Four minutes and as many punchy scenes that never cease to be talked about. The scourge of firearms, racism against black Americans, police violence, the society of entertainment and appearance in the era of social networks…
The latest music video from artist Childish Gambino, real name Donald Glover, « This is America », very dark portrait of America yesterday and today, has gathered more than 60 million views since it was posted on Saturday May 5. It continues to feed the debate on social networks and in the American media, which try to dissect its many messages and references, more or less explicit and open to interpretation.
Le New York Times and the British magazine Dazed & Confused, in particular, have dissected several of the messages that appear there. Like the fact that weapons are treated better than men: after the violent scene where a black singer is shot in the head, we can thus see the body of the victim being dragged, while a man comes carefully recover the gun in a red cloth.
The scene of the shooting of a church choir composed of black American singers makes more explicit reference to the racist killing of an Episcopal church of the black community in Charleston, in 2015. Its author Dylann Roof then declared want to trigger “a war between the races”.
Festive scenes and chaos
The choreographies also have their full meaning, mixing popular dances in the United States and movements of the South African dance Gwara Gwara. The contrast is striking between the festive scenes, around high school students dancing and, in the background, the chaos unfolding: riots, burning cars, howling police sirens…
Another more discreet reference of the clip, that to the figure of Jim Crow: in 1832, Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white comedian, English emigrant, interpreter Jump Jim Crow, a popular song recounting the misfortunes of a black slave, blackening his face and hands. From 1865, the measures taken in the various States institutionalizing segregation will be called the “Jim Crow” laws.
Shook by how fast I caught this reference. I haven’t seen a Jim Crow picture in years. Donald Glover did not come t… https://t.co/KwPeWBjX19
Other references appear and might be worth revisiting the clip several times.
Beyond the denunciation of racism and firearms, the clip is also intended as a full-scale attack on our entertainment and appearance society, exacerbated in the era of social networks, where the quest for success and money prevents us from opening our eyes to oppression and violence.
Thus, if one concentrates on the festive scenes in the foreground, one could easily forget the chaos which appears in the back. A short scene also shows a group of young people filming the riots on their smartphones, reminiscent of the series Black Mirror, relief Dazed.
The clip ends with Childish Gambino being chased by the crowd, his eyes bulging. An end which, again, leaves the door open to many interpretations. The scene, in any case, reminded many Internet users the film Get Out, which also deals with racism.
“Rap is the freest art form”
Aged 34, Childish Gambino confirms with this clip the multiplicity of his talents: the rapper and musician is also an actor, screenwriter, director, producer, comedian and DJ… Donald Glover grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, in Stone Mountain, where her father, a postman, and her mother, a childminder, are also foster families. Donald takes refuge in the writing of sketches, in the reading of plays. Her favourite? house closeby Jean-Paul Sartre. No Exit (the English title) is also the title of one of his songs. ” In high school, he said in a portrait that The world dedicated to him in 2014, my mother had insisted that I enroll in the artistic section, but, in course, I kept writing stories. When I got to college in New York, I specialized in scriptwriting. »
It was at Sophomore College that he began to rap, while the radios broadcast rap from his South on a loop: Outkast, Les Neptunes and Nelly. At the same time as he recorded mixtapes, he created a comedy collective, Derrick Community: “We were bored in college with friends and we started writing sketches that we posted on YouTube. We were the first. It was new, so it worked right away. »
He is spotted and taken for the series Community (broadcast on NBC), but does not stop making music:
“I have never separated my career as an actor from that of a rapper or screenwriter. For me, rap is the freest art form, and perhaps the most complete: I play a character, I invent a scenario and I compose my soundtrack. »
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