Just this weekend, Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, released the music video for his latest single “This Is America.” Topping the charts in a matter of days, as well as garnering 20 million views, this single has the biggest amount of day views this year. Through a series of events made by its director Hiro Murai, it has shown a lot of issues going around the society that people must understand. But before we head on, make sure to watch the music video first!
Now, here are 5 things you might’ve missed while watching the music video.
- Guns are made to look more important than human lives.
In this scene, the gun was carried off and held by a nice and well-groomed man. On the other hand, the person being shot was just dragged off and discarded. As we all know, one of the issues America’s facing today is gun control. Maybe it’s just about time we need to open our eyes and look at things more deeply and do something about it.
2. The Charleston church shooting by Dylann Roof last 2015.
The choir scene shows Donald Glover shooting the choir while they were singing. This symbolizes the Charleston shooting whereas the shooter himself walks away unharmed. It also clearly means that most criminals just get away with everything they do while the victims seek for justice.
3. The society adopting black culture.
When the dancing begins, there are a lot of things happening like the ongoing riot in the background while the others dance. This reflects how the world tries to adopt the black culture but eventually ignoring the other social issues black people face, may it be racial discrimination or other types of injustices.
4. Kids on their cellphones documenting everything.
In this scene, young people are seen recording what’s happening in the video. If you come to think about it, it is a reference to the people sharing previous livestreams of various shootings and other news for people to see. As what Gambino said in the lyrics, “this is a celly, that’s a tool.”
5. Donald being chased by white people.
This final scene shows that Donald is being chased by white people in the background, which implies the intrusion of white supremacy to black people. It clearly shows how relevant this issue is and how it’s still growing.
It’s great how artists like him are able to do something out of the box that’ll actually make people learn a lot of things in one video. This Is America is truly mesmerizing and disturbing.
Photos from YouTube
