My go-to meme when absurdity melts my brain is “Blink Kid” – a school photo turned GIF in which a smirking boy blinks slowly, like, Really?
That’s been my face all week watching the cultural meltdown over the NFL announcing Latino singer Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl LX halftime performer.
If you missed it, conservative America is acting like this is a desecration of … what, exactly? A football game that’s already an over-inflated spectacle? We’re talking about 20 minutes of entertainment you can ignore while refilling nachos or hitting the john.
The outrage makes it sound like this is happening at Arlington National Cemetery, funded by taxpayers. Spoiler: it’s not.
Name one Bad Bunny song. I can’t – and I’m fairly up on current music, thanks to my kids and satellite radio. Even if you can, most Americans wouldn’t understand the lyrics because he sings in Spanish.
He’s from Puerto Rico – a U.S. territory, though you wouldn’t know it from some of the commentary. Civics update: Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
Bad Bunny is also unapologetically himself – sometimes in skirts, sometimes pushing cultural boundaries. His last world tour had only one U.S. stop because he worried about ICE deportation raids at his concerts. That’s solidarity, not scandal.
And let’s be honest, the skirts aren’t the issue. David Bowie, Tim Curry, RuPaul – gender nonconforming artists have been part of American pop culture for at least half a century. This outrage is about two things: anti-diversity sentiment and distraction.
Why talk about a historic government shutdown when you can rage about a brown artist “threatening” American exceptionalism during a football game? Or when the national spotlight can be redirected from real problems – like the military occupying major U.S. cities?
I mean for goodness’s sake! Why isn’t the national media talking about the massive corn dog recall because wood splinters are in the batter? That seems like a more pressing threat to the American way of life.
Cue the Blink Kid. C’mon – America’s problems aren’t caused by halftime shows. If you’re steamed because a talking head told you to be, here’s a question: Who performed last year?
Answer: the Black rapper Kendrick Lamar. He faced the same “collapse of America” predictions. He put on an epic red, white, and blue stage show with a nontraditional narrative. America survived. So did you.
Maybe it’s time to stop letting outrage be our national pastime. Blink Kid suggests we take a breath and let it go. America’s fine – let’s save our anger for something that actually matters.