critliteracies

Rapper and actor Donald Glover, otherwise known as Childish Gambino, released a music video for his song “This is America” in 2018. The song touches upon what it means to be black in America, but what really garnered attention was the music video. With 639 million views, the music video became viral largely because of the video’s visuals.

One rhetorical method that is featured prominently in the video is violence. Throughout the video, there are several instances of violence shown through shootings. These scenes are supposed to reflect real life mass shootings — specifically one of a church choir falling victim to a shooting, which is supposed to allude to the 2015 Charleston church shooting that had occured. The use of violence in the video is quite graphic and honestly while watching it, I had to look away and pause a few times. While the violence is painful to watch, that is exactly the point of it being included. Donald Glover wants to showcase this violence to raise awareness to how prevalent it is in the black community. It is an ugly truth that many outside of that community are able to ignore, however, Donald Glover shoves it in people’s faces with this video in an attempt to shed light on this ugly truth. This is particularly effective with white audiences because the outright violence forces them to be faced with the harsh realities the black community faces every day.

A second rhetorical strategy that Donald Glover utilizes is historical references. Throughout the video, Glover assumes positions and stances that, upon further research, are similar to a Jim Crow caricature. Also featured in the music video is Glover performing a style of dance known as Gwara Gwara. This type of dance has roots in South Africa, a country that has a long history of racism. Beyond just being stylistic choices, these references are used to highlight the history of oppression of the black community and where it comes from. This is an effective rhetoric method because it informs the audience of just how far back racism against African Americans goes. This specifically targets younger audiences who are not aware of the historical context.

Donald Glover’s “This is America” music video is meant to be a message about the issues that the black community face every day, and his use of rhetoric successfully expresses said issues to audiences who might not be informed, such as white audiences or younger audiences.