When Bad Bunny took the Super Bowl stage, millions of Americans were captivated, and millions more were confused, even outraged.
Why was a Spanish-language artist performing on the grandest stage in American entertainment?
The backlash was swift, loud, and deeply revealing. And I’m not talking about Bad Bunny. I’m talking about us.
It was a window into America’s dangerous, self-satisfied cultural insularity, and our collective refusal to reckon with it.
Before unpacking that small-mindedness, the historical fact deserves to be stated plainly. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Bad Bunny, born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, is as American as anyone watching from a couch in the Bronx or Miami. The outrage directed at his performance wasn’t just culturally tone-deaf; it was historically illiterate. And that illiteracy is exactly the problem.
Americans, as a group, do not know what we do not know. We have long operated under the comfortable mythology of American exceptionalism, the belief that our way of life, our language, and our values are not just dominant but inherently superior. For decades, that mythology allowed us to disengage from the rest of the world without apparent consequence, and those days are over.
Americans often fare poorly in international studies and surveys on geography and current events, typically scoring lower than those from other nations. A significant number of Americans cannot accurately identify major countries on a map or discuss their histories, cultures, or contributions to global affairs. This lack of awareness contributes to difficulties in understanding the reasons behind foreign discontent toward the U.S., despite minimal effort to investigate these sentiments.
America remains stubbornly, proudly monolingual at a time when global business, diplomacy, and human connection increasingly demand the opposite. When I travel to Europe or Africa, being multilingual is the norm, not the exception. It is a competitive advantage that American children are largely being denied.
Our entertainment industry, long celebrated as America’s greatest cultural export, is now functioning more like a mirror than a window. Rather than introducing American audiences to the richness of global culture, it reflects our own provincial expectations back to us. The backlash to a global superstar singing in his native language, at an event watched by hundreds of millions, says everything about how narrow that mirror has become.
This is no longer just embarrassing. It is a liability. I mean, did you see that sad clip of journalist Megyn Kelly about Bad Bunny’s performance? It pretty much sums up what I’m saying here. Diplomatic relationships suffer when leaders and citizens alike lack the cultural fluency to engage meaningfully with the world. Businesses lose ground when their workforce cannot navigate global markets. National security is compromised when we fail to understand the motivations, histories, and grievances of nations we interact with.
The solution is not complicated, though it does require intention. Travel abroad when possible, and seek out cultures genuinely different from your own. Research cultural immersion programs and language tours that make this accessible. If international travel isn’t an option, explore the neighborhoods like Miami’s Little Havana, New York’s Chinatown, and dozens of other enclaves that offer authentic cultural exchange without a passport.
Learn another language. Read deeply on foreign affairs, history, and international perspectives. And critically, diversify your news sources. Some media organizations cover international stories poorly, leaving audiences uninformed about a world that directly shapes their lives.
