The Juice Box

If you haven’t seen the recent Super Bowl LX Bad Bunny halftime show you just might be the last person on earth who hasn’t. A massive celebration of joy, love, and multiculturalism took center stage this past Sunday as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, performed a medley of entirely Spanish songs for 13 minutes which has made a lasting impression. I watched the game and performance with friends in my small college campus apartment on our small TV and never in my life had I been more moved by something so big and known in that moment I had witnessed history. All the flags of the North and South American continent flew wildly behind Bad Bunny as a landscape of beautiful diverse bodies cascaded down the field, dancing in complete bliss and unadulterated joy as the song “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” closes out the show. An incredibly memorable moment from the performance that stood out to me was during a wedding party on stage, while the camera pans around to a newly marries couple and rejoicing dancers, the Bunny goes to a small child sleeping on chairs and gently wakes him up like a cherished uncle, encouraging him to join the fun. It stood out to me because it was an image that so clearly resonated with me as I have lived that and also witnessed it. The young child whose parents stay all night dancing and spending time with family as they slowly drift off, unnoticeable to the others. When I discussed the performance with my other friends of color, they pointed out a similar experience of remembering this exact moment in the performance with the same nostalgia and happiness I did.

“Brown-ness” is a term I have been thinking about a lot since the super bowl Sunday halftime show. There is so much more that connects “brown people” across the states than just being minorities in this country (a term I vehemently despise). From the child sleeping on chairs, to the cookie tin filled with sewing needles and thread, we as a “collective” of brown identifying bodies share so much in common but so many of us struggle to mend broken connections or look at each other as reflections rather than lesser versions. In the south asian communities I have often seen, specially older generations, harbor racist ideologies towards other ethnicities who more or less look just like them but there is always some sort of flaw. “They’re too dark”, “they’re indecent”, “no sense of civility”. I couldn’t help but think if those people would think the same things right back at us. Except both parties are saying all this while sitting in plastic white chairs, surrounded by loud music, having tea, and discussing it all over some meal that definitely involves rice. The great starchy cultural connector. On the completely innocuous app, Twitter, currently known as *redacted, this image of something called “The Latina Belt” has resurfaced since Sunday. It is an image that highlights all the countries that “are Latina” and includes North Africa, Pakistan, India, the Philippines and others. It is a funny tweet for sure but also a beautiful image that speaks to this connectivity brown people share across the world.

In this current state of hate and racism in the US, Bad Bunny’s halftime show protects joy and celebrates diversity in a bold move of protest in a time when joy feels like a scarce resource. He is a role model for those around him and people like me who want to represent their culture and identity on a global stage unabashedly, proudly, and with a smirk on their face. The performance was the first time in a long time I felt proud to call myself an American and walk outside my door knowing there are people in the world who listen to the voices of the people in this country and bring them to the front of the room. Benito, you are exactly who you think you are.

Go Hawks.