Even Bad Bunny can’t make Gavin Newsom’s diversity messaging look genuine | Opinion

When Bad Bunny captivated the world at the Grammy Awards, taking home the big prize for album of the year, it turned out to be the perfect moment for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to make the moment about himself.

In an Instagram post on his account, Newsom can be seen entering a taqueria to shop for Mexican pastries, or “pan dulce.” Then you see him greeting workers and customers, some of whom hug Newsom with great affection bordering on awe. He even picks out a few pastries from a clear case to eat. The exact name and location of the taqueria is not identified. It may have been on Newsom’s swing through Southern California this week.

But we know that his with-the-people moment was accompanied on Instagram by Bad Bunny’s song DtMF.

“California’s diversity is what makes our communities strong,” read the caption for the video. “Thank you for proving this true time and time again.”

Newsom’s curated vision of diversity is good theater and many commenters on the cagovernor Instagram account liked what they saw. “Brilliant, honest, brave, human. The Best!,” one commenter wrote.

But, in reality, Newsom has sometimes been an unreliable friend to California Latinos. Or rather, he’s been a friend until such time that he wasn’t. It was Newsom who approved cuts and some restrictions to Medi-Cal access.

In January, the changes went into effect, prohibiting new enrollment of undocumented immigrants in Medi-Cal. Adults 19 to 59 who are already enrolled will have to pay a new $30 monthly premium starting in 2027. The state will eliminate dental care coverage for undocumented adults and other noncitizens in July 2026.

“We are positioned with this budget to be able to deliver on what we’ve been promoting: universal health care for all,” Newsom said in 2022 when he first proposed that undocumented immigrants to receive Medi-Cal insurance. “I’m proud to be here — I hope we see this replicated across the country.”

Diversity is not enough

It’s understandable that painful cuts accompany lean budget years, but Newsom cut something he had fervently supported for years. Meanwhile, Newsom opposes a billionaire tax, which would be a wise idea to keep from having to cut health care for undocumented immigrants.

California’s most vulnerable are treated as political props for Newsom, not priorities. The state hardly needs another savior in a bespoke suit. In 2021, Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed farmworkers to vote by mail in union elections. A year later, Newsom had to be hounded into supporting a vote-by-mail bill for farmworkers by state union leaders and former President Joe Biden.

“‘Affordability’ and the cost of living were by far and away the most intense priority for Latinos,” wrote Mike Madrid, a Sacramento-based expert on Latino voting patterns and a special correspondent for The Bee.

Newsom’s brand of diversity is performative—a photo op at a Latino bakery, a handshake for the cameras — and it’s not enough to reverse a rightward swing in Latino voters, even in California.

Newsom thinks this centrist strategy of balancing progressive commitments with conservative fiscal responsibility will be the key to his presidential campaign. What he fails to see is that such a strategy risks alienating the very communities whose support he courts, revealing the hollowness at the core of his political brand.

Diversity is but numbers on a piece of paper—percentages that show you how many people of a certain race make up a community or city. Equity goes a step further and sees the humans that make up these numbers, the Latino father of three who works overtime to make sure his children will have a good life or the Black mother who receives food stamps to keep food on the table.

Each decision that Newsom and the California Legislature make affect their lives and can even be the difference between having health care and not.

Newsom’s willingness to sacrifice immigrant health care in the name of budget balancing exposes the brittle limits of his convictions. A promise made to California’s undocumented communities is not a campaign slogan or a fleeting gesture for social media; it is a commitment that demands honor.

When leaders break that promise, their photo ops become not just tone-deaf, but deeply cynical, reminding us that representation without justice is merely a well-lit illusion.

Not even Bad Bunny can’t fix that.