"This is America" Proposal

Almost everyone listens to and enjoys music on a daily basis, however, most of the time the music we listen to has a deeper meaning behind the catchy tune. “This is America”, written and sung by Childish Gambino, or Donald Glover, seems to be no exception to this. Accompanied with a powerful, yet cryptic music video, this song holds a lot of hidden meaning that still applies today, even though it originally debuted in 2018.

“This is America” talks about the struggles of being Black in America, repeating the title of the song to ensure listeners know this. The music video is not as straightforward as the lyrics are. It follows one man, Childish Gambino’s character, as he walks and dances around what seems to be a large building. Throughout the video, acts of violence, typically gun violence, can be seen in the background, and on some occasions these acts are committed by Gambino’s character. Almost all of the cast in this video is Black, except for a few background characters, and these acts of violence are almost exclusively committed against the Black characters. Overall, the music video examines gun violence, racism, and the effect these have on Black people in America.

Even though this song and music video originally debuted in 2018, the message it sends is still important today, possibly even more so due to events that have occurred within the past year. Whether it is because there has been an increase in violence spurred on by racism, or because these actions have had more coverage, there has definitely been an increase in awareness on this topic in general. With the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and the violent, racist events that preceded them, this song seems more relevant than ever. It also adds to the current debate surrounding gun violence and control in America and how it affects people daily. 

Although I have no personal connection to this song as a white person, I do believe that the message that this song and music video send are important in general, but even more so due to recent events. News programs can be draining nowadays, so by putting important messages in music, the message the creator is trying to send may be spread to more people. “This is America” definitely spread Donald Glover’s message to a lot of people, as the song has over 450 million streams on Spotify and over 750 million views on YouTube as of February 2021. This song with a strong message definitely ignited conversation surrounding racism and gun violence in the United States when it debuted, but it continues to stand as a remarkable piece of music with a much deeper meaning.