The buzz about Childish Gambino’s new song, " This Is America," may have died down in the media but I am still not over it! I have watched the video multiple times since its May 5th release. This Is America’s music video brings to light several important issues that we NEED to be talking about. Some important points in the music video are historically and currently important and are being dealt with and experienced now.
1. Jim Crow Pose
At the very beginning of the music video, there is a man that is playing the guitar in a warehouse alone, and then the video pans around to see Donald Glover start dancing and singing a seemingly light-hearted intro. The chorus begins with a gunshot, Donald Glover shoots the man in the back of the head and walks away, and the song effectively progresses. The importance of this moment is the stance that Donald Glover takes right before he fires the gun. It mimics the stance from the famous Jim Crow photo. This stance happens at 0:53 in the video.
2. Dancing
The dancing throughout the video is an important aspect of the song. The dance moves are inspired by South African dance moves that Rihanna used as part of her Grammy performance. This shows how popular culture pulls many things from African and African American culture. Throughout the entire video, there is dancing. The first time I watched the video, I was in awe of the choreography.
The second time watching I started to notice what was happening in the background. There is pure chaos in the background of this video, and all that I focused on was the dancing. Many people on Twitter pointed out that this shows our indulgence in social media. We tend to forget the truly important things going on in the world because there is a flashy, new, exciting social trend if front of us.
3. Minstrel Show Face
Donald Glover makes a seemingly "goofy" face at the camera in his video, that many did not recognize until people on Twitter started to talk about it. Glover imitates a minstrel show face. Minstrel shows were most popular in the early 19th to 20th century. In the shows, white men would put on blackface and caricature them. Meaning they would mock traditional African features, music, and dances. Although minstrel shows are not performed it was a large part of American history for many years, and it was based upon the thought that Black-Americans were below White-Americans.
4. Empty Cars
In the video, there is a scene where Donald Glover stands on a car, surrounded by other cars. The cars are older models and look abandoned. Many people on Twitter have speculated that this is to mention the slowing and in some cases stalled economic status of many African American communities. There is also another possible theory that I agree with more. It is to be metaphoric of the various police shootings at traffic stops.
5. Seventeen Seconds of Silence
In the middle of the video, there is a very abrupt silence that comes at a very unexpected time in the music. Donald Glover stops singing and stands, then draws his hands up to resemble a gun. More specifically a semi-automatic weapon. This happens at 2:44 in the video and the music begins again at 3:01. The pause in the video lasts exactly seventeen seconds and is in tribute to the seventeen students in Parkland, Florida that lost their lives due to a school shooting. By this statement, Glover is honoring the students and also making a statement of disapproval on gun regulation.
6. Red Cloth
There are two shootings in the video. There is one at the beginning of the video. The second one is at 1:55 in the video. To speak to the second shooting, it is based on the Charleston Church Shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. At the end of both of these shootings, the gun that is used is whisked away off the screen by someone with a red cloth. While the gun is treated with care, the man from the beginning is dragged off the screen, and the members of the choir are left. This is supposed to symbolize how as a society we have cared more for our guns over people who have lost their lives.
