Pitbull forgets what makes us free is the 1st Amendment right to criticize our country | Opinion
Say it isn’t so, Mr. 305, Mr. Worldwide, master of the hip thrust, currently on tour across the USA.
You didn’t, in a rant at a concert, pay homage to autocracy in a misguided show of what passes these days for American patriotism, did you, Pitbull?
There’s a video of just that making the rounds of social media.
I want to say up front that, despite my best efforts to reach your representatives for additional details and an explanation, I’ve come up empty. The neon blue lights in the background and your dark suit, however, are similar to other videos people have posted of recent performances on your multi-city #IFeelGood tour through places such as Nashville, Phoenix, Kansas City and Utah.
“To whoever the f*** doesn’t like the United States of America, may God bless you, but f*** you at the same time,” you say on stage. “If you don’t like the United States of America, go back to the countries that we the f*** from and see how you appreciate the United States of America.”
Ugh, you got what it means to be an American all wrong.
Ugh, that “go back to the countries” carries the stench of xenophobia.
High on that red heartland schmooze, you seem to forget that the one thing that makes us free is our First Amendment right to criticize our country. That the most American thing in the world is to protest and dissent.
Was it geography that made you say what’s contained in the video clip posted on TikTok, you know, buttering up los americanos? Because right here in Miami, Cuban-American Armando Christian Pérez is all about freedom, inclusion, and roots.
You’re all about the strong, sweet cafecito that makes you “go crazy,” as you told the Herald’s Food Editor, and the pastelitos you open up to eat the meat first. You are, you like to say, from “the good, the bad, and the worse neighborhoods” in the 305. It makes you Pitbull, the man, the legend.
First Amendment keeps us free
You express your gratitude to this country by giving back to the community.
And you’re all about freedom.
I was proud of the video you made calling on people in your world of music, calling on your fans to support the people of Cuba in their bid for libertad during the historic July 11 protests against the totalitarian regime your parents fled from.
Cubans rose bravely against six decades of oppression, bravísimos.
They need our support, and we, Cuban Americans, can’t afford to lose credibility. We do when we ask for freedom for Cuba, yet speak and behave with intolerance of political differences and opinions in the United States.
Why would you want to deny Americans — and the rest of the world, for that matter — the right to criticize the United States? The most patriotic thing you can do as an American is protect freedom of speech, freedom of the press, which holds government institutions accountable to we, the people.
The First Amendment is what keeps us free — and the times we’re living in, when those freedoms are so often under attack, call for standing up and speaking up, not shutting up.
And it is in that same spirit of the foundational principle of free speech that I’m elated to acknowledge that you also have the right to say whatever you want, even if it’s dumb. Even if you curse your heart out, framing with your trademark street cred, the same kind of demagoguery I often hear in email and telephone rants from haters.
First-generation Cuban American
Haters of Cubans. Haters of minorities. Haters of the immigration, the vehicle that brought your beloved parents, abuela, tía to Miami, and allowed you to be born a first-generation Cuban American.
Did you not know that when Cubans began arriving in Miami in large numbers many in the Anglo majority expressed the same sentiments against us that you conveyed in that concert? Did you not know that it doesn’t matter with a certain crowd how much we boast of our gratitude and love for this country for we are seen as interlopers?
I’m gonna tell it like your mami would: Armandito Pérez: It shocked me to hear you spew the same verbiage as the people who hate The Other. And understand this, it wasn’t the barrage of expletives that bothered me. Guilty. Throwing the F-word around can be cathartic, mi hijo. And I’ve read celebrated literature populated with the word.
Your alleged Republican Party affiliation doesn’t bother me either one bit. A two-party system, even one as divisive as ours is right now, ensures checks and balances and safeguards from the excess of both the right and the left.
You’ve never been an extremist or a nativist. In fact, you rejected Donald Trump.
“I think the [Trump’s] campaign is a joke to be honest with you. I think that it’s unfortunate the way we’re being viewed around the world due to some people’s approaches,” you said in 2016, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, where you were honored for your contributions to the music recording industry.
“No I am not supporting Donald Trump,” you insisted. “You all know this already very well.”
So why are you sounding like him in 2021?
Say it ain’t so, Mr. 305 brand ambassador. “¡Dale!”
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
