21 Savage is an American.
He is a British-born American. He’s a TCK, a Dreamer, an Ex-Pat. He is a bi-cultural person, and because of this upbringing, he is essence of America.
While the memes surrounding the deportation were enjoyable to a certain extent, for me, that slight enjoyment was overshadowed by disappointment. Don’t get me wrong; I understand that he was unlawfully in the US and needed to be deported, and he probably should have filed for DACA. What I don’t understand, though, is the “hunt down immigrants” agenda that has been growing ever since Donald Trump began his reign. Risks of deportation are much larger since Trump’s presidency started, DACA recipients are constantly anxious that they’ll loose the place in which they’ve grown up, and immigration lawyers have had an insanely difficult time helping their clients.
What I also found disappointing was that people were claiming that 21 Savage is not actually American just because he was born in the UK. My belief is that nationalities are not mutually exclusive, and because Savage had lived in the US since the first grade and raps about being an Atlantan in his music, he is in fact an American.
The mentality some people have about immigrants is gross and ridiculous. For example, in an interview with ABC News, 21 Savage said that the officials who pulled him over had said, “We got Savage,” a sentence that sent shivers up my spine.
I see it everywhere, and it is a toxic mentality to bicultural people who may already feel somewhat claustrophobic or as though they are being pushed into a particular view of themselves, perhaps due to what their parents believe themselves to be/what people around them say they must be. Being more than one “thing” is fine; people are not little figurines that you can sort and categorize, and your exact cultural belonging isn’t even something you need to display to other people at all.
A while ago, I saw a tweet that went something along the lines of, “When people say, ‘My parents are African and I’m British,’” accompanied by an GIF of a man rolling his eyes in disdain. The tweet had quite a lot of likes, and the comments were all in agreement, with most people saying something to the effect of “ugh, I hate when people say this.” Of course, this was more specifically discussing black identity and the experience of becoming British, not American, which are both things I am not able to comment on. However, this tweet still displays this same awkward mentality of “no one can ever change,” and I believe having too much of a concrete, general view such as this is problematic. When considering each person, you have to think flexibly and holistically, which is why you cannot define a person by where they were born or by what nationality their parents are.
The fact that other people are irritated when a young person says, having come to terms with who they think they are, “I am this, but my parents are that” is crazy to me. Why does everything have to be this or that? 21 Savage is not only British, but he is American, too — if he wishes to identify as an American hailing from Atlanta, then that is exactly what he is.
Piers Morgan, someone who everyone should try to talk about as infrequently as humanly possible, once tweeted: “Watching John Oliver repeatedly say ‘we’ & ‘us’ when discussing America is comical. Mate, you were born in the Midlands to a pair of Liverpudlian parents & speak in a thick Brummie accent. You’re about as American as cricket & mushy peas, you shameless old fraud!”
This was followed by a beautiful reply from Nish Kumar, whose calmness completely juxtaposed Morgan’s irrationality:
“My parents weren’t born here. Sometimes they say “we” and “us” when discussing this country. Next time they do, I’m going to absolutely slam the old frauds. Great tip Piers.”
Kumar’s right: Piers Morgan’s way of thinking is terribly concrete and fails to be at all considerate of people’s individual situations. To think that you maintain the same human being with the same identity throughout your entire life is absurd. Identity does, in fact, have plasticity , and John Oliver is entitled to feel a part of America after being a resident for years — especially as all Americans are immigrants.
21 Savage is not a fraud just because he had a malleable identity growing up. 21 Savage can be both, he can be many, and he can be anything — he is not a fraud, he is a human.
which forced me to think about a few things: aren’t you from the place you grew up? Doesn’t the place you spent your childhood have the greatest effect on you? Does identity have plasticity?
