#combines

Shaboozey dedicates his #GRAMMYs award to immigrants during his acceptance speech: “Immigrants built this country, literally. Actually. So this is for them. For all children of immigrants, and for those who came to this country in search of a better opportunity, to be part of a nation that promised freedom for all and equal opportunity for everyone.”

I’m sure he meant no harm but those who corrected to say America’s foundation was built by enslaved Black people are right to do so, especially during #BlackHistoryMonth. I think he may be assuming that slaves were immigrants (unwilling) as well.

Shaboozey’s stage name stems from his actual name, Chibueze. He’s the son of Nigerian immigrants. This is beautiful to witness

Shaboozey, the stage name of Collins Obinna Chibueze, is an American singer, rapper, producer, filmmaker, and writer who blends hip-hop, country, and Americana in his music. Raised in Fairfax, Virginia by Nigerian parents, his stage name is a play on mispronunciations of his last name. 

Shaboozey is a melanated immigrant whose parents chose to come to America. Black Americans are in our homeland; we never fled. We AIN'T the same. We had an ethnogenesis, and we became a new group. Black American slaves who became Freedmen later, built this country. I'm still so very proud of your award but your facts right, and let's not appropriate our culture, or generational plight, our lived experience, and most of all our identity for your gain.

Robert Rauschenberg

Rebus

Combining Efforts

A flag of the Ulster Sots people. It combines the Scottish and Ulster flags and coats of arms.

Happy birthday to Robert Rauschenberg, who was born on this day in 1925. Rauschenberg pioneered the layering of found images using the silkscreen process, which he called “combines,” drawing images from television, adverting, newspaper, and art reproductions.