Inspiring Conversations with Truist Foundation Teammates: Chiquita Board, Raj Borsellino and Sara Manning

This is our glass. On this American life, we look for stories that are surprising. And you won't hear anywhere else. Like, for example, this one astronaut who went to the moon. You know what he's down into? Space. Was it cool to float around weightless? No, no, no. This American life, kind of expected stories, wherever you get your podcasts. Heads up. This episode contains some salty language. Be advised. Los Yentos. Hey, everyone. You're listening to Code Switch from NPR. I'm BA Parker. This past Sunday, Bad Bunny made history at the Grammys, with the first Spanish-speaking album to win album of the year. But it was during his acceptance speech for the Music Karabana category that Bad Bunny did something he doesn't do that often on stage. He spoke to the crowd in English and said, "ice out." We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans. And we are Americans. That alone, says Bad Bunny Scholar, Petra Rivera-Rido, was a conscious political choice. What I think is so important about the speech is that he gave it in English and the choice to make it in English when he knew for certain he had the stage, I think, is really important because he's making that choice to speak to an American audience. And I think it shows not only that he is aware of ice, he's aware of the backlash against him as a superbowl performer. And to me, that was really, really critical. And the fact that it was in English, which is not his preferred language, but it just is so profound to me, that moment. With the acclaim for his album, the B. Tarama's Photos, is two and a half month residency that brought in over $200 million to Puerto Rico's economy and a current role tour that consciously avoids the mainland of the United States. This coming Sunday is a bit of a victory lap. For Bad Bunny is the halftime performer at this year's Super Bowl, and according to Petra, Puerto Rico is pretty excited. One of the things that are doing in Puerto Rico is opening up all the movie theaters to show the halftime show to people for free. That's how big of a deal this is in Puerto Rico. And for fellow scholar Vanessa Diaz, this halftime show is an opportunity to share the importance of Bad Bunny. Well, how cool do we get to watch this with our kids? I would never have my kids watch a football game, honestly, but we're going to watch the halftime show together. I have four-year-old twins, so you know, I think that some of the only things I've ever left in watch on TV have been like, select Bad Bunny performances. I was not clear. Petra and Vanessa are huge fans of Bad Bunny. So much so that, as college professors, they've created a syllabus about his work and his music. The perfect people to help explain the significance of this moment. The resistance spirit in Bad Bunny's work. Or why the sheer fact that Bad Bunny is Latino and singing in Spanish would provoke an alternative halftime show featuring the likes of Kid Rock. So today, we talk about all things Bad Bunny and his upcoming halftime show. How could your favorite MPR podcast get any better? Well, what if it had bonus features such as extended interviews and zero sponsor breaks? There is a remarkably easy way to turn that fantasy into reality. It's called MPR+. You get perks across more than 25 MPR podcasts while supporting the teams that make them. Make great podcasts even greater by visiting plus.npr.org. This week, on Consider This, it's called an AI Spiral. When a person communicating with an AI chatbot loses touch with reality. When I thought I was communicating with the digital God, I got dopamine from every prompt. Artificial intelligence, human consequences. This week, on Consider This, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. On Planet Money, we have covered a lot of topics. 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I spoke with Bad Bunny scholars, Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera-Rido about Bad Bunny as a symbol of resistance. And Vanessa told me that it's just a part of the culture that he's from. Bad Bunny comes out of a long legacy of Puerto Rican music and Puerto Rican art as resistance. And that really comes out of the fact that Puerto Rico has been subject to colonialism for centuries and centuries under Spanish rule and then under U.S. rule since 1898. And so Bad Bunny has experienced his entire life as someone born in Puerto Rico as a subject of direct colonialism. And there have been so many crises in his lifetime that have contributed to the kind of grasping of the gravity of what that means for a people for a culture, for a history. And so I think it's really inevitable then that so much art that comes from Puerto Rico is a form of resistance. And so it's a conscious decision, it's a strategic decision because he knows how he can best reach people. And just to jump back to Petra's point about him taking the stage from Musica Urbana and speaking in English one of the only other times we've seen him speak fully in English in this kind of platform was 2018 on Jimmy Fallon. I was his very first appearance on American