Ignoring the fear of Bad Bunny is self-destructive to American Democracy

R ev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Fear is a powerfully creative force. The fear of ignorance leads to education. Every saving invention and every intellectual advance has behind it, as a part of its motivation, the desire to avoid or escape some dreaded thing. So the difficulty of our problem is that we are not to get rid of fear altogether, but we must harness it and master it. Like fire, it is a useful and necessary servant, but a ruinous master. It is fear when it becomes terror, panic, and chronic anxiety that we must seek to eliminate. Of basic importance in mastering fear is the need of getting out in the open, the object of our fear, and frankly facing it. Human life is full of secret fears. A further step in mastering fear is to remember that it always involves the misuse of the imagination”.

American Whites, some consciously, others unconsciously, have created, with no assistance from any other race or ethnicity, a fear trap that is increasingly dominating their logic, politics, and most importantly, their self-awareness. While it’s true this fear conundrum is one of American White’s own design, it’s also true that all other Americans who are not Americans of the white color do great harm to themselves and American democracy, by simply adopting the attitude that since American Whites created the fear trap they are now trapped in its up to them, not other non-white colored Americans, to free themselves of it.

American Whites, most consciously, and others unconsciously, created an American society that dictated that if you were a white colored American with roots from the western European countries of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, or the northern European countries of Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden you were a true American. And if you were a white colored American with roots from the southern European country of Italy or the northern European country of Ireland, you were a second-class American. Eventually, with the passage of time and the assimilation of more and more Italians and Irish into American society, they gained true first-class American status.

All other non-white colored citizens of America, including the first people known to inhabit America, Native Americans, or those with roots from Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Alaska, were considered to be not true Americans of any class. Colored people from America (Native Americans), Africa, and Asia were considered sub-human, with American Whites refusing to recognize any land ownership rights of any land first occupied by light brown colored Native Americans, with deep-brown colored people from Africa legally enslaved in America until 1865 and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution, but then subjected to legal Jim Crow racial discrimination until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And with colored people from Japan, considered to be yellow by American White racist classifications, like people of the Jewish faith in Adolf Hitler’s Germany, being locked up in concentration camps during World War II because of their Japanese ethnicity, despite being legal American citizens.

For the last 250 years, American Whites have outnumbered, as the majority population in America, all American Natives, all American Blacks or all American Africans, all American Hispanics all American Asians, all American Caribbeans, all American Hawaiians, and all American Native Alaskans, meaning all these non-white colored American citizens combined as one population group, have constituted for the last 250 years the minority population in America. They are also the same minority population for the last 250 years that have been traditionally branded by many American Whites as the not-true Americans within American society.

Now, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data, the same American minority population that has shared for the last 250 years the unifying cultural characteristic of being branded as not-true Americans, 19 years from now, 2045, will become the new majority population of America. But based on the same U.S. Census Bureau data, which shows that between 2010 and 2020, the multiracial population in America grew 276 percent, due in part to the fact that American Whites who traditionally have self-identified as racially white are now self-identifying as multiracial, it’s possible the new majority population could emerge at any point from 2035 to 2045.

Since the reality in America has been that those considered to be not-true Americans don’t see themselves reflected in traditional American history, they were forced, with the acceptance and encouragement of American Whites, to create separate and alternative ways within American society to see themselves reflected in American society. Hence, Black History Month (BHM) (February), Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) (September 15 to October 15), and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month (May). This forced creation of alternative ways for those considered to be not true Americans, to see themselves reflected in American society, is beginning to backfire and spook many American Whites, as they see the forced creation take its natural and non-political place in America’s one-person-one-vote-counted majority rule democracy.

Since most deep-brown colored people (American Blacks), not all, who came to America in the 1600s were initially taken hostage in Africa, and forced against their will to come to America as slaves, were intentionally separated from their fellow tribe members upon arrival in America, in an attempt to prevent Africans who shared the same language and culture from organizing with each other to gain their freedom or rebel against white supremacy, or to pass down their language and culture to the next generation, and then were denied the ability to learn to read and write the English language, created a scenario where the offspring of the first generation of slaves had no knowledge of what country in Africa they were captured from, and no knowledge of their native language or culture. So when American Blacks were forced to create Black History Month, they had no choice but to uplift literally only the achievements accomplished by American Blacks in and on American soil that were not acknowledged in America’s history.

Unlike American Blacks, American Hispanics either migrated to America by free will choice or were already living in territories annexed into America. So when American Hispanics, who, like American Blacks, are considered not true Americans, were forced to follow the lead of American Blacks and create Hispanic Heritage Month, they had both the knowledge of and the option to uplift foreign societies that reflect and respect Hispanic humanity. This knowledge of their international culture enables American Hispanics to create and celebrate a history that reflects their identity, since traditional homegrown American history and society will not. That’s why September 15th of Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) uplifts and celebrates the independence days of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. September 16th, Mexico’s independence, Sept. 18th, Chile’s independence, and Sept. 21st, Belize’s independence.

