Shia LaBeouf – aka Louis Stevens – aka the rap-game Sam Witwicky is tallying W’s in the younger, more progressive sphere of our nation right now.
The Half Ashkenazi Jew, half French-Cajun actor was arrested in January for an alleged assault against a protestor of his anti-Trump art exhibit in Queens, New York. This wasn’t his first time in cuffs, but his supporters were eager to show their solidarity with his fiery call for inclusiveness, creating the hashtag #FreeShia just after he was picked up during the live stream. And three hours later… #ShiaIsFree.
A week earlier, footage of an unidentified 25-year-old white male calmly saying the number “14” into a lens as part of a performance piece went viral. It was benign to most watching, but the term fourteen is a word mantra conceived by David Lane, a known white nationalist tied to the terror group, The Order and is a lesser-known call to white nationalism: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Shia wasn’t having it. The Fury star got wild, switching between a laser-like glare and intense bucking – crashing into the man, shouting “he will not divide us” eight times into his ear as they exchanged ornery chest-bumps and roundabouts to the tune of giggling protestors. NYPD eventually squashed the beef before it could escalate further.
Aside from beasting on white supremacists, the actor/activist can seriously finesse a track. So much so, hip hop icon, Sway, crowned him the “number one emcee in Hollywood” after going in on his Five Fingers of Death freestyle at Shade 45's Sway in the Morning.
Reviving Dave Chappelle’s character “Tom” from season two’s “Racial Draft”; it’s safe to say a few delegations would gladly take Shia in. Lyrical prowess and literal screams for racial unity in the face of bigotry practically signs the adoption papers themselves to those reaching for celebrities using their platform as solidarity against white supremacy.
On the other spectrum of that race draft, Lil Wayne is first on the chopping block. Mr. Carter did an interview with ABC’s “Nightline” last year and was asked his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement, to which he responded: "I don't feel connected to a damn thing that ain't got
"I don't feel connected to a damn thing that ain't got nothin' to do with me,” Wayne snapped at the reporter. “My life matter, especially to my bi***es.” This about-face was surprising given his rant onstage promoting BLM just a few months prior. His response predictably rippled throughout the web.
Weezy has since apologized, pleasing some fans, but others decided to pull the cards of black artists who’ve become fixated on being the next “young, rich motherf***er” while remaining neutral in issues affecting their less-affluent fans of color. This gives celebrities, like Shia and many others, great clout in these communities when they speak out against injustice. And frankly, his exchanges with these protestors give him more street cred on more blocks than most white males in this country right now… (except Jerry Springer, Maury Povich or Joe Biden himself).
LaBeouf’s newfound appeal to this bubbling group of boisterous liberal progressives is two-fold: his modest and relatable upbringing in central Los Angeles to a working-class family and his supposed “realness” (a puzzling adoration many minority communities live/die by).
Even with prior convictions, these supporters see his character as genuine. He's brash, resilient and ultimately an antithesis to the sinister Sheev Palpatine they see in President Trump. Shia involuntarily mirrors the same hope that was seen in the hoody-haired, Democratic-socialist Jedi, before seeing him ride out into the sunset last year.
Famed south African social rights activist Desmond Tutu’s words parallel the message of LaBeouf and his band of scrappy dissidents more now than in decades:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Continue to contest those elephants, Shia, and others, as it is your constitutional right to do so, for now. Just stop with the assault charges, it delegitimizes your cause and paints you as the problem.
