As Dangerous Bunny continues to keep away from the continental US on his world tour out of fears of ICE raids, information that he’ll be headlining the Tremendous Bowl LX halftime present has been met with a livid backlash from MAGA influencers who’ve complained that he “doesn’t sing in English” and has been vital of Donald Trump.
The controversy has escalated past social media with Corey Lewandowski, adviser to Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, threatening the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the occasion to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. “There may be nowhere which you can present secure haven to people who find themselves on this nation illegally. Not the Tremendous Bowl and nowhere else,” he instructed right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on The Benny Present. “We are going to discover you. We are going to apprehend you. We are going to put you in a detention facility and we are going to deport you, so know that that could be a very actual state of affairs beneath this administration.”
The episode exposes the anatomy of manufactured outrage and as soon as once more positions America’s largest sporting occasion as a battleground for the nation’s identification politics.
The information, confirmed by the NFL late Sunday evening, rapidly turned gasoline for the controversy engine working full-time on platforms like X. Inside hours, a refrain of right-wing commentators and influencers activated a now-familiar script. Johnson branded him “an enormous Trump hater” and an “anti-ICE activist.” Jack Posobiec, a outstanding Pizzagate promoter, took goal at Jay-Z, whose firm Roc Nation produces the occasion, because the architect of cultural “engineering.” The “Finish Wokeness” account, with 4 million followers, resorted to visible mockery, posting a picture of the artist in a gown in response to the announcement.
These assaults are usually not random; they’re textbook ways of a tradition battle that seeks to mobilize its base by figuring out a symbolic enemy. On this case, Dangerous Bunny. Not solely is he an artist who sings predominantly in Spanish—a proven fact that influencer Mario Nawfal countered by saying that the “common halftime viewer in Des Moines doesn’t communicate fluent reggaeton”—however his activism is specific, constant and instantly antagonistic to the ideological platform of American conservatism.
Dangerous Bunny is unapologetically political
The hostility in direction of Dangerous Bunny will not be rooted in his music, however in his message. His determination to not tour in the USA, out of a acknowledged worry that his followers shall be focused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, is a political assertion that few stars dare to make. “Individuals from the US may come right here to see the present. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the USA may additionally journey right here, or to any a part of the world. However there was the difficulty of—like, fucking ICE may very well be outdoors [my concert]. And it’s one thing that we had been speaking about and really involved about,” he stated in an interview with i-D journal.
This stance transforms his concert events from mere leisure occasions into potential sanctuaries, and his absence into an act of protest.
Dangerous Bunny has been an outspoken critic of Puerto Rico’s standing as an unincorporated territory, which limits the rights and alternatives of its residents. His activism has centered on supporting the island, the place his 31-day residency generated a $400 million financial impression, in keeping with an estimate from Wells Fargo.