Technically, while these are very noteworthy independence achievements, none of these independence celebrations is a part of American history or American society because none occurred on American soil, but one’s self-esteem, one’s self-respect, and one’s desire for societal norms to reflect one’s self, like flowing water, will seek its own level wherever it can be found. In other words, if American society does not acknowledge one’s Hispanic heritage as true American, then one’s forced alternative Hispanic celebrations and uplift of American Hispanic heritage will include in its celebrations and uplift of American Hispanic history and culture, celebrations and uplift of another foreign society’s history and culture that do acknowledge one’s Hispanic heritage.

This alternative reflection of one’s own American history and culture, by all those considered to be not true Americans, was thought to be a great compromise and a good bargain by many American Whites until now!!! Their thinking was YES, let them create and celebrate their version of fake American history and culture because, as the majority population, we, American Whites, ultimately dictate what’s real American history and culture. Based on the principles of non-racial one-person-one-vote-majority rule and market-driven capitalism, there is both logic and truth in what American Whites thought was a great compromise and a good bargain. The problem now for many American Whites is that, as racial and cultural demographic change in America is starting to occur and American Whites are slowly losing their majority population status, the principles of one-person-one-vote majority rule and market-driven capitalism are also beginning to occur.

For instance, due to market-driven capitalism’s recognition that there will no longer be any racial majority in America’s near future, mixed-race and same sex TV commercials are now commonplace in America, and Hispanic-language TV commercials are no longer limited to airing only on Telemundo or Univision networks; they are now airing on what many American Whites consider English-only mainstream networks. Although many American Whites, for decades, have attended and enjoyed operas performed in European languages they could not understand until technology made subtitles possible, no complaints from American Whites were raised because the foreign language was European; now many of those opera-attending American Whites are offended by a Hispanic-language-only Super Bowl halftime show, because they feel the Hispanic language is the language of those who are not true Americans.

The American advertising community, English-only mainstream TV networks, and the National Football League (NFL) are not in any way putting their fingers on the scale to determine what is or what is not true American culture; they each are simply following the principle of American market-driven capitalism, which is to cater to a new emerging market with the goal of capturing its dollars!!!

This is the fear trap many American Whites find themselves trapped in. For decades, many American Whites have encouraged the creation of what they considered a separate stand alone not true American culture as a way of maintaining what they consider pure, authentic European American culture. Now they are seeing evidence that one-person-one-vote-majority rule and free market-driven capitalism can replace what they consider traditional American culture, with a culture they consider to be not true American culture. They are also confronting the reality that a traditional culture, which has rejected a minority class of people in America’s past and present, that same traditional culture may itself be rejected by the same class of minority people, who become the majority population, in America’s future.

As Dr. King philosophized, “Human life is full of secret fears. A further step in mastering fear is to remember that it always involves the misuse of the imagination”.

In other words, American Whites fear that America’s new population majority of non-white colored citizens will have the one-person-one-vote majority rule political power and the majority population free market-driven economic power, to designate the current culture that many American Whites consider true American, as obsolete, or as racist, or as not inclusive, or as not true American, or as, God forbid, a combination of all the above!!!

All non-white colored Americans, all Democrats, all Independents, and all non-MAGA Republicans who ignore this fear or anxiety, ignore the fear or anxiety that Bad Bunny unfairly and unjustly represents, or brand the fear or anxiety that many American Whites themselves have created as racism, do so at the peril of American democracy and the creation of American autocracy, hence DONALD JOHN TRUMP!!! So far, President Trump is the only political leader addressing the fear or anxiety generated within many American Whites over the coming American population reality, that American Whites will transition from being the majority population in America to being the largest minority population in America.

Unfortunately for the future stability of American democracy or fortunately for the potential creation of future American autocracy, he is only addressing the fear of the 10-15% of American Whites, who have white nationalist Great Replacement Theory racist feelings, about American Whites losing their majority population status. Equally unfortunate for the future stability of American democracy or fortunately for the potential creation of future American autocracy, no other political leader, be they Democrat, Independent, or non-MAGA Republican, is addressing the anxiety or fear of the 90-85% of American Whites, who don’t have racist feelings about population change, and many who voted twice for Barack Obama, making his election as America’s first American Black President a historic fact.

Right or wrong, but more importantly, factually, Bad Bunny performing a segment of America’s most popular sport, a sport created in America by Americans, a sport traditionally played only in America, in a language that most American Whites can’t understand, is a fear or anxiety sign to many American Whites of potential future cultural rejection, potential future cultural retaliation, or potential future cultural replacement by a new definite future cultural majority.

Does this mean Bad Bunny should have performed the Super Bowl halftime show in English? No, it does not!!! But what it does mean, is in an American political environment where legitimate questions are now being raised about how to address and rectify America’s 188 years of past legalized racial, religious, and gender discrimination, before the United States became a true democracy with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, there must be initiatives that allow the many American Whites who do not have racist feelings about population change but are experiencing fear or anxiety over it, to express their fear or anxiety free of racist branding, and there must be initiatives that communicate, to American Whites, that Bad Bunny is simply an addition in and to American society and not a replacement in or of traditional American society. As Dr. King also philosophized, “Of basic importance in mastering fear is the need of getting out in the open, the object of our fear, and frankly facing it”.

