Childish Gambino-This is America

Childish Gambino-This is America

5/13/18

      To Begin, Donald Glover an American singer, actor, and comedian comments on gun violence and other social issues within society through his new song-This is America. The song was published on May 5, 2018, and was followed by large controversy. Within the video, Donald Glover explicitly shows the reality of gun violence, and brings to light the social issues throughout the background and shots. These shots are subtle and but implicitly show how they're important as well when contrasted by the more lively actions portrayed by Donald Glover himself.  

     Within the video, Donald Glover explicitly shows the reality of gun violence by replaying events, one of which references the Charleston shooting. To begin, the first verse talks about entertainment media and transitions onto the first killing. To verse drastically changes to the chorus, the camera quickly averts its attention, the victim is dealt with, and the weapon quickly concealed. As a result, this shows that entertainment media distracts people away from social issues such as gun violence. In the next scene references the Charleston shooting; of which was a mass shooting and hate crime in which white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine African Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Again, in this shot, the verse portrays a happy choir, only to be gunned down by Donald Glover. Furthermore, the shot repeats the same actions, especially with the quick discarding of the gun.

   Other from the explicit shootings, within the background portrays chaos that's juxtaposed with the happy music of each verse. In the first shot, the background portrays bystanders filming the first shooting, or people escaping the scene. Implicitly showing the lack of response to the gun epidemic. Secondly, the background features an ominous figure riding on a white horse, referencing the Bible and the beginning of the apocalypse. Thus showing that such problems have exceeded the breaking point and such problems are destined to get worst. Finally, in one of the last scenes show a bunch of cars, not expensive nor fancy. They're not the cars you normally see on tv or are the ideal car, but are more down to earth. Showing a lack of progression.

  In my opinion, I believe this video is very insightful and very important to viewers. The fact that it comments on social issues effectively is a great thing. While all the messages weren't all explicit or easy to interpret in ultimately hints at the viewers to discover the meaning of the video. Honestly, I watched this video like 7 times just to accommodate for everything. So much is going on video and you would just need to watch it a couple times to understand it in perfect clarity.