In Childish
Gambino’s “This is America” music video, he brings to light the issues of black
media and the power of media, the response of rioting when black lives are
disregarded, and the overall apocalyptic nature of racial tensions in America.
In the
music video, Gambino uses the symbol of the white horseman to portray the
apocalyptic response towards racial injustice. The music video follows Gambino
and a group of students dancing, while the background is a chaotic scene of
rioting and running away. The rioting does not appear in the music video until
the opening scene of a black man being shot from the back. Rioting has been a
response towards the injustice of the indictment of the police officers
involved in the Rodney King beating. The disorganized nature of rioting adds to
the image of the apocalypse.
Gambino mentions how “celly’s” are
a tool. A reference to how cellphones are used as a tool to record instances of
police brutality or racial tensions.
With the widespread ownership of cell phones, it is becoming more common
for bystanders to record instances that are worth public views. Either to be used
as evidence of wrongful police procedures or to upload on the internet to
gather public support. But this tool, like Holiday’s recording of the Rodney
King beating, can still be manipulated and warped to blur accuracy of the
recording.
As a music video that has been
released 26 years after the LA riots, America is experiencing the same issues
of racial injustice and the response to the injustice has been similar.
-Melissa Lee
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