and Whitney Houston (Super Bowl XXV), but the initial backlash scarred. Feliciano, now 80, revisited the memory in a 2018 New York Daily News interview: "I never thought in my wildest dreams I was going to cause such a stir." His resilience mirrors Bad Bunny's: both turned pain into art, refusing to let racism silence their souls.

Fast-forward to 2016, when Beyoncé commandeered Super Bowl 50's halftime at Levi's Stadium—ironically the same venue Bad Bunny will grace in 2026—with a performance that was peak Black excellence and unyielding activism. Flanked by dancers in berets and leather, evoking the Black Panther Party's 50th anniversary, she debuted "Formation," her video's imagery nodding to Hurricane Katrina's neglect and police violence against Black bodies. The troupe formed an "X" for Malcolm X; fists raised in Black Power salutes. It was a takeover: Beyoncé, already a global icon with 13 years in the spotlight, injected politics into a "neutral" spectacle, much like Coldplay's preceding set of rainbows and unity. Watched by 112 million, it sparked ecstasy and enmity. Fans hailed it as "unapologetic blackness," boosting Red Lobster sales 30% via a lyric shoutout. But Rudy Giuliani blasted it on Fox & Friends as "outrageous," accusing her of using the stage to "attack police officers" while accepting a police escort—hypocrisy that drew racism charges against him. Protests brewed outside NFL headquarters, branded a "race-baiting stunt" glorifying a "hate group." Eventbrite pages screamed, "No hate speech & racism at the SuperBowl ever again!" with BoycottBeyonce and BlueLivesMatter. The FCC fielded dozens of complaints: one likened it to a "KKK rally full of hatred," another decried "racist hand gestures." A white fan lamented double standards—if a white artist touted racial pride, "extreme backlash" would ensue.

Beyoncé's performance weaponized visibility, much like Bad Bunny's will. "Formation" wasn't subtle: "My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama." It mourned Black pain while flaunting joy—natural hair, Afros, Southern gothic flair. Critics like Joe Concha on Fox News called it "inappropriate" for "Middle America," echoing Giuliani's wholesome entertainment plea. Yet, Beyoncé's retort was silence; her power lay in the act itself. As The New York Times noted, it forced conversations on institutional racism, from Katrina's levee failures to Black Lives Matter's urgency. The backlash revealed entitlement: why must entertainment assuage white discomfort? Beyoncé, a Black woman from Houston's Third Ward, headlined three years after her solo 2013 show—another first for a Black woman—but 2016's edge drew the knives. Petitions for boycotts fizzled, counter-protests in "Formation"-inspired gear swelled, affirming: "Don’t let anyone make her powerful statement about the value of Black life be overshadowed." Like Feliciano's anthem and Bad Bunny's reggaeton, Beyoncé's set was subversive—remixing American symbols to center the marginalized.

These aren't anomalies; they're a pattern etched in the Super Bowl's history, where minority performers bear the brunt of America's unresolved racial reckonings. Consider Shakira and Jennifer Lopez's 2020 halftime at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, a Latin explosion that Bad Bunny guested on. Their set—zumba rhythms, hip sways, guest spots from Bad Bunny ("Safarea") and J Balvin ("Que Calor")—drew 103 million viewers. But political props stung: children in cage-like structures evoked Trump's family separations; Lopez's Puerto Rican flag cape post-Hurricane Maria nodded to colonial aid delays. Conservatives cried foul—"too political," "too sexy"—with FCC complaints spiking over "inappropriate" dances. Yet, it shattered barriers: first Latina headliners, boosting Latin music streams 12% overnight. Lopez later reflected, "We fought to keep that statement," underscoring the gatekeeping even allies face.

