This Is America- Childish Gambino

        In just a week, Childish Gambino's music video for his recent song "This is America" has more than 97 million views on Youtube. After watching this video, it became transparent that the message Gambino wanted to portray is that America is becoming a prevalent place for racism and gun violence. I agree with Gambino's image of America; there have been way too many instances where unjust acts have gone unnoticed in the face of media. Over the past couple of years, there have been many videos uploaded to Twitter, Instagram, etc. that show the horrid police brutality towards African-American people, especially in the Midwestern states. Although these videos are shared throughout social media with millions of people, large news outlets such as FoxNews or KCRA do not cover these issues unless there is death involved. How is it that discriminatory treatment towards African-Americans are not discussed as much in media as it should be? Is it a taboo to talk about the reality of our once beloved country? One "good" aspect of media is that messages and information could be spread to a wider audience. Media is supposed to benefit the community by keeping each other updated on the many events happening in the world, but when large news outlets shy away from certain issues that have impacted our society for years, is media truly doing its job?

        There is no doubt that racism and gun violence is an ongoing issue in our country. In the video, there are many specific references to mass shootings that have occurred, and the video depicts gun violence, in general. The opening scene includes an African-American man sitting down and playing a guitar, but as seconds pass, his head is covered in a burlap sack, and Gambino pulls out a gun and shoots him. After firing the gun, Gambino carefully hands the gun to another guy who wraps it in a red cloth. I interpreted this as Red America valuing their rights to bear guns over human lives. In addition, at 1:47, there is a church choir signing in an upbeat tone, and Gambino quickly comes into the room and fires at all of them; once again, the gun is afterward wrapped in a red cloth. This scene is clearly a nod towards the 2015 Charleston Church shooting. I found this to be one of the very graphic parts of his video. Also, from 2:44 to 3:01, the video goes completely silent for 17 seconds, which implies that the silence is an honor for the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS shooting. All of the murders and shootings in the music video allude to gun violence in America nowadays.

       Throughout the video, Gambino is "oddly" dancing and keeps an energetic and positive vibe despite the chaos and atrocities that are occurring around him. Gambino's movements symbolize how the entertainment of media (or social media) provides the citizens of America with a form of distraction from the bigger issues at hand. I think that Gambino represents and plays the complex role of our country from the violence he committed in the video to the use of eccentric dancing as a large distraction. Another thing that I noticed was that Gambino's backup dancers were African-American students who also had the same positive energy as he did. Since Gambino represents America and these dancers are never injured in the video, I think it implies that as a society, we are quick to support black culture, but when it comes to the terrible incidents they face, we fall ignorant and turn our backs.
       Some lyrics that stood out to me were "We just want the money. Money, just for you. Girl, you got me dancing. Dance and shake the frame." I believe that "girl" represents America, and the "money" is what our society tends to put emphasis on; making money is a form of distraction and entertainment. When Gambino sings "Shak[ing] the frame", he could be implying that the distraction of media is blurring and distorting the background of what is really happening in America. The "frame" alludes to the real-life inequalities that are occurring. Throughout the video, we see people in the background on their phones or are dancing, who are ignoring the fire, riots, and atrocities that are happening behind them. This indicates that many people utilize media as a way of remaining ignorant towards the gun violence and race issues that plague America.
       Because Youtube is quite a large media platform, Gambino's hidden intertextuality and message in the "This is America' video can be spread to millions of people around the world. From his implied message, many people can understand a different perspective of America that is typically not shown in large media outlets. Maybe people can start to recognize that there needs to be a change in our country and actually become more proactive and aware of this issues happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY
* This is a link to the music video.