US rapper Eminem caused a stir at the Super Bowl final with a kneel during his halftime show appearance. The 49-year-old knelt briefly during the show on Sunday (local time) – a gesture of protest against police violence and discrimination against African Americans.
The rapper performed his hit song “Lose Yourself” before taking his knees, apparently in reference to former NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s protest. He began kneeling before games during the US national anthem in 2016 as a sign of protest against racism and social injustice. The then quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers sparked a political controversy that lasted for years. He has been unemployed in the National Football League (NFL) since 2017.
[Der tägliche Nachrichtenüberblick aus der Hauptstadt: Schon rund 57.000 Leser:innen informieren sich zweimal täglich mit unseren kompakten überregionalen Newslettern. Melden Sie sich jetzt kostenlos hier an.]
Eminem has been successful for more than 20 years – and is also known for provocations. The rapper, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, received a lot of attention on Twitter and in the media for the insert. Some suspected that Eminem took the knee against the will of the organizers. An editor of the US online newspaper “Huffington Post” wrote on Twitter that the NFL had rejected the idea.
The National Football League (NFL) contradicted this account: “We looked at all elements of the show during several rehearsals this week and knew that Eminem would do it,” said a spokesman for the daily newspaper “USA Today”.
The NFL is currently facing criticism for discrimination allegations. US President Joe Biden said before the finals in an interview with broadcaster NBC that the league “is made up of so many black athletes (…) and not enough qualified African American coaches to manage these NFL teams”. Even NFL boss Roger Goodell admitted “that they failed to meet their commitments,” Biden said.
US minorities are poorly represented
Currently, only five coaches out of a total of 32 teams come from a US minority. Only two of them are black – in a league where 70 percent of the players are black. The African-American coach Brian Flores, who was fired by the Miami Dolphins in early January, had therefore sued the NFL and three clubs for discrimination.
Every year, the Super Bowl is not only a major sporting event, but also a huge platform for the advertising industry and one of the biggest stages in the music world. This year, for the first time, the halftime show was all about hip-hop, R&B and rap. In advance, superstar Dr. Dre announced “one of the best halftime shows of all time” and stressed that the focus on rap is long overdue for him. The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl. (dpa / AFP)
–