Black performers fare no better. Kendrick Lamar's 2025 Super Bowl LIX show in New Orleans—fresh off five Grammys for "Not Like Us"—was the most-watched ever at 133.5 million, an all-Black affair with SZA and Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam critiquing racism via a splitting American flag. FCC logs overflowed: over 120 complaints branded it "racist against white people" for lacking "diversity (white, Latin, Native American, etc.)." One whined, "All these people complain about racism and if the Super Bowl halftime show isn't racist then I don't know what is." Echoing 2022's Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg/Mary J. Blige/Kendrick lineup—the first all-hip-hop show—where Eminem knelt for Kaepernick (uncensored, unlike Lamar's "negus" in "Alright"), complaints fixated on "no white people," ignoring decades of white-dominated lineups. As Wired quipped, it's DEI twisted into "diversity for white people only." Rihanna's 2023 aerial spectacle, her first post-pregnancy, faced slut-shaming for her red bodysuit, thinly veiled racial policing of Black women's bodies. Even Michael Jackson's 1993 moonwalk—boosting ratings to 133 million—drew Jackson 5-era whispers of "not American enough" due to his global flair.

This racism thrives on erasure: the Super Bowl's early days featured Up with People, a white Christian troupe, until 1991's New Kids on the Block. HBCU marching bands like Grambling State graced pre-1990s shows, but headliners were white until Diana Ross in 1996. Ella Fitzgerald's 1972 swing set was the first Black woman's solo, yet unrecorded—lost to history, like many minority contributions. The NFL's Roc Nation partnership since 2019, helmed by Jay-Z, aimed to diversify, yielding these "controversial" picks. But as The Hill notes, amid Brian Flores' 2022 lawsuit alleging racist hiring, the league spotlights Black music while sidestepping equity. Bad Bunny's slot follows Lamar's, signaling inclusion's perils: visibility invites scrutiny, not celebration.

Why does this persist? At its core, the Super Bowl is America's mirror—capitalist colossus, cultural exporter, racial battleground. Halftime, once a college marching band affair, evolved into a $15 million spectacle under MTV in 1991, amplifying voices that unsettle the status quo. Minority performers disrupt the narrative of unhyphenated Americanness, forcing confrontation with empire's legacies: Puerto Rico's colonial debt, Black Panther surveillance, Katrina's drowned Black neighborhoods. As Bad Bunny told Zane Lowe, "I'm going to embrace the moment... show what we have, our music, our culture." Yet, backlash reframes empowerment as threat—Spanish as invasion, Black fists as hate, soulful anthems as desecration. It's "anticipatory obedience," per NPR's 2025 analysis of the NFL ditching "End Racism" end-zone decals post-Lamar: preempting white discomfort at the cost of justice.

The human toll is profound. Feliciano's blackballing delayed his fame; he met his wife through a fan club sparked by the controversy, but years of gigs dried up. Beyoncé weathered boycotts that fizzled but stung, her silence a shield. Bad Bunny, fresh from San Juan's sold-out Coliseo, skips U.S. tours fearing raids on fans—many undocumented Latinos drawn to his pro-immigrant anthems. On X, supporters rally: petitions affirm his "multicultural America" nod, with Dr. Ariel Morel writing, "This symbolizes commitment to showcasing diversity." Lopez's defense—"transcends language"—bolsters him, as does Jay-Z's praise: "What Benito has done... is truly inspiring." Yet, threats loom: Lewandowski's ICE vow, though denied by the White House, chills. California's January 2026 mask/ID laws may blunt raids, but the message lands: perform, but know your place.

As February nears, Bad Bunny's show promises subversion—reggaeton revolutions, Puerto Rican pride, no English concessions. Will it draw 140 million, surpassing Lamar? Likely. But the real game is cultural: can America cheer without clutching pearls? History—from Feliciano's guitar strings to Beyoncé's berets—says progress is ragged, racism resilient. Bad Bunny's touchdown isn't just for Puerto Rico; it's for every minority artist who's sung through boos. In his words, "No one will ever be able to remove or erase" us. Four months to learn? Make it a lifetime.

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