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A slow rhythmic beginning, joined with South Africa chants, a black man with a guitar comes and sits on a lone chair and begins to strum his guitar. The camera strolls around a steel beam of the vacant warehouse, as a shirtless black man stands still and then begins to do a hypnotic and rolling dance toward the camera. He is standing alone, slowly turns and begins to move toward the camera. The lyrics of the song “This is America” slide in…
“…we just wanna party…
party just for you
we just want the money
money just for you
I know you wanna party
party just for me…”
Donald Glover, Childish Gambino by his artist/rapper name, rolls his body slow in a hypnotic dance, sometimes bucking his eyes as if he is fighting his decisions to move forward, to stop with a strong sense of intention and take out a gun. He takes a Jim Crow caricature stance and then shoots the now hooded guitar man. A young child runs up to our dancing man and offers him a red fabric cloth and our shooter hands him the gun. The was pulled away as our dancer moves away, moving toward the camera. The gun was treated with honor and care, more care than the man who was just shot. This is America.
From Jim Crow to South African social parallels and gun violence in America, it is the story of the black man’s struggle in America while the lives of the everyday average American is not faring any better or feeling free of the terrorist threats generated here in our own country. There is no true sense of equality and not enough profound awareness of an important conversation of healing. This is America.
We are all supposed to be equal within this land of the free. Then why don’t I see and feel the full freedoms which are supposed to be granted to me? I am a black man in America willing to be of service to myself and my country, but I feel bound or held back because of the color of my skin. I am not a victim. I am a citizen of my modern America.
There have been over 200 hundred incidents of gun violence that have been documented here in America over the last five years. These occurrences are acted out in our churches, schools and public places. The violence is being normalized, even after the Charleston shooting. This is modern America.
We live in a world of social distractions. Everyone is reaching for tools of survival of our economy, branding ourselves on social media, taking Kodak moments pretending it is a real life and being bombarded with news on television, the daily newspapers, radio, and the internet. Too many times the photos of our lunches and dinners, our pets and family are more important than the problems of our cities, states, and country. Let’s value and support all families of America because this is after all the land of the free and the brave. The Kodak moments have turned into moments that document violations of human rights in modern American.
This artistic Kodak moment in the form of a music video of Childish Gambino’s “This is America” is one of an artist taking a stance against violence and mental slavery, using art to educate and entertain. The video establishes the juxtaposition of violence and partying all around it as it happens. We almost miss the background happenings, the social commentary illustrating the facts of violence and social neglect, as we watch the singing and dancing of our main character, with the dancing children in school uniforms. There is a brilliance of storyline, of dance, and of social horror.
Black men have been and are being shot and killed because of simply walking, driving while black or simply living trying to make a living while black. Women and children are shot and killed while attending their church services preaching and singing for the salvation of their souls. There are so much more than dancing negroes, but people yearning for the grace of personal freedom of redemption.
The artist uses symbolism to nod to the normalization of violence. He demonstrates the profound pain and history of black people in America while illustrating the universal story of the lack of human rights being given to the average every day American, white or black. He calling for a profound awareness to ignite an important conversation of healing. He is using his art to inform, inspire and even shock the viewer. Racism is alive and well in modern America. Gun violence is allowed because our citizens right to bear arms and the gains filling the pockets of the gun merchants. It is all about the money. The story of racism and slavery is built on the acquisition of using people for the gain money and the power that needs to be in place, in order to keep those who are enslaved in their place.
There is a line in the song that states
“ …get your money, get your money
grandma said get your money…”
Childish Gambino and the lines could be interpreted as blatant demands for money. There is the quest of reparation to the American descendants of slavery, a payment of services served. There is a duplication of the quest for the American Dream that lives in the black community as well as the on that lives within the white community. Everybody needs to get paid as everyone wants their equal rights and equal access to the American Dream.
The last scene of the video is our main man running down a long hallway of what seems like a prison. He is a black man running with his eyes wide with fear, being followed by a gang of people, running for his freedom. This is America.
Thank goodness for this calling of a conversation, this artistic gifting from a brave and brilliant artist, Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino, who takes the black story and turns it into a factual universal story of undeniable truth. Somebody has got to care and listen to the bodies falling off the balconies, the dragging and hiding of the bodies, the burying of the truth od the history of slavery and the plea for a deliverance of a modern song of freedom and justice, in this America.
Watch the video here:
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Photo Credit: YouTube