Five symbols you may have missed in ‘This is America’
May 16, 2018
It’s only been a week since Childish Gambino’s dropped “This Is America,” but it’s already earned heaps of very well-deserved praise. Written by Donald Glover, “This is America” expertly addresses both gun violence and being black in the United States without shoving its message down your throat and filling you with “white guilt”.
But what stands out to most people is the music video. Glover has amazing chemistry with Japanese filmmaker Hiro Murai, the director of “This is America.” The two have been friends for years and have collaborated on Glover’s television show “Atlanta” since 2016. But the video for “This is America” is groundbreaking and both Glover and Murai deserve the tons of credit they’re getting.
The video is visceral, surreal, jarring and absolutely insane, and all four minutes are perfectly executed, no pun intended. It follows Gambino (Glover’s alter ego) dancing through a warehouse past chaotic background events; a car burns, a man commits suicide, black teens record the chaos on their phones while wearing white masks. Shots of Gambino executing his guitarist with a pistol and gunning down a church choir are interspersed with his comic dancing. It’s a real trip.
And with that trip comes questions, confusion, and controversy. But those are for someone else to address. Here’s five things you may not have noticed in “This is America.”
What he’s wearing: It’s believed Gambino’s outfit pulls from two influences. Gambino’s gold chains with no shirt was inspired by Fela Kuti, the late Nigerian musician and political activist who protested the Nigerian government’s treatment of Nigerian citizens. And Twitter has pointed out that Gambino’s pants are similar to the uniform of Confederate soldiers, the Southern military during the Civil War.
The white horse: It’s easy to miss, but around the 2 minute 30 mark, a white horse gallops past Gambino and his followers. The rider? Who else but the Grim Reaper.
Old cars: Noticeably absent from the video are the cars normally found in today’s music videos. Bentleys and Benzes are replaced by old Accords and Tercels, and Gambino dances atop a red Corolla. Many cars have open doors and hazard lights; some have interpreted this as a symbol of African Americans shot dead by the police during police traffic stops. Most commonly mentioned is St. Paul school worker Philando Castile, who was shot dead in his 1997 Oldsmobile 88 only seconds after calmly informing a police officer he was a licensed gun owner.
The red cloth: Speaking of guns, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. After Gambino shoots the guitarist in the head, a young man comes running with a red cloth for Gambino to wrap the gun with. After gunning down the church choir, mirroring the 2015 Charleston church massacre, the same man runs in to receive the AK-47. While not stating explicitly, Glover’s implied it represents the glorification of guns in America. Red is also the color of the Republican Party, who have vehemently defended the Second Amendment in the past year.
The chase: At the very end, Gambino runs through a darkened corridor, chased by dozens of people, representing police. But he’s not chased after shooting a man in the head or after massacring the churchgoers. In fact, Gambino walks straight past a police car after gunning down the choir! But before dancing on the Corolla, Gambino smokes a joint, and only then is he chased a minute later. The ending to “This is America” is a biting remark of African Americans constantly being arrested for trivial things, while serious black-on-black crime is ignored.
