The NFL recently announced that Bad Bunny would be doing the Super Bowl halftime show this season. It hasn't even happened yet, and it's landing with certain white people about as well as last season's show with Kendrick Lamar. The response to that was gross because there was a theme that implied people of color should just play their sportsball and sing their songs and entertain us. Gross.
Some faction that is essentially composed of white nationalists declared that they should have their own substitute halftime show, with someone who is "truly Christian, American." I couldn't tell you how football became political, or a magnet for racism, especially given the fact that three-fourths of the players are not white. It builds on last year's ick factor. This year, I'm not sure what they're even talking about, since Bad Bunny is apparently Catholic, and certainly American, being born in Puerto Rico. He just happens to rap in Spanish. He's not my thing, but I don't expect every bit of art to be for me.
A central tenet of fascism is to declare that minorities or other people not conforming to whatever doesn't scare them are less authentic to whatever nation they're talking about. Considering this country was founded and built by immigrants, many of whom were slaves, it seems like an historically poor choice to be ranking who is more "American." Even if you could make a case for religion as core to the nation's identity, which you can't because it's right there in the Constitution, it's also laughable that you could make any claim in the name of Christ, who was a leftist brown person in an occupied territory whose teachings were the opposite of everything these racist folks seem to stand for. (If you doubt that, or want to call out people don't get it, I encourage you to read Separation of Church and Hate.)
The hate and bigotry is bad enough, but this phenomenon is also another indication that American citizens suck at civics. They don't understand their own country or what it's supposed to stand for. It's not just that it elected a felon and conman, it's that they don't understand the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, how laws are made, how the courts work, etc. When I was on my HOA board, I couldn't believe that people didn't even know what municipal jurisdiction they lived in. Most recently one didn't even know if they had gas or electric (do you pay a gas company?). Being patriotic apparently involves being willfully ignorant, which is another tenet of fascism, along with going after free speech, attempting to regulate higher education and attempting to prosecute your political enemies.
There are good reasons to feel dread about all of this, for sure. But history shows that things inevitably turn around when bigotry and wealth inequality start to reach a limit. And when minorities collectively become the majority, some time in the next 15-ish years, do you want to have left a trail on social media that you were on team bigot? All of the silly "woke" accusations in the world aren't going to excuse you from that. The Internet tends to not forget. I mean, look at all of the social media posts by current officials saying things that completely contradict what they're doing now.
Enjoy your sportsball.
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