television and he said it's been a year since Hurricane Maria, many people don't have electricity, thousands of people have died and Trump is still in denial. And that was at a time where speaking English for him was even harder than it is now, right? He's put in a lot of work to improve his English over the last decade. And that moment was also a turning point in terms of understanding how he was really going to show up for his people because he didn't have to do that. It was a risky move and he knew that the stakes were too high to not say something. Okay, so given that money is kind of a symbol of assistance in the U.S. what do you make of him performing at the Super Bowl this Sunday? Alongside Green Day, no less? Which I think is a great pairing because Green Day is also a band that is committed to like resistance to this system that has produced this colonial relationship with Puerto Fraco. But I think it's great that he's going to be at the Super Bowl. I mean, I think there are many ways in which the NFL needs bad money. More than bad money needs the NFL, right? I mean, the NFL is trying to globalize its audience. It's playing games in Brazil and in Europe. Latinos are also a really fast growing demographic in this country. And I think people don't realize the halftime performer does not make money performing at the halftime show from the NFL. They don't get paid. And so he doesn't have to do this, but he's doing it. And I know that there's a lot of contradictions, right? Like the NFL is not an organization that's known for being particularly progressive. In fact, it is the opposite. The fact that there's all this backlash. That is not surprising that that's happening, but also I think for someone like bad money, it's evidence in some ways that he's doing something right, right? That people are so anxious about him that they're doing this. And I think I'm just really excited to see what's going to happen on Sunday. Yeah. Or having a conversation with some sports reporters earlier. And you know, I think it's interesting this perspective that the NFL tries to stay out of politics. I mean, I think it's actually to the contrary. We obviously know they targeted Colin Kaepernick and dismantled his career more recently. They silenced and fined a Z's al-Shayir for having stopped the genocide taped on his nose. So there have been overtly silencing of protest. And so that is where these kind of contradictions come together and really help you understand the massive, massive popularity of bad money is better than I was saying because they've been very clear. This is a business decision that is aligned with their priorities of expanding their global audience. And so, yeah, some might say like, oh, well, you know, well, then shouldn't we boycott it or shouldn't bad-bunny perhaps not perform because we're in this horrible moment. To me, it's like, well, someone's going to perform the halftime show and I'd rather have it be someone who's going to deliver a message. And I'd rather have someone interrupt what could otherwise be a white nationalist show like the alternative halftime show that's happening. Instead, we have an interjection of contradiction within this space. I think that's the history of the US. That's the story of art as resistance is we have to intervene in these mainstream spaces because that is how we make change. That is how we show the power of resistance. Okay, so this is something, okay, like as a fan of Beyonce, who I will rationalize, all a man of sense when it comes to that lady. I stand Beyonce too. I'm with you. Don't worry, you're gay. Or like, Kendrick Lamar last year, you can love an artist and also criticize them. Like, I think for a lot of fans, there is a question of whether they should be performing, but there are people like including President Trump, who will always be unhappy with bad bunny performing at the Super Bowl because of what he represents. But then there are actual fans who are criticizing someone like bad bunny for playing within the system. Your reality is bad bunny. He is a massive global superstar and he is a mainstream artist. And I think that contrary to what we might think of as a mainstream artist, I think that's part of what makes it difficult for people to grapple with these feelings of like, oh, that this is contradictory. Like, yeah, he has an adidas deal. He has for years. He also does commercials for Ritz crackers and he has this programming with Amazon. And now he's going to be on the Super Bowl. The reality is we're all implicated in these things that are horrible things. My cell phone company, when I order something from Amazon, when I buy anything from basically anywhere, unless it is like 100% handmade from someone who I want to support. We exist within a capitalist system that thrives on inequality, that thrives on exploitation. And we all exist within it. And so I think that any move we make isn't going to be perfect. Bad bunny is not perfect. No strategizing within a capitalist system is going to be perfect. But I think that not using the platform and just walking away from these opportunities to inject his messaging into these massive, massive