Childish Gambino, ‘this is America'
Music videos are nowadays used to promote music as well as promote the star image of the artist. Music videos can also be used to convey a certain ideology or beliefs. This video is important to Childish Gambino's image due to the viewpoint it portrays as it tackles many controversial topics that are very current and affect lots of people, such as guns in America, violence towards minority groups and the direction of the real problems in society.
Firstly, the appearance of Donald through this music video is symbolic as his grey trousers can be linked to old confederate uniform trousers, this being a known racist movement/organisation, this could show how some communities within America have had to literally live with the actions of the past as demonstrated by him wearing the trousers.
Moreover, the fact that he is shirtless throughout this music video, could represent how he feels he has been stripped of something, weather this be cultural and/or material or simply just his personal dignity. This is further represented by the south African style music playing at the beginning of the song, then interrupted by the more rap like beat and lyrics after the action of shooting the man. This shows how ‘America’ has come through and cut him off not only in terms of the music but to him personally represented by his lack of clothing. This could furthermore represent how America sees him as a member of a minority in America with a vast history of racism, potentially showing how other people view him with the potential stereotypes/views held by Americas towards in this case black people.
The stance of Doanld shooting the man in the early moments of the video seems to be strange, this has been related to the racist character of Jim Crow in the early 20th century. Jim was a white man doing blackface and would sing and dance for the entertainment of other white people as he mocked black people as well as their culture. This could represent how Donald feels like a puppet or that he is being exploited by the music industry or maybe just society in general, this is followed by the lyrics ‘girl you Gotta dance, dance and shake the frame’, this put together with the symbolic nature of his stance this could be talking about the exploitation based nature of the media today and/or telling people in positions of power that they are not using their power to fix current issues today. The lyrics used just before this are ‘we just want the money, money just for you’ this is furthermore exposing the way in which money corrupts people and that when they get to a position of choose between productive action and profit, people will choose money.
After the shooting of the man who previously had a guitar, playing traditional south African music, the gun is placed carefully in a red cloth, whereas the body is dragged away with little regard as the camera moves past the action, suggesting that people in America care more about the idea of guns and possession of guns then the lives effected by these fatal shootings.
We then see Donald dancing with school children in the same white Wherehouse that happens to look early like the inside of a prison potentially referencing the vast imprisonment in America as well as the fact that 34% of the prison population are black men, when this is considered with the fact that only 13% of the American population are black or African American. The smiley school children dancing around Donald while chaos unfolds, behind them, this could represent the distraction by the media and how while all the hate and crime and unrest occurs, we are taught to dance away and act like it's no there even though it is in a literal sense all around them. Furthermore, the symbolic nature of using school children represents innocence and purity and that we are brought up under the illusion of piece with things like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus, whereas the harsh reality is not so bright and tends to be more doom and gloom. This could also potentially represent the idea of staying positive in times of struggle furthermore suggesting how they have been conditioned to these actions at a young age and don’t think much of it due to the uplifting style of dance.
The killing of the all-black gospel choir has many potential references. This video was released in 2018, prior to this in 2015 we saw the fatal Charleston church shooting. This is a reference as the shooter was white and the victims were black, it also took while for the authorities to suggest this was racially motivated as they played it off as just any old shooting. This is represented by the way Donald peaks his head through the door and dances in as if he could do no wrong, like the way the Charleston shooting was viewed. This also highlights the lack of safety in place around guns in America, as someone was able to just walk into a church and carry out mass shootings, one of many like this in ‘America’.
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