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Donald Glover took full advantage of the spotlight he earned as host and musical guest of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend (May 5) by dropping the audio and music video for “This is America,” his first song as Childish Gambino since the 2016 album, “Awaken, My Love!”
The music video, directed by Glover’s frequent “Atlanta” collaborator Hiro Murai, demands multiple viewings to unravel the symbolism and references. The video alternates between joy and stark violence; one scene shows him dancing in front of a Black church choir before casually grabbing an assault rifle and gunning them down. Other scenes feature him dancing with a group of Black girls and boys dressed in school uniforms, as car fires and police violence rage around him. These clips play under the song’s heavy beat and lyrics like “Grandma told me: get your money, Black man” and “Police be trippin’ now, yeah, this is America, guns in my area.” Oh, and SZA made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo.
Your first watch will likely leave you with more questions than answers. Thankfully, a number of Black cultural critics and artists have offered their own takes on the layers within “This is America” on social media. Here are a few of them:
Filmmaker Justin Simien (“Dear White People”):
This is a love letter pic.twitter.com/GvGL63vPXt
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
For the second time this year I’ve been shifted by @donaldglover’s work. He forced me to confront the effects of consumerism on the lives of people of color in @AtlantaFX Robbin’ Season; with Teddy Perkins still haunting me with the choice to either participate and brave the
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
scars of consumerist culture in order to make art, or risk being bound to the basement as a consequence for having the audacity to stay myself. Now I feel compelled to stare deeply into the dog and pony show of black popular culture through black culture with This Is America.
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
Should’ve known it was a trap from the beginning. The innocent appeal of a guitar against white, which draws, yes, Travon Martin’s father to play. All the while someone (obscured by more whiteness) lies in wait. “We just wanna party. Party just for fun.” pic.twitter.com/ESxF7xUOCV
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
That someone being, as the net has deduced, is Jim Crow, who Gambino embodies with a combination of popular dance memes sporadically interrupted with bug eyes. Jim Crow returns to Travon’s father with a gun. Our father’s guitar is gone. His head shrouded in white. Spoiler alert. pic.twitter.com/qvEdUgVZyH
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
Fitting because Jim Crow began as one of the first fits of white American culture to address it’s former African slaves (and their descendants) at all. A minstrelsy mainstay played by white men in black face, and sometimes by black men in black face. “We just want the money.”
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
Jim Crow began as mere pop culture entertainment at the expense of America’s freed slaves and became the means of their oppression. The term “Jim Crow” became so pejorative this country’s apartheid separating Africans and their descendants from white Americans its name. pic.twitter.com/IEwLwfB2i4
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
But this is America, Gambino tells us. It’s brutal, but either you participate in the space American culture has allotted you (even if only to play Jim Crow as many black entertainers have and continue to do since the country’s founding) or you perish. pic.twitter.com/aEC2s7qdSm
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
That participation may include the misleading of impressionable black youth along with outright brutality against other black people. It may even result in our attention spans (articulated through razor thin depth of field) being distracted from the suicidal mayhem around us. pic.twitter.com/K7C5U6chc1
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
But it will also include trap beats, gettin’ money, fun dance memes and a chance to survive long enough to enjoy America’s promise of freedom. pic.twitter.com/TjJSYrWRLJ
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
By ending with a terrifying bolt right out of Get I know @donaldglover is asking us to put ourselves on trial for a number of crimes but there’s one that resonates with me deeply. He leverages a phenomenal tv appearance, series, album, pick one to introduce a narrative into pop pic.twitter.com/mL4RigOziL
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
culture designed to strip us of all its trappings, even the ones he directly benefits from. I feel so grateful and alive because of his work. Keep putting us on trial brother.
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
How can those of us granted a moment in the proverbial spotlight just use it to entertain ourselves to death? It’s a challenge and a series of questions. Like art should be.
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
Correction that is not Trayvon’s dad. It’s Calvin the II who plays an innocent lured by the guitar and it’s promise of personal expression. Thanks internet. #thateditbuttontho
— Justin Simien (@JSim07) May 7, 2018
Author and journalist Ijeoma Oluo (“So You Want to Talk about Race”):
You have to listen closely to the lyrics of This Is America while watching the video while playing special attention to what’s happening in the background in order to fully get how genius it is.
I recommend watching it 5,000 times.
— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) May 6, 2018
Glover’s facial expressions in This Is America as he stares at the camera are such an indictment of the viewer as a consumer of black culture and brutalizer of black people.
— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) May 6, 2018
Writer and showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker (“Luke Cage”):
#Afrotrap. DG’s shirtless thing and necklace is all Fela. The dancing teens in school uniforms is the hallmark of South African resistance (Sarafina). As are the rhythms. The violence is American. But it’s all Donald. Post Wakanda Music at its finest. https://t.co/u62U7jNeIa
— Cheo Hodari Coker (@cheo_coker) May 6, 2018
Twitter user Isaiah Persons:
Death riding the Pale white horse while he is followed by Hell (represented by police) going totally unnoticed because of dancing and pop culture in the foreground is the single greatest cinematic message I’ve seen in a music video to date. #ThisIsAmerica pic.twitter.com/DYaPjbvoym
— Isaiah Persons (@PersonsIsaiah) May 6, 2018
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” -Revelation 6:8
— Isaiah Persons (@PersonsIsaiah) May 6, 2018
If you would like to expand your knowledge and gain some perspective then you should read “Behold A pale Horse” by Milton William Cooper
Here’s the pdf: https://t.co/lz9eIrU7Kw
Courtesy of @HouseOfTruDou
— Isaiah Persons (@PersonsIsaiah) May 7, 2018
Journalist and TV writer Kara Brown (“Black-ish”):
A totally appropriate response to the new childish gambino is: “I like it but I’m going to have to take a little time to think about it more so I don’t say something stupid or trite. Stand by.”
— KB (@KaraRBrown) May 6, 2018