Earlier this month, we all had a good laugh and did a few eye rolls when pop star Billie Eilish used her Grammy acceptance speech to exclaim that "no one is illegal on stolen land" and then went back to hang out at her multimillion-dollar home in Malibu.
Not only was it stupid, but it was hypocritical. The United States has been quite good to Eilish. Maybe show some gratitude instead of acting like a privileged walking leftist meme.
She also said the super original "f*** ICE" during her speech. My theory on that is that if you have a problem with immigration laws, that's your prerogative. There are a lot of laws I don't agree with either, and I'm sure that's something that applies to every voter in the United States. But what I don't understand is going after the men and women who are simply doing their jobs of enforcing immigration or any other laws. They're just trying to earn a living.
Go after the politicians who created the rules instead. Work to get them changed. Work with organizations that help immigrants. Do... something.
Standing on a stage saying "f*** ICE" to impress your millionaire friends is just boring virtue signalling — applause bait, if you will.
A few days ago, another young pop star, Camila Cabello, who is, admittedly, also anti-ICE and has spoken out against enforcing immigration laws in the past, made a public statement, as well. But her statement wasn't performative. It was rooted in facts and personal experience, not just some bandwagon, and it actually ended with a call to do something legitimate to help.
Cabello, who is 28 years old now, was born in Havana, and she came to the United States with her mom when she was just seven. Her father later joined them when he was able to get a visa, and they settled in Florida, both parents working several jobs to start a new life for their daughter.
Here's what she posted to her social media on Friday:
There is so much going on here at home and so much I can say about the heartbreaking things the immigrant community is experiencing here in the US. I also feel a personal responsibility to speak about what’s happening in Cuba, I still have family on the island that we speak to and send medicine, food and clothes to.
It has been 67 years of a failing dictatorship and an oppressive regime. The Cuban people are suffering in an echo chamber where no one can hear them because to speak is to risk your life. Many people are starving, looking for food in trash heaps, and the only way to survive is having relatives ship you boxes of medicine because not even the hospitals have medicine.
The power is gone for so long that food spoils and water becomes scarce . When people have peacefully protested, they have disappeared or been put behind bars, some as young as 13 years old. This is a reality where a post online costs you your life. The Cuban people have lived without dignity and without hope for too long. It’s no wonder so many Cubans have thrown themselves into shark infested waters, making boats out of tires and sticks and risking their lives for freedom.
They are now in the midst of a profound humanitarian crisis. If you want to help and don’t know how, check the link in my story to support Caritas Cuba and their work. If you’re able to give, any donation makes a difference.
Ultimately, I don't know much about either of these young pop stars — that's not really my music — but Cabello actually impressed me with her willingness to speak out about this.
It wasn't popular with many people. She got some nasty blowback online from fans and even other so-called celebrities who tried to white-leftist-splain (can we make that a term?) that the reason Cuba is in such bad shape is because of the longstanding U.S. embargo and the more recent efforts to block the county from receiving oil, which are just lefist talking points that have been disproven time and time again.
She put herself at risk. She put her career at risk. She literally put her money where her mouth is. Making a public statement against a dictatorship, especially when you have a huge voice, can do that. But she knew that the situation in Cuba was so dire for so many that she couldn't look away.
Eilish, who was born in Los Angeles, probably forgot she even made that speech and has moved on to the next trendy thing.
What Cabello did is real activism, and even if we never agree on another topic (and based on all I've read, we probably won't), I have major respect for it.