cultural moments is also a mistake. So is bad bunny an actual voice of resistance or is he just a global megastar? Like, can a superstar actually be a voice of resistance? I mean, I absolutely firmly believe that bad bunny is much, much, much more than just a superstar. And I think that he shows us that constantly and consistently, it is no secret that bad bunny has been active in protest. He abandoned his tour in 2019 to return to Puerto Rico and join the protests on the street and came out with protest songs like "Afilando los Cuchillos" with "Residente en Ile". He made speeches during that time. It is no secret that he has been outspoken against Trump. It is no secret that he has very clearly anti-colonial lyrics that he stands up for LGBTQ rights. And these things, as we've talked about throughout the show, have just gotten more and more pointed over time. These are not requirements for being a global star. In fact, it kind of runs contrary to what we've seen. As most people get more political, they actually suffer. They lose their fame. Artists like "Residente" from Gaye Teresa, his group suffered a great deal because they were outspoken and they got banned from performing in Puerto Rico. We see people suffer as a result of using their voice and that hasn't stopped bad bunny. It has made him be more strategic, more clear, and somehow. I think it's very many reasons, but part of it is that I think that even if he's clear about what he believes, he doesn't attach himself to a party. He doesn't make it sort of ideological in the traditional sense. He's not like "I'm for Puerto Rican independence." He says, "You know, I'm doing what I believe is best for my nation. I want to support my nation. I want a better future for Puerto Rico. I want my kids to be able to be raised here. It's not about a party." And I think he uses this to bring people in who might normally be turned off by like the partisan politics and instead kind of opens the door for possibility. And I think that's something that only a really strategic, really thoughtful person who actually cares very deeply about change and understands that change is slow and imperfect and requires engaging with contradiction. That really that he understands that. And I've been teaching courses about Puerto Rico my whole career and I've been teaching this bad bunny course at Wellesley since 2022 and we just started our semester two weeks ago and I have students coming into my class now whether or not they're Puerto Rican who have an idea that Puerto Rico is part of the United States or somehow a territory of the United States. Five years ago they didn't have my class did not even know that, right? So why are these students knowing that because they're following him and they're curious about what he's talking about. And so I think his presence and his willingness to talk about these things has really made Puerto Rico part of the conversation in really interesting and important ways. A place that really has been neglected by the United States when it doesn't serve the US for a really long time. And so I think there's a difference between saying bad bunny is a voice of Puerto Rican resistance and bad bunny is the voice of Puerto Rican resistance and anything for us, you know, as educators, as parents, as Puerto Ricans and the diaspora, like it's just very neat to have this spokesperson. Vanessa I want to go back to you because earlier you said that being political actually works against celebrities. Do you think that's still the case? There are still artists who, when they speak out, there is also backlash of like stay in your lane, you're not a politician. I think that's a really common thing we have seen people launch at artists or celebrities of all kinds when they have used their platform to speak out. If the person doesn't agree with what the celebrity is saying, they're probably not going to like that they said it. And so you're always running a risk. Anytime you advocate, you're going to piss some people off. I think we saw that in the backlash about bunny. Obviously the people who were against him and who are against him performing at the Super Bowl, I mean, they're mad that he speaks in Spanish. But also, if you look at a lot of the critiques and headlines, it's like, is he going to wear a dress? He dressed in drag in his performance. So it becomes these sort of like larger ideological points of critique that I think political statements can represent, right? He's advocated for trans rights. If you're someone who feels that trans rights is a threat to your cisgender life, then you're going to be angry at this person being a figure who speaks against that. If you believe that U.S. colonialism should be running rampant and we should just be acquiring whatever we want, then you're not going to like that he's speaking against U.S. colonialism. And so I think anytime someone makes a statement, I think it is still a risk. What can bad bunny's performance tell us about the moment we're living in right now in the U.S.? The performance hasn't even happened yet, right? And I think it's already telling us so much and we don't even know what's going to happen. He could