Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, released a music video on YouTube called "This Is America" and it's a music video that has everybody talking.
In this video, there are many things happening all at once and many of them are meant to symbolize what America is. I want to be able to discuss my reaction to this video and how I feel about it, because Glover gives a magnificent and honest point about what America really is.
When Glover shot the man in the chair near the beginning, I nodded. I nodded because I knew exactly where he was going with this. In America, people are killing innocent victims for no reason. After Glover shot the man, he gave the gun to a kid and it was handled with care.
However, people dragged the dead body of the man as if he doesn't deserve to be handled with care. In my opinion, this is a very sad look to see. Why isn't a dead body handled with just as much, if not more care than a weapon?
Then, Glover acted like nothing happened after he shot the man. I believe what he is trying to say here is that we move on from the deaths that happened too quickly, instead of making a change for the better.
Glover keeps dancing in a strange way as if he is trying to distract me. He and the kids he's dancing with are American Entertainment. In America, people seem to dance away from their problems and forget about everything that is going on around them. When it comes to entertainment, they want to distract people and get their attention.
However, behind him and the dancers, there's a lot of chaos going on. People are running for their lives, police cars are around, murders are happening, and a person in a white shirt even fell from the balcony. As this is all happening, Glover and the kids are STILL dancing around the chaos.
I also want to point out how he gunned down the church choir. This takes back the time of the Charleston Church shooting when Dylann Roof murdered 9 African Americans during a bible study in 2015. This is another representation of gun violence and how this is happening in America.
As the chaos goes on, there's also a small group of kids filming videos from their phones above. Instead of helping or running for their own lives, they focus on social media. Everyone is so focused on social media and I noticed how a small part of the lyrics of the song says "I'm so pretty," because we are too focused on ourselves instead of making America better. And cell phones are described as tools.
There's also a person in a black hoodie riding on a white horse and that represents death riding the pale horse. I like how this video digs up so much history. It's upsetting to know that death caused by weaponry is a problem in America.
In the very end of the video, Glover is running away as if he is under attack. You can tell by the look on his face that he is absolutely terrified. In my opinion, we always seem to run away from our problems and not put a stop to them. If this keeps going on in America, we will continue to run unless we put our foot down. We can only take so much.
This is by far the most symbolic music video that I have ever seen. I know that there are many things to point out in this video and that there is so much going on it that I may not have mentioned, but here is the biggest meaning of it all: America NEEDS to change. No matter what kind of observation you have made about this video, it is a symbolic message of America crying for help. This music video is beautiful but knowing that this is what America really is, makes it not so beautiful.
Donald Glover deserves a Grammy because of this music video. Why? Because he gave us the opportunity to look for the things that are going wrong in America and he did it with his own music and talent. This right here is what I call an ARTIST. He deserves all of the recognition he can get. However, this SHOULDN'T be our America.
