We Should All See What’s Going on in “This is America”

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Dynasty Dias-Maxwell, Contributor

If you haven’t seen Donald Glover’s video, you’re not woke.

The singer, actor, and now activist, Donald Glover, or as many know him, Childish Gambino, uploaded a music video entitled “This Is America” on May 5th which stirred up a great deal of controversy. The new video earned close to one million views in the first hour it was uploaded and soared to an estimated 12.9 million views in the first 24 hours. The video now has 166,019,494 million views.

Everyone should see this video.

Aside from the hyped-up rap beat, the shockingly graphic video opens your eyes to the reality of gun violence – and particularly gun violence in the black community.

Throughout the video, Gambino dances happily in an abandoned factory with other black dancers behind him. In between the dancing scenes, to the viewer’s surprise, he produces a weapon and unexpectedly shoots bystanders. When viewed the first time, the video may seem ridiculous, but when you look closer, you begin to see a message. He covers many topics that have affected the black community in America, including police brutality, gun violence, and mass shootings. This can be depicted when he shoots bystanders (who are all black) in the video. Among these bystanders is a church choir which clearly symbolizes the Charleston Church shooting.

After these murders are committed, Gambino yells “This is America!” and Immediately starts dancing again. This depicts today’s society and how many people are used to these shootings, and so they return to their normal everyday life without questioning anything. Chaos can also be seen in the background, including a man jumping off the second floor of the factory and cars being set on fire. Despite all the mayhem, there can be people seen on their phones, ignoring what’s going on. This also contributes to the normality of violence in today’s society.

Overall, Childish Gambino cleverly conveyed the violence that is currently going continuing in America, through his art form. It gave me much to think about, while also allowing me to enjoy the sound of the song itself. “This is America” will definitely be at the top of my playlist for a while, and deserves its place at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 right now.