Childish Gambino, This Is America

Childish Gambino, this is America song review

The talented Donald Glover Jr Aka Childish Gambino, who is in fact an actor, comedian, singer, writer, producer, director, rapper, and DJ dominated the internet with his political hit ‘This is America’ this year going straight to number 1 and gaining 300 million hits on YouTube alone. The initial point of the song was to raise awareness of the injustice of society and to depict America’s false promise of freedom.

Throughout the song there are countless hidden messages. In the first 10 seconds we see a man strumming a guitar playing a cheerful tune which dramatically turns to an aggressive tone as Childish Gambino takes out a gun and shoots the guitarist in the back of his head. The message behind this is said to linked to the man that was shot; who is supposedly the father of a slain teen Trayvon Martin. A symbolic reference found within this is the pose Childish Gambino strikes before pulling the trigger which is said to resemble Jim Crow; a fictional character that characterised African Americans as lazy and stupid, moreover reinforcing Childish Gambino’s perception that white people look down on black people.

Secondly, Childish Gambino is dances with a group of school children performing the Gwara Gwara, which is a traditional South African dance, amid the violence which is occurring in the background such as an act of suicide whereby a man jumps from the balcony to his death. This strange juxtaposition suggests that Americans use entertainment provided by its black celebrities as a distraction from the death and violence forced on its black citizens.

Later there is a scene the mise-en-scenes focus is on a group of lined up cars which all have their driver’s doors open. This could represent the discrimination African Americans have to face against the police. The opened doors in forces the facts that the rates are higher for police to pull over more black drivers then white.

2 minutes into the song Childish Gambino raps “this is a celly that is a tool” and at the same time the camera angle pans up to show multiple children holding their phones. This refers to the exposure children have to violence through phones; there is no escape. Moreover, suggesting social media is to blame for recent problems in society blowing things out of proportion and portraying bad role models.

Gun violence is highlighted once more during the song when Childish Gambino comes into blows with a choir and dramatically shooting them all down. This cleverly recalls the tragic event that occurred in 2015, the Charleston shooting whereby a white boy killed black people in a church.  The Gun Childish Gambino used also has a hidden message, it was an AK47 which was originally created to kill masses of people in war but was now used in America to kill large messes of people, a perfect link to this church shooting.

Every time Childish Gambino fires his gun we see a man run onto the scene with a red cloth which is used to rap the gun in. This sends the message that the US government prioritise the protection of guns over the protection of black people which reinforces Gambino’s strong political views that black people are discriminated in society.

Some final, important messages in ‘this is America’ firstly involve; the mise-en-scene of death galloping. In the back ground we see a white horse with a dead man in clock riding by which is highlighted by the zooming in of the camera work which focuses your attention onto it and if you look even closer you will see following behind is a police car. This brilliantly symbolises the connection between police violence and death for black people and the white horse could moreover, represent heaven and that black people believe it to be the only place they will ever find peace and sanity.

Finally, we watch Childish Gambino sprinting for his life in the closing moment. Terrified, we hear his hysterical breathing as the music fades out. This ending goes back to a long tradition in the 19^th century of black Americans having to run for their lives away from white people. This portrays an important message that times are yet to change and that there is still work to be done within society.

To conclude, Childish Gambino successfully addressed, through the powers of media, the important messages of racial discrimination, social injustice and gender stereotypes, which are portrayed within hidden messages throughout the song; while making comparisons to America's past and their current problems.