Tyler, The Creator, Macklemore and Vic Mensa among artists opposing ICE
Tyler, the Creator, Macklemore and Vic Mensa are among a growing list of prominent musicians to speak out against the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The rappers have each taken to social media to address ICE’s immigration crackdown in the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two people were shot and killed by ICE agents earlier this month. Widespread protests have broken out in response to the killings.
Activists are now calling for a nationwide general strike to take place tomorrow, January 30, in protest against ICE operations. The planned action is perceived as an extension of a strike that took place in Minnesota last week, on January 23.
Chicago rapper Mensa, who has been present at protests in Minneapolis, took to Instagram on Tuesday to encourage participation in tomorrow’s planned nationwide strike. The action, he declared, is “the only tool we really have to fight back against ICE terror.”
Macklemore echoed Mensa’s sentiment on Wednesday, also calling on his followers to participate in Friday’s planned nationwide strike. The ‘Thrift Shop’ star’s post drew a connection between recent events in Minneapolis and those taking place in Gaza, where the Israeli military has continued to conduct military operations despite the imposition of a ceasefire agreement last October.
“Gaza and Minneapolis are not separate stories,” Macklemore posted. “They operate through the same machinery that treats people as disposable and calls it order. Different places, the same architecture of harm. Property protected, always stolen. Profit prioritized. Violence justified.”
Declaring that, throughout history, systems of oppression have changed only when “the oppressor is exposed and people stop cooperating,” Macklemore encouraged his followers to withhold their labour.
“No system built on violence has ever been undone by reform,” he posted. “It ends when people stop sustaining it.”
Tyler, The Creator, meanwhile, took to Instagram Stories on Tuesday to post a scene from the 2002 film Paid in Full, in which the phrase “fuck Ice” is used. He had previously uploaded this same scene last June, apparently in support of anti-ICE protests taking place in Los Angeles at the time.
Tyler, the Creator, Macklemore and Vic Mensa are part of a wider chorus of prominent musicians speaking out against ICE’s violent immigration crackdown. Others include Billie Eilish, Bruce Springsteen and Olivia Rodrigo.