Robby Roadsteamer wants to romanticize the scene. For years, he’s been traveling around the country, trolling right-wingers at MAGA gatherings, and calling out their dear leader for his flagrantly authoritarian actions. He usually shows up in a full-body giraffe costume, with a microphone in his hand and an amplifier slung around his shoulders. He likes to sing self-made parodies of ABBA and Rod Stewart making fun of Trump and his ICE bully boys.
This week Robby was arrested in Minneapolis for protesting ICE in the wake of the killing of Renee Good. It’s not the first time he’s been arrested, and it certainly won’t be the last. Just a few months ago, he was arrested by ICE agents in Portland, and threatened with a litany of felonies. He managed to make the agents—who were decked out in their usual masks and Army-grade tactical gear—laugh. Ultimately they let him off with a citation.
He doesn’t do all this because it’s fun, or funny, or because he likes being thrown to the pavement and arrested over and over again. He does it because he’s trying to bring a certain energy to these protests that, he says, has been lost in recent years.
When an American citizen of good conscience sees the kinds of thuggery perpetrated by ICE on our streets, it’s a moral duty to speak out against it. But doing so can be scary, and it’s understandable why people feel apprehensive, given the ever-growing trove of online videos showing just how callous and aggressive ICE agents can be when confronted with protestors.
That’s why Robby’s here. Part shtick, part civic obligation, the character he plays exists to encourage fellow protestors to be brave, and not to be cowed into submission by ICE’s lawless tactics. He makes fun of their “super soakers,” calls them “mall cops” who are “not ready for prime time,” and even laughs about their “power march” as they come to arrest him.
The message is: Yes, these guys are dangerous. But they’re also patently ridiculous, and we should laugh at them as we stand up to them and this administration.
So the next time you see Robby at a protest or on social media, remember that there’s a lot more to this than giraffe costumes and spoof songs. Robby is responding to our authoritarian moment by pointing out the absurdity of it all, and using his own unique gifts to remind the public that we’re better than this—or ought to be.
As long as there are people out there like him fighting the good fight, the rest of us can’t afford to give up.
Home of the Brave is an initiative dedicated to exposing this administration’s corruption, cruelty, and lawlessness.
