Kelsey Vickers

COMM 5000 Rhetoric: Written, Visual, And Oral Communication

Hidden Meanings and Symbolism:

A Rhetorical Analysis of Childish Gambino’s “This is America”

INTRODUCTION:

- This paper investigates the symbolism, both explicit and implicit, found in the

music video for the song “This Is America” by American actor, singer, writer, and

director, Childish Gambino. In an article published by New University in 2018

titled, “The Impact of Music Videos on Pop Culture,” the origin of music videos

stems back to the 1920s. Once referred to as musical “short films,” they have

contributed to an aspect of storytelling that many musicians have long been

known for. The piece of work analyzed in this paper is no different. The

provocative imagery depicted in the music video for “This is America” details

metaphors about racial inequality, police brutality, and gun violence in America.

The central message of the song and video highlights how America perceives

black people and consumes their culture while simultaneously degrading them, all

while holding guns and violence as the “norm.” Through a detailed analysis of the

construction of themes in this video, we will illustrate America’s police brutality,

gun violence, and disdain for black culture by delving deeper into the symbolism

and metaphors used in the music video.

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 When “This Is America” was released by Donald Glover (under the moniker Childish

Gambino) three years ago, it represented a jarring look at how police brutality and gun violence,

specifically toward black people, are normalized in the United States. This song was a stepping

stone into a new creative realm for Glover after signing with the record label RCA Records in

January 2018. Since the release of “This Is America” on May 5, 2018, the music video has been

viewed over 700 million times on YouTube. In Anna Leszkiewicz’s article, Why You Should

Watch … This is America by Childish Gambino, the video was already seen over ten million

times in the first 24 hours of its release. The song earned Glover his first number one spot on the

Billboard Hot 100 and was celebrated by experts and audiences alike. It won the Grammy for

Best Music Video, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap/Sung Performance. “This

is America” was actually the first rap song to win Record of the Year. The music video for the

song contains many violent scenes that are juxtaposed with seemingly calm and even joyful

scenes. It’s a visual pairing that requires multiple instances of watching the video due to the

constant imagery packed into every frame.

The music video, which was directed by Japanese-born American filmmaker Hiro Murai,

begins with Glover shirtless and dancing through an empty warehouse. A black man enters the

frame wearing light-colored clothing and sits down on a single chair in the middle of the

warehouse, grabbing the acoustic guitar atop the chair and strumming the strings. He plays along

to the joyful, choir-like tune with seemingly innocuous party lyrics (“We just wanna party / Party

just for you / We just want the money / Money just for you / I know you wanna party / Party just

for free / Girl you got me dancing / Dance and shake the frame”) before Glover appears, strikes

a pose, pulls out a gun and shoots the man in the back of the head. The music intensifies and

darkens, juxtaposing the joyful sound at the beginning with a dark trap beat. This first shooting

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signifies the transition in the style of music. Glover’s role in the music video is to be at the center

of it all; he dances around shirtless throughout the music video while committing heinous acts of

murder as joyfully as he can. After the first shooting, Glover transitions into rapping “This is

America / Don’t catch you slipping now / Don’t catch you slipping now / Look what I’m

whipping now.” Later in the music video, an all-black choir dances and sings joyfully. Glover’s

character quietly enters the location they are at, singing and dancing alongside them before

shooting them with an assault weapon. A child appears from off-screen and takes the gun from

Glover with a red cloth in hand. The bodies are dragged away from the scene. In another scene

from the video, Glover holds his arms up as though to threaten shooting others with a gun; then,

he simply lights up a joint as people run away in fear. He raps “This is a celly, that’s a tool”

when children are then seen using their phones to record what’s happening around them.

Throughout the music video, a variety of vehicles are featured from multiple decades ago, with

their hazard lights flashing and driver’s side doors ajar. The video then ends with Glover

fearfully running for his life in a dark portion of the warehouse while being chased by several

white police officers.

The music video for “This Is America'' is a fantastic example of the visual arguments

discussed in David S. Birdsell and Leo Groarke’s article, “Outlines of a Theory of Visual

Argument.” In their discussion, images play a key role in many kinds of arguments, and this

piece of work is no exception. Music videos are a key aspect of any musical artist’s work, as they

boost the visibility of the artist, promote the sale of the artist’s work, and create a visual

experience that amplifies the listener’s enjoyment and perception of the song itself. Music videos

can be the difference between a listener simply enjoying a song and actually understanding the

purpose and meaning of the song. The images depicted in the music video for “This Is America”'

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are the most accurate representation of what Glover is discussing in the song. Arguably, the

meaning would likely be lost if there were no visual accompaniment to the work. In the music

video, there are four elements of visual arguments utilized: visual flags, visual demonstration,

visual metaphor, and visual symbols.

A visual flag is used to attract attention to a message conveyed to an audience.

