Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, protests swept the U.S. and countries around the world. While people were taking to the streets and social media to say that Black Lives Matter, many reggaeton artists, particularly the genre’s biggest stars, were curiously silent. How do we explain this? Why does a genre born out of Afro-diasporic musical traditions and cultures need a reckoning about race? In this episode, we’ll discuss reggaeton’s past and present to unpack what makes reggaeton Black music and what the genre must do to combat racism, including within its own ranks.
Gata is a Panamanian-American multimedia artist from Boston and the creator of Reggaeton Con La Gata. As a creator her work focuses on reggaeton history, pop culture and sex positivity.
Marisol LeBrón is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latino/a Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance, in Puerto Rico and co-editor of Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm.
Additional Resources
Reggaeton Con La Gata
Why Urbano Artists’ Scarce Comments on the #BLM Movement Are a Problem
Reggaeton needed a racial reckoning. Afro-Latinos are leading it.