As the most-watched halftime show of all time—one that exclusively featured Black performers—Kendrick Lamar’s historic performance during Super Bowl LIX was bound to draw some complaints.
But according to a Federal Communications Commission response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from WIRED, the single biggest source of anger was not about the performance itself. It was that there were not enough white people on stage.
“I think that it’s racist that there aren’t any white people in this event,” one complainant wrote. Another from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, added: “There’s something wrong when you can’t even put white people on with talent.”
In response to WIRED’s FOIA request, the FCC published 125 complaints sent to the agency from some of the more than 133 million people watching. Some complained about the “vulgar” and “obscene” language uses, others focused on their inability to understand “this rap crap,” and some asked why Madonna or Eminem weren’t performing. Despite its detractors, Lamar’s performance was widely considered a cultural feat, coming just a few days after he won five Grammys for the Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
But dozens of complainants were open in their beliefs that featuring the all-Black ensemble at halftime was racist against white people, in a bizarre twist on the wider culture war over diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI).
For years, right-wing politicians and personalities have been loudly blaming DEI policies for everything from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump to doors falling off planes and bridges collapsing. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump claimed “there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country.” His administration has since cracked down heavily on DEI policies at both public and private institutions.
Some of the initial online backlash to Lamar’s February performance accused the entire show of being a form of DEI. But the FCC complaints suggest that some Super Bowl viewers feel white people should have been beneficiaries of more diversity.
“No diversity (white, Latin, Native American, etc.) but it seems the black community got their spotlight,” one viewer from Clovis, California, wrote to the FCC. Another complainant alleges the lack of white people was somehow a throwback to a previous era, as if there was another period in history when only Black people performed at Super Bowl halftime shows. “The absence of representation from other races takes us back in time,” a complainant from Monee, Illinois, wrote.
Many complainants completely missed what critics said was the point of the show, which was to highlight the struggle of Black artists to achieve proper representation while seeing their art, talent, and culture appropriated by others.
Part of Lamar’s message was delivered by actor Samuel L. Jackson, who played the character of Uncle Sam, but this appeared to be too much for some people. “Why was Uncle Sam Black when Uncle Sam is white,” a viewer from Daytona Beach, Florida, complained while appearing to suggest that Uncle Sam was an actual historical character rather than a symbol of military propaganda. “Racist and anti-white NFL show,” another angry viewer wrote. “Samuel Jackson as Uncle Sam mocked white people.”
Others attempted to thinly mask their racist comments by using dog whistles, describing the show as “very ghetto” and “low life trash.”
The controversy over Lamar’s performance highlights the hypocrisy around the DEI backlash; experts say the term has come to serve as a modern-day slur wielded against people of color, while at the same time, the people offended by it see themselves as being victims of a lack of diversity.
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