Logic used his platform at the 2018 Video Music Awards to raise awareness about the current state of America’s immigration policy that has torn thousands of children from their parents in recent months.
As he took the stage on Monday, August 20, at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, hundreds of immigrant children, youth and families joined the rapper, 28, in protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Logic donned a shirt that read,”F—k the wall,” while the children’s said, “We are all human beings.”
The powerful performance included leaders from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, United We Dream and Make the Road New York along with their children. Logic along with the help of those who joined him, performed his song “One Day.”
The production for his VMAs performance included a human-made wall which, when it fell, showed children rush to be reunited with their parents.
A 15-year-old youth leader with United We Dream, Jefferson Arpi, spoke out in a statement following the performance. “I’m so excited to have performed with Logic tonight. It meant a lot to me to be able to represent my family because my dad, Manuel Arpi, is in a detention camp,” Arpi, whose father has been detained for nine months, said. “Logic’s music video showed that even though our families face a lot of pain, we are strong, we are fighters, and we are human.”
The music video for the tune was released on Friday, August 18, and follows the story of an immigrant teenager who was separated at the border from his parents and sibling.
Lizbeth Huitzil, DACA recipient and member of Make the Road NY, also opened up in a statement about what the impactful performance meant to her. “It is inspiring and powerful to see Logic share the stage with immigrants like me to show the real-life struggles we face,” Huitzil said. “Our brothers and sisters are being detained, put in cages, and separated from their families. With tonight’s performance, we are sending a strong message: families belong together and not in cages.”
