Artists react to Donald Trump's refugee ban
by Jeremy Mersereau
January 30, 2017
Artists aren't staying silent about Trump's anti-Muslim executive order.
Around the world, people are reacting with outrage and massive protests to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban β sorry, “executive order restricting immigration” β which sent the United States into chaos when it was unveiled over the weekend. According to Trump and his cronies, the executive order targeting immigrants from seven predominantly-Muslim countries for 90 days is a necessary means to curtail “radical Islamic terrorism” from gaining prominence within the U.S, but in practice, the order amounts toΒ state-sponsored xenophobia.
The order has left a confusion and disorder in its wake, and it already appears to be energizing anti-Islamic fanatics everywhere, as Quebec City can attest. All this isn’t even getting into the various moral dimensions of barring travellers, legal residents, and refugees from war-torn areas like Aleppo from entering the US. Yep, the order’s so outrageously bad, even Mike Pence agrees that it’s a terrible idea – the Mike Pence from last year does, anyway.
Of course, it’s not exactly popular with musicians either, who are not traditionally a demographic hostile to outsiders:
Some artists went a bit further than just voicing their opposition to the order: Grimes and Sia both pledged to match donations to the ACLU and CAIR, respectively:
Always on-brand, Win Butler talked about the only child of immigrants his fans get fired up about:
Conspicuously silent: one notable Trump supporter. Expect that to change any second, though.
Tags: Music, News, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna