Recently, the rapper 21 Savage was been arrested by ICE because he overstayed the visa that he acquired when he came to the US at age seven. Life for many immigrants has always been scary with the possibility of deportation looming over the minds of millions of people and their families, but over the years, it has been even scarier with the new laws in place and the increasing number of people being deported, being detained, and being treated horribly.
When fans found out about 21 Savage’s deportation, they took to Twitter to display their thoughts, opinions, and of course, memes. Not many people on Twitter had any second thoughts about the memes as they favorited and retweeted the funny comments and pictures. However, that completely changed when singer Demi Lovato chimed in.
During the Super Bowl on February 3rd, 2019, Demi Lovato tweeted “So far 21 savage memes have been my favorite part of the Super Bowl” followed by the emoji of the girl shrugging her shoulders. Almost immediately, the singer received major hate and backlash from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Many people jabbed at her with hate comments about drug addiction and her recent overdose incident, which, honestly, was unnecessary.
I am not justifying Demi Lovato or anyone else for laughing at such a horrible situation, but the people who immediately started attacking the singer for laughing at the pictures are hypocrites for attacking her. They are even bigger hypocrites for using her faults and mistakes against her. The memes of 21 Savage in the UK, rapping in a British accent, and writing with a feather were made to be laughed at, shared, retweeted, and liked. Were the memes not supposed to be seen by Demi, any other celebrity, or maybe a certain group of people? Is there a reason why all of a sudden it was an issue when she mentioned it? And why so many people chose to attack her instead of the creators of the memes?
We live in a culture where people pick and choose who to “cancel” and who gets special treatment because of who they are. It wasn’t a problem that 21 Savage lied and made millions of people believe that he was from Atlanta to help his music career. The fact that he was detained and faces possible deportment didn’t seem as important to people either. However, it was wrong for Demi to use a popular platform and participate in a trend that thousands of people were participating in. If Demi Lovato was wrong for laughing at memes, not the situation, so was everyone else who made a meme, retweeted a meme, liked a meme, and laughed at a meme about 21 Savage and his U.K. roots.