Essentially, the messaging has to stand out visually in order to capture the attention of the

audience. This is demonstrated through the entirety of the music video for “This is America,”

and begins with the opening scenes. When a black man enters the frame and sits at the chair,

strumming the acoustic guitar, all seems well. The music is uplifting and joyful. Visually, the

audience is shocked by Glover’s character pulling out a gun and shooting the man before the

heaviness of the chorus sinks in, taking us completely out of the softness of the introduction and

jarring us into a dark look at the racial complexities in the United States. It’s jarring to see how

casually gun violence is utilized, which is largely telling of America’s history with guns.

Entertainment and horrors coexist completely in this. Another massive visual flag in the music

video is the juxtaposition of the treatment of guns versus people (more specifically, black

people). After each shooting, the guns were held carefully with velvet cloth while the bodies

were ruthlessly dragged away. It’s impossible to not notice how the guns seem to be cared for

more than actual human lives. Glover’s character himself is actually a form of a visual flag as

well, especially in the way he’s depicted at the beginning of the music video. The pose that

Glover takes on before shooting his first victim is a reference to Jim Crow, who was a black

stereotype created in the 19th century before his name was later turned into the name for racial

segregation laws in America. As reported by Dr. David Pilgrim, Jim Crow was a white

entertainer by the name of Thomas Dartmouth Rice performed a song-and-dance act seemingly

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modeled after a slave (naming the character Jim Crow) in the early to mid-1800s. He was not the

first white person to perform in blackface, but he was one of the most popular. The grotesque

smiles and exaggerated faces Glover makes in the music video for “This Is America” seems to be

a satirical caricature of Jim Crow himself.

Birdsell and Groarke define a visual demonstration as an image used to convey

information that can best be described visually. This music video serves as a massive

demonstration of gun violence and race issues within America. One of the demonstrations that

explained the purpose of the song was the choir singing. They appear happy and joyful, content

in their musicality until they are shot by Glover’s character. This scene references the 2015

Charleston church shooting in which white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine black people, as

noted by Post and Courier reporter Kalyn Oyer. Further demonstrations are echoed by Martha

Tesema, in which she references how the cell phone usage in the video is a demonstration of how

cell phones are used now to document brutality. The very building the music video is shot in

demonstrates a lot for the song; the massive white structure of a building seems to have no

escape, similar to the historical white supremacy in America, which seems to be impossible to

escape. Another act of demonstration Tesema included was the last scene of the music video,

which featured Glover’s character running away from white police officers. This particular scene

demonstrates undertones from Jordan Peele’s movie Get Out.

The dancing in the music video is another example of visual demonstration and more

accurately describes the tone of the song itself. The dance moves were choreographed by Sherrie

Silver and were based on a variety of African dances. The style of dancing that Glover performs

in the music video alludes to the way Americans consume culture and how much of the famous

dance moves he demonstrates have lost their significance over time. The dancing demonstrates

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how Americans can applaud black culture while simultaneously allowing their entertainment to

make them ignore larger issues at hand.

Birdsell and Groarke state that a visual metaphor conveys someone or something

figuratively. There are numerous examples of metaphors throughout the video. One of the most

significant metaphors was a particular dancing scene in the music video. As riots are breaking

out and cars are set ablaze, Glover’s character and a group of young kids dance. It’s a metaphor

for how the cultural contributions of black entertainers draw cheers from society while racial

violence and injustice continue to be an everyday aspect of life in America. As Ladan Osman

stated in his article, Slaying New Black Notions: Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America,’ “this

relentless looping, their inattentiveness to the horrors behind them, is both appalling and familiar.

We’re inside a feed, subject to a stream of headlines, body counts, and our emotional static.” He

refers to this particular situation in the music video as a “carnival atmosphere.” The dancing

could also be seen as a metaphor for how politicians often dance around issues like police

brutality and gun violence.

Regarding the cars in the music video, there are numerous vehicles from many different

decades featured with their hazard lights on and driver’s doors ajar. This has two metaphorical

reasons behind it; the first being that they represented the shooting of Philando Castile, a black

man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez while driving a

1997 Oldsmobile. The second metaphor for these old cars featured in the music video is that they

represent the lack of upward mobility of black people and progression in America, which Joel

Stice references in his work. Another example of a visual metaphor in Stice’s article is the man

riding the white horse in one of the scenes. The white horse is a Biblical reference to Revelations

6:8, which reads: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and the name that sat on him was

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Death, and Hell followed with him.” In accordance with the scripture, this appearance is a

metaphor for the oncoming apocalypse, which is referenced in Candice Nembhard’s article, “8

Things You May Have Missed in Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ Video.