Recognizing that foreign languages spoken in America are a racist hot-button issue for MAGA Republicans, President Trump campaigned in 2024, saying, “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language. These are languages; it’s the craziest thing, they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing”. After being sworn in 2025 as President, he signed a non-binding executive order designating English as America’s official language. There are non-racist American Whites who had no problem with, and even enjoyed, this year’s NFL American Hispanic language-only halftime show, but do experience anxiety over what the ramifications may be with the fact that America’s future largest ethnic group, in a one-person-one-vote majority rule nation, will speak a second non-english language.

Democrats, Independents, and non-MAGA Republicans should go one step further than President Trump. They should all sponsor an initiative for the U.S. House and Senate to pass a law making English the official language of America. It would accomplish two important things: 1) In an America that grows more multicultural each day, the English language becomes the common trait easily attainable by all, which binds all Americans, regardless of their cultural heritage, together culturally. 2) It would assure any Americans experiencing anxiety over racial and ethnic population change in America that cultural norms, such as the language Americans speak, would remain the same regardless of what race or ethnicity is in the majority, and regardless of what language a Super Bowl halftime show is performed in.

Another initiative that would unite all of America and reduce anxiety over population change would be to change how Americans refer to themselves. Every day, Americans consciously and unconsciously engage in a practice that consistently erects barriers of separation between American citizens. The barriers of separation are erected by how Americans refer to themselves e.g., Italian American, British American, Polish American, African American or Black American, White American, etc. Putting emphasis consciously and unconsciously on what divides or distinguishes us culturally or racially from one another, first, as opposed to American White, American Italian, American British, American Polish, American Black, or for others, American African. Putting emphasis consciously and unconsciously, first, on the cultural and democratic philosophical commonality that unites all Americans, American citizenship.

3 scientific studies of both American Whites and Canadian Whites, a study of American Whites led by Professor Maureen Craig of Duke University, a study of American Whites led by Professor Amy Krosch of Cornell University, and a study of Canadian Whites led by Professor H. Robert Outten of Trinity College, all concluded and proved that as the white colored population decreases and the non-white colored population increases, it creates great non-racist anxiety among both American Whites and Canadian Whites. All 3 studies demonstrate that the anxiety is not the traditional racial prejudice, of white colored people fearing the end of society because inferior or sub-human non-white colored people are becoming the majority population. Both American studies reveal that the American White anxiety is over how a new non-white colored people majority in America will racially treat the new American White minority population.

Considering the past American 188-year history of the color of one’s skin, the religious faith one believes, one’s gender, and one’s sexual orientation, being the master of one’s fate in America, it makes logical non-racist sense that there would be American White anxiety, or fear, over how losing majority population status in America would impact them as a race and as individuals.

President Trump has run for President three times, and although he lost one of the times, each time he ran for President, his share of American Whites who voted for him increased each time, not decreased, and the vast majority of increased votes came from American Whites who voted for Barack Obama. His campaign messages were racist-simple, “American Whites, I am your protector against racial population change in America, only I am willing to make America great again by keeping America majority white”. Since he was the only one who even attempted to address American White fear or anxiety over population change in America, the non-racist American Whites who once voted for Obama held their nose and voted for Trump.

Democrats, Independents, and non-MAGA Republicans who continue to ignore the fear or anxiety generated by demographic population change in America do so at the peril of American democracy, do so at the potential creation of American autocracy, and do so at their continued loss of national elections.

But unlike President Trump’s politics and policies, which evoke the negative emotional and psychological fear or anxiety of cultural exclusion due to racial and cultural population change. Democrats’, Independents’, and non-MAGA Republicans’ politics and policies must evoke the positive emotional and psychological hope of all cultural inclusion due to racial and cultural population change. Continuing to ignore or denigrate the fear or anxiety Bad Bunny represents will mean increasing numbers of non-racist American Whites, fearing cultural retaliation, cultural rejection, and cultural replacement, will hold their noses, suppress their misgivings over the economy, suppress their misgivings over the mistreatment of law-abiding undocumented immigrants, ignore what they know in their hearts to be un-American, and vote MAGA in 2028 even if when Donald Trump is not on the ballot.

GOING FURTHER

• Public Anticipation of a Majority-Nonwhite Population | PEW RESEARCH CENTER

• Improved Race and Ethnicity Measures Reveal Multiracial Growth | U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

• How Trump Appeals to the Fears of White Voters | THE NEW YORK TIMES

• The 2020 Census and the Fear of a White Minority | THE ATLANTIC

• US Census: White population declines for first time | BBC NEWS

• The US will become minority white in 2045 | BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

• Demographic shifts fuel anxiety among white Americans | REUTERS

Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in Isaac Newton Farris Jr and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 24 February 2026 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.

▪ Cover: Dreamstime/CPenler.