Childish Gambino This America Meaning
May 8, 2018 - A scene from Childish Gambino's “This Is America” music video. Devoted so much time to dissecting its references and debating its meaning. May 9, 2018 - Donald Glover's “This Is America” music video has inspired countless. But what does the song and video actually mean in Glover's eyes? Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino’s newest single “This Is America” is a catchy track, but what has people really talking is its music video.
Childish Gambino This America Lyrics
Childish Gambino - 'This is America' Analysis
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I enjoy analyzing Music videos, movies and art ever since I was a young teen (since every English class I ever had was basically that..) and Wanted to share my analysis of 'This is America'.
I believe the final stanza is the key to the entire interpretation. More on that later.
Xforce 2015 autodesk. Opening shot, lots of light, everything is contained inside a hanger
The ISO is pushed, lots of noise, the blacks are crushed (not at their full black values and are grey instead of black, same with the whites, they are never at their full values) This is not necessarily symbolic but a trick in photography when we want our photos to have a 'Analog / film' feel. This is reinforced by how the corners are rounded and cut off, quite telling that he wants an Analog feel, like most of his videos. The Addition of the rounded corners / Vignetting looks a lot like diaporamas (He also later references Kodak pictures, as in the old tagline 'A kodak moment')
Person being shot wears a distinct beige Dress shirt.
The depth of Field is VERY shallow. In all his other videos, the DOF is pretty deep most of the time, but here, we are looking at something absurdly wide open, f/3.2 or even f/2.8.
The reason is clear, HE is the sole focus, not the violence, cars driving by with guns in the air or the body being dragged away, HE is the only focus, look at HIM dancing and being happy.
When the Children in School uniforms come in (With the Same Beige dress shirt, linking back to the guitar man, perhaps he was their teacher?) for the first time, despite dancing right behind him, they are not in focus. VERY shallow depth of field. But the point is clear, The teacher has been killed, the children are free to dance, uneducated, they run around, the scene slowly changes to broken down cars, animals in the street (trope of breakdown of civilization) and Children jumping on cars, throwing money around
The point with this, I believe, along with the lyrics (Police are Trpping, This is how I am living Now, Carrying Straps, guns, this is america, it's Guerrilla(warfare)) is that while there is a breakdown in civility all round, while the next generation is being broken, STILL the focus is on a Racial Sambo Stereotype; Dance, carefree, be happy. Ignore everything else, they are but ghosts and shadows, there is no problem.
The lyrics continue, I'm so cool, I'm so dope, The Schoolchildren come back into frame, dance with him, but NOW they are in focus, as they dance with him, they prefer his form of carefree education.
Move to the Church choir scene, it shows music, dancing, heritage, community, and again, destruction of the image. The Message at this point is quite clear, with the shooting of the the Guitar man and the Choir, this is about the destruction of Values and them being replaced by a cult of the self (more on that later)
Don't be caught slipping up, looking what we are building up (chaos all around, but again, out of focus.) A Multi ethnic crowd runs after each other (perhaps showing racial division?), but the SchoolChildren and CG are the only ones in focus, because look how Gucci they are, look how pretty I am, look at me move, Cellphone is my tool, Kodak (Moment) > Shift to SchoolChildren in masks watching from above, Videotaping / Taking Pictures on their cellphones of the chaos below - LITERAL Kodak moments as there are literal fires at their back.
Growing Fame is more important than substance, fame is more important, but they are behind masks they put on themselves as everything breaks down around them.
And lets not forget, we are still contained inside a Hanger.
Back to the dancing Children - I am not sure what 'hundred bands' means - Stacks of hundred dollar bills tied with rubber bands? Would make sense in conjunction with 'Contraband' and 'Oxaca' - which appears to be a drug fueled part of Mexico filled with ethnic / Indigenous peoples, tying back to the ethnicity focus of the video.
CG/DG is in focus, pulls out a FAKE gun in front of the children while in focus and everybody runs (as opposed to real guns and everybody runs in), he is alone, he lights up. Still working a bit on that one. Perhaps that threats and words are meaningless without action, and people follow those who appear strong rather than those who use threats and words. [ADDED] Perhaps When he pulls out the fake gun, he is killed, which is why the children run away and everything goes silent. He then joins the dead man and climbs his pile of red. The blunt signifies that He is at peace and everything is then in full focus.
'You people owe me for the number of followers I have/am missing' - tying back to the cult of the self, the cult of personality, greed and selfishness.
He Climbs ALONE up onto THE ONLY RED CAR in the entire video (Also seen right before Oxaca), symbolizing a mountain of blood/corpses and violence, all other cars are shades of White / Beige and in better condition. The Dead Guitar Man plays as A girl sits on a Foreign car, watching on. His Bloody fame is over, he 'has it all' but everybody is gone from the scene, leaving only a dead man. [ADDED] To Quote 'Sweatpants': 'Yeah you got some silverware but really are you eating though?'
EVERYTHING is in focus for the first time in the video.
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The Camera exits the hanger for the first time, while looking at the scene. A Scene of Exuberance, yes, there are a lot of cars which are associated with wealth, but they are very poor cars. However, in the context of the contained hanger, that's still a lot of cars and is exuberance.
And finally the key to the entire song / video / message
'Black people are but a barcode, all the same, just dogs, kenneled in the backyard.'
CG/DG runs from the darkness into the light
We see his face, he is SCARED as he tries to escape the Hanger > Kennel
He is run after by a mob of white people.
All in all, the message seems to be that Black culture has been Kenneled by American whites. They ignore what is happening in their own backyard because it's all contained away from them, Kenneled, if you will. They chose to focus on the the superficial aspects while completely ignoring everything wrong. This is leading to the destruction of traditional wholesome values, which are being replaced by cult like selfishness, leaving the youth with nothing of substance for the future.
As for the entire Satire / Played straight aspect - Satire is a social message. It's Satire played Straight to illustrate a point.
PS: I would also like to give props to DG's Dance moves, which I like to call 'The Nerdy Michael Jackson' which is in full force here.