America Has Never Been One Culture

America has never been one culture, one language, or one people. It has always been a country wrestling with difference, and deciding, again and again, whether to expand dignity or retreat into fear.

The controversy surrounding the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show did not emerge overnight, and it did not begin with the music. For months before the game, the performance became a proxy for something far larger. It was about identity, belonging, and an increasingly vocal discomfort with Americans whose culture, language, or heritage does not resemble a narrow, traditional image of who America is supposed to be.

The Backlash Started Long Before Kickoff

Well before the Super Bowl, conservative commentators and organizations began criticizing the NFL’s choice of halftime performer. Turning Point USA promoted an alternative broadcast, urging viewers to skip the official halftime show in favor of what it framed as a more American cultural experience. The criticism was not focused on production value or musical taste. It centered on identity.

The performer was labeled by some as un-American because he is Puerto Rican and because English is not his first language. That framing spread weeks in advance, long before the performance could be evaluated on its merits.

This matters. When backlash is organized before a performance occurs, the issue is not the show. It is what the show represents.

Puerto Rico and Citizenship Are Not Up for Debate

Puerto Rico has been part of the United States since 1898. People born in Puerto Rico are United States Citizens. They hold American passports. Birthright Citizenship applies there because Puerto Rico is America.

Puerto Rico is one of five unincorporated U.S. territories. That status limits political representation, an issue long criticized across the political spectrum. But it does not make Puerto Ricans immigrants, foreigners, or outsiders. They are Americans as a matter of law.

Calling a Puerto Rican artist un-American is not a cultural critique. It is factually wrong.

Language Became the Stand-In

Language played a visible role in the backlash, but it was never the whole story.

In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order designating English as the official language of the United States, the first such federal recognition in the nation’s history. That order did not eliminate multilingual life in America, nor could it. It was symbolic, not descriptive.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, approximately 14 Percent of Americans Speak Spanish. That is tens of millions of citizens. Spanish is not a foreign intrusion. It has been spoken across large parts of what is now the United States long before English arrived. Place names, legal traditions, and regional cultures throughout the Southwest reflect that history.

At a pre-Super Bowl press conference, Bad Bunny addressed the language controversy directly, stating: "English is not my first language. But it's okay, it's not America's first language either."

He was right. America has never had a single first language because it has never been singular.

Language in this controversy functioned less as a concern and more as a symbol. It became a way to express discomfort with people who do not fit a familiar cultural mold.

The Deeper Current Beneath the Controversy

This controversy did not arise in isolation. It unfolded during a period of heightened national tension around immigration, deportation, and federal enforcement. In that climate, cultural difference is increasingly treated as threat rather than fact.

America has a long and deeply troubling history of racism and slavery. Slavery, segregation, and laws that dehumanized people based on race were not accidents. They were deliberate systems enforced through violence, exploitation, and exclusion. People who did not fit an image some idealized as European and English-speaking were often brutalized, denied rights, and dehumanized.

That history is real. It is not erased by progress. But it also does not define the end of the story.

America has also always been a place of cultural mixing. The U.S. Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship. Anyone born on American soil is American, regardless of language, race, or heritage. That principle reflects an understanding that this country would be diverse, and that belonging would be grounded in law, not bloodline.

Those two realities have always existed side by side. Progress has never been automatic. It has required confrontation, expansion of rights, and an insistence that dignity applies broadly, not selectively.

What the Halftime Show Reflected

The halftime show did not introduce something foreign into American culture. It reflected an America that already exists.

The performance celebrated Puerto Rican identity, Latin music, and shared humanity. To some viewers, that felt unfamiliar. To others, it felt like recognition. The discomfort some expressed was not really about music. It was about visibility.

When cultural expression by non-white, non-English-first Americans is treated as suspicious or un-American, the issue is not tradition. It is exclusion.

Where We Go From Here

America is made up of many cultures, ethnicities, and languages. That has always been true.

Our history includes horrifying chapters of racism and brutality, but it also includes real progress. Rights have expanded. Equality has widened. Voices once silenced are now heard. That progress is not guaranteed to continue. It requires choice.

We can move forward by accepting that American identity is broad, complex, and shared. Or we can regress into fear, resentment, and a narrowing definition of who belongs.

Citizens are citizens, regardless of language or heritage. People deserve dignity. Respect is not a concession. It is a baseline.

At the end of the day, we are all living together in this country. We all want safety, opportunity, and a future worth passing on. The choice is whether we meet difference with understanding or with hate.

History shows which path leads somewhere better.

Author’s note: Brandon Harmony is a Columbus Criminal Defense and Estate Planning attorney. More information is available at Harmony-Law.com