just be up there singing party songs all day for all we know we have no idea. I mean, I don't think that's what he's going to do, but it could be, right? I think it says a lot about where we are right now as a country and how we see Spanish, how we see Latinos, how we see immigrants, right? Bad bunny is, again, worth pointing out, all Puerto Rican's have been U.S. citizens since 1917. The reality is he is not an undocumented immigrant in the United States, right? Because he is Puerto Rican. But yet, the fact that people are so upset about him being the halftime performer is really telling of who in this society we think is American. I mean, yesterday, I can't remember who it was, I think it was the New York Times, published this article with interviews with NFL players about what they thought about. Oh, I saw that as New York Times. What was so interesting is every other person who was upset were like, this is an American thing and you can't have him here because he is not American. Bad bunny is much more representative of America than the people they have on this alternative halftime show who is Kid Rock and three country singers, who's names I can't remember. But to me, that alone tells you a lot about where we are as a country. And a lot of people have asked both of us if we think he's going to be political at the halftime show. I mean, his very presence at the halftime show is political. And so I'm really excited to see what happens. And then what will people say after that? Like, how much will these people freak out? I am really excited to see that part too because I think it's not just what he's doing, but also how people are responding to it. So we know, you know, they're saying, oh, the US is a melting pot. Everybody has to come in the right way. But the people who embody American values are white people, you know, so we know now. And the backlash that bad bunny faced very much showed this long standing, you know, trend in American history, which is that Latinos don't belong. They are perpetual foreigners, regardless of where they're born or what their citizenship status is. Part of the backlash was that bad bunny needs to be deported because people don't know that Puerto Ricans are born in a US territory and have American citizenship. So all Latinos are undocumented and interchangeable and not part of the fabric of this country. And so I think this moment is really important to show that Latin music isn't going anywhere. Latinos aren't going anywhere. We're an integral part of the history and the culture of this nation. And, you know, these fear tactics as terrifying as they are, they're not going to stop us. They're not going to quiet us. They're not going to kill our joy because there is resistance in that joy. And so, you know, maybe the world's going to dance. And I think that that dance will also be part of the resistance. And I think that every performance I've ever seen of bad bunny has been incredible, has been thought provoking. And I have no doubt that this is going to be the most watch Super Bowl halftime show in history. Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera-Rudo are the writers of pay fucking area. How bad bunny became the global voice of Puerto Rican Resistance. And that's our show. You can follow us on Instagram and NPR code switch. If email is more your thing, ours is code switch at npr.org and subscribe to the podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcast. You'll also subscribe to the code switch newsletter by going to npr.org/codeswitch newsletter. Just a reminder that signing up for code switch plus is a great way to support our show and public media. And you'll get to listen to every episode sponsor free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org/codeswitch. This episode is produced by Kayla Latamore and Xavier Lopez. It was edited by Dahlia Murtata and a big shout out to the rest of the code switch massive Christina Colle, Jess Kong, Leah Denella, Jean Demby, and Yolanda Sengueini. I'm B.A. Parker. Hi, Jeane. It is hard to get a house. Getting that down payment together? Brutal. You shipped off to Djibouti to afford a down payment for a house? Yes, sir. 100%. On plan of money, the high price of housing, what the Trump administration is trying to do about it, and will it work? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever feel like no matter how many hours of sleep you got, you're still fatigued? We have to be able to differentiate sleep from the different ways that we can rest. On the life kit podcast, the seven types of rest and why each one is important to living a full, healthy life. Listen to the life kit podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. There is a long history of misinformation about autism, from accusations about bad parenting to RFK juniors false allegations that Tylenol has something to do with it, but science is getting closer to truly understanding what drives autism. It looks like there are hundreds of genes that are involved. To find out what the research actually says about autism and what we still don't know, listen to shortwave in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.