Ramtin Arablui

He is a brand.

He is producing sort of

a product and it has a market and it sells.

I don't condemn Benito for being a millionaire.

And, you know, I think that curtails some of the things that he can say and cannot.

Pop culture will not save us.

You know, for me, it's very simple.

Coming from the punk community, kill your idols.

This is a person that is trying to make sense of the life he's living.

We've seen Benito grow in the spotlight.

The point is that he's an artist, that he has contributed a lot of really consequential art, that he's provided the tools to get people excited to think about and learn about Puerto Rico.

But that doesn't make him perfect, and that's also okay.

You know he stands for Puerto Rico, whether you're Puerto Rican or not, you know he stands for that.

And that means something, right?

Because we all have a homeland.

That's it for this week's show.

I'm Randa Abdel-Fattah.

I'm Ramtin Arablui.

And you've been listening to ThruLine from NPR.

This episode was produced by me.