How does This Is America explore

issues relating to race and

ethnicity?
BY BRADLEY MIKA-GONZALVES

“THIS IS AMERICA” BY CHILDISH GAMBINO (2018)

“This Is America” is a song written by American
actor/comedian/writer/producer Donald Glover, who sings and raps under the
stage name Childish Gambino. Written and produced by Glover and his long-
standing collaborator Ludwig Göransson, the 2018 hip hop/afrobeat song also
features writing credits and background vocals from several popular American
rappers such as Young Thug, Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd, BlocBoy JB,
Quavo of Migos and 21 Savage.

“This is America” addresses gun violence, mass shootings and historically

widespread African-American racism and discrimination in the United States.
The music video, directed by another one of Glover’s frequent collaborators
Hiro Murai currently has 718 million views on YouTube and 427 million
streams on Spotify: the high-charting, best-selling political/conscious rap song
was well-received and praised by critics and fans of Gambino and hip-hop/rap,
trap and pop genres. Irony could be assumed considering the captivating
instrumental, catchy chorus and smooth, soulful lyrics clashes with and
overshadows the dark lyrics and somewhat controversial music video.

JIM CROW
The video begins with a man walking to a chair with a guitar, playing in tune
with the guitar strings as the song begins. A shirtless Gambino dances, before
pulling out a handgun and shooting the man dead. In the picture seen above,
he shares a similar stance to the Jim Crow caricature before pulling the trigger
and walking/dancing away to rap.
“Jim Crow” was a fictional theatre character utilised as a racist, comical
depiction of African-Americans and their culture in the 1820s. The name of the
character was used as a general, negative and stereotypical view of black
people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (the Jim Crow laws) as local
and state laws.

REFERNCES TO PAST PROTESTS

Prior to “This Is America”, there has been several killings by law enforcement
officers and police brutality incidents in the United States in recent years: this
has sparked mass controversy and outrage worldwide as the African-
American community have been affected the most by these incidents.
Protests, riots and unrests have retaliated against these events, such as the
deaths of Oscar Grant (2009), Travyon Martin (2012), Tamir Rice (2014), Eric
Garner (2014), Freddie Gray (2015), Philando Castille (2016), Alton Sterling
(2016), and most recently Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (both 2020). In
the background of the music video which focuses on gun violence and rioting
while being overshadowed by dance groups and gospel choirs, protesters and
rioters are seen destroying police cars and running around crazily loose.

2015 CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING

Gambino uses a Kalashnikov patterned automatic weapon to gun down a
church choir as they sing the refrain. This references to the 2015 Charleston
church shooting, a mass shooting where nine African-American churchgoers
were killed by Dylann Roof during a Bible study at the Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In both instances,
a child appears from off-screen holding a red cloth, on which Gambino gently
lays the weapon used, while the bodies are simply dragged away, which has
been interpreted as a reference to Americans' willingness to protect gun rights
over people.

SYMBOLISATION OF VEHICLES
Throughout the video, numerous vehicles from several decades ago are
featured, many of them with their hazard lights flashing and the driver's side
door ajar, which was interpreted as representing fatal police shootings during
traffic stops, particularly the shooting of Philando Castile (1983-2016), who
was shot while in a 1997 Oldsmobile; others have interpreted that the older
model cars represent the relative lack of upward mobility of African-
Americans.

BLACK CULTURE AND CHOREOGRAPHY

Dancing is a core part in the video, as Gambino and the group of young black
dancers perform the “Shoot” popularized by BlocBoy JB (who provided adlibs)
and the South African Gwara Gwara. Other African dances such as the
Ghanaian alkaidya and azonto, Nigerian ashoko and Angolan gyrations are
also performed. This is used to express the popularity and positivity of dance
in the African-American community, as it is a distraction from the chaotic
rioting and gun violence in the background.

GUN VIOLENCE
As mentioned before, gun violence in the United States is an ongoing
controversial issue that has caused uproar and criticism over the limitations on
gun control. Guns are the most commonly used weapon by law enforcement
officers: but it has been used unlawfully in fatal killings, either accidental or
deliberate.
Despite being an African-American, Gambino represents the out-of-control
gun culture in America often perpetrated by white Americans and the police
force as he shoots/kills eleven people in the music video: the man playing the
guitar in the beginning, and ten gospel choir singers. Gambino even imitates
using a gun while dancing – this could also refer to the normalised and
radicalised use of gun control in the USA.

THE ENDING
As the song comes to an end, Gambino is running with a petrified, panicky
facial expression. A mob of white people chase him down angrily and
viciously: this could interpret that Gambino has returned to his roots (he no
longer represents gun control gone wrong/white Americans?) and the key
theme of racism comes into play as he is being hunted. Some have said this is
a second reference to the actor/comedian/writer/director/producer Jordan
Peele, a friend of Glover.
Peele wrote and directed the critically acclaimed and award-winning 2017
horror film Get Out, which blends horror and racial discrimination/stereotypes
together. One of the choir singers killed by Gambino shares facial similarities
to Peele (it was believed Peele made a cameo in the video at first) and
Gambino running away from the white mob may have shared inspiration from
several scenes in Peele’s Get Out where the black protagonist Chris
Washington runs away from (and later fights against) his white antagonists, as
well as black antagonists representing brainwashing/mind control by the
power of the whites.

This is the end of my analysis, answering how does “This Is America” explore
issues relating to race and ethnicity.