This music video is not only relevant to our society right now, but its significance was

tremendously palpable at the time of its release. As Leszkiewicz mentioned in Why You Should

Watch … This is America by Childish Gambino, this music video “explores the twin spectacles

of entertainment and ultraviolence as the bedrock of Trump’s America.” There was a massive

divide in the country during this time, and over 100,000 Americans were killed by gun violence

during his presidency as of 2020. Trump also encouraged police officers to use force when

making arrests, as referenced in Jeremy Venook’s article on American Progress Action’s

website. The speech he made this statement in occurred in 2017, one year before Childish

Gambino’s song and music video were released. Although Trayvon Martin’s death happened

before this music video was released, the two are interconnected with the relationship to and

portrayal of the treatment of black people in America, specifically young black men. Trayvon

Martin was a 17-year-old black high school student who was killed by George Zimmerman, a

28-year-old man who claimed self-defense despite the fact that Martin was unarmed. Many

actually thought that Trayvon Martin’s father appeared in the music video for “This is America,”

but he did not. This event was significant in American history and relates to the depictions and

symbols in Gambino’s music video. “March for Our Lives” occurred the year of the music

video’s release, which showcases the relevancy and timeliness of the music video. CNN reporter

Dakin Andone details that March for Our Lives was a series of student-led demonstrations in

support of gun control legislation. These demonstrations occurred after the Marjory Stoneman

Douglas High School shooting a month prior, which was considered a “tipping point” for gun

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control legislation in America. This music video was also released on the tails of a controversial

moment regarding Kanye West. Just days before the release of “This is America,” Kanye West

appeared on a TMZ show to speak with Candace Owens and was quoted saying, “When you hear

about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice … You were there for 400

years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned.” Lisa Respers France reported on

the controversial statement that left many Americans in an uproar, including black TMZ staff

member Van Lathan, who said the observation made him “unbelievably hurt.”

The social movement for Black Lives Matter emerged in 2013 and continued to rise in

popularity in the years after, according to an article published by the Pew Research Center in

2016. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was used eight times more than the hashtag

#AllLivesMatter and was the third most used hashtag in the 10-year history of Twitter’s

platform. It was timely that Glover released this music video in 2018 when the hashtag had been

used roughly 15,000 times a day. This music video has become a quintessential part of the

movement, and the song itself has been used at many Black Lives Matter protests, particularly

after the deaths of Georgia Floyd, Grechario Mack, and Breonna Taylor (including more but left

out for brevity). In the words of Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, the goal of the

cause is “to build the kind of society where black people can live with dignity and respect.”

Much of what Glover depicted in his music video aligns with that perspective in pointing out the

racial inequity in America and how we have much further to go for equal rights.

“This is America” has clearly continued to rise in popularity and relevance over the

years, even becoming a viral sound on TikTok used to protest police brutality against black

people as referenced by Morgan Sung. She mentions that a music producer under the name

Carneyval created a mashup of the song with “Congratulations” by Post Malone, and the remix

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was used over 140,000 times on TikTok as of May 2020. She says, “While TikTok is known for

its viral dance challenges and quippy videos, it has undeniably become a platform for organizing

- even if users need to do so with a catchy song.”

While this artifact is mostly visual-based, it’s also noteworthy to consider how some of

the lyricism plays into the idea of what “America” looks like. For instance, the line “Yeah, yeah,

this is guerrilla” is significant because it refers to guerilla warfare, which is a form of warfare in

which small groups of combatants take part in fighting against larger regular forces. This

references the racial inequality presented in the music video. Not only was America the first

country to use guerrilla tactics in 1775, but when “This is America” was released in 2018,

America had over 13,000 gun homicides occur. Certified educator Marietta Sadler points this out

in her response to the question, “What is the overall meaning of the song ‘This is America’ by

Childish Gambino?”

As previously mentioned, when we reach the end of the music video for “This is

America,” Glover’s character is seen running from white police officers. As Osman mentioned in

her article, “This isn’t a post-black moment. It’s midrace, colored by insurmountable terror.” She

says that violence against black people is a major foundational part of America’s history, past

and present. Osman says, “As Childish Gambino obliterates rooted acts of black optimism and

expression, we may understand the artist’s persona as a site upon which historical and aesthetic

lineages are free to interact and contradict each other.” This is a perfect iteration of the influence

this piece of visual and musical art has made on the entertainment industry.

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CONCLUSION:

- In conclusion, the music video for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” is full

of metaphorical examples of the topics brought to light. This music video has

clearly made a significant contribution to our culture, and as Americans, it is

crucial for us to all understand how the treatment of minorities affects us as a

country. In order to understand how to be a part of the solution, we have to

understand where the problem comes from and listen to those who experience it

firsthand. Donald Glover’s efforts to explain the treatment of black people, the

harms of excessive gun violence, and the danger of police brutality through this

visual work is an important part of our American history and should remain

lauded for its emphasis on symbolism and metaphorical explanations.

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 REFERENCES:

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the-impact-of-music-videos-on-pop-culture/

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103-113.

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France, Lisa Respers. “Kanye West vs. Van Lathan: What to know about the rapper’s critic.”

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