Rhetorical Essay
In the “This Is America” source video, Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover’s message is uncanny and loaded with shocking imagery and metaphors. The video has launched a storm of multiple conversations on social media. The music video touches on many layers of gun violence, the increasing state of Black bodies in the United States, and how entertainment has distracted society from cultural and political issues. Childish Gambino’s video “This Is America” displays many examples of ethos, pathos, and logos to analyze issues deeply rooted in black optimism, and gun violence in the African American community.
Ethos is “the apparent credibility of a source” (Savolainen, 2014). The credentials behind Donald Glover is that he is the creator of the television comedy series, “Atlanta”. He also serves as producer, director, and co-writer of the series as well. Outside of television, he released three albums such as “Camp (2011), Because of the Internet (2013), and Awaken My Love! (2016)” (Biography, 2018) all under his alter ego, Childish Gambino. In May of 2018, he released “This Is America”, a hip-hop and gospel track that demonstrates African Americans being the center of innocent killings for racial violence. According to Biography, the song made history in 2019 as the first hip-hop track to win “Song of the Year” and “Record of the Year” at the Grammys. Will Hodgkinson (2018) mentioned song became a phenomenon and accumulated more than 109 million YouTube views. This makes him credible because Donald Glover is an African American male who can speak on the recent droppings of Black bodies especially with him presenting some scenarios that happened recently.
Pathos is “putting the audience in the appropriate mood, by playing its feelings” (Savolainen, 2014). Various examples of pathos are displayed throughout the “This Is America” video. The music video was directed by Hiro Murai. Ladan Osman (2018) explains how Murai is “a master of scene-setting”. The video began in a warehouse with an empty red chair and an acoustic guitar. The scene feels gloomy and awkward. As seen in the video, Will Hodgkinson (2018) describes a shirtless Childish Gambino that appears to be barefoot with trousers and wearing two slim chains singing, “We just want to party, “with the song beginning with African chants in the background. The sounds of the African chants show the emotion of the transition from happy to more alarming verses. The video drastically shifts after a guitarist shows up and Gambino proceeds to dance toward a now black hooded and empty-handed guitarist and shoots him in the black of the head. The pose that he symbolizes resembles the illustration of Jim Crow. Jacob Shamsian (2018) notes that the term, “Jim Crow” is referred to “a series of racist segregation laws.” After he shoots the guitarist, Gambino hands his gun to someone to take it away in a cloth, while the body is being dragged. This represents how guns are being valued and prioritized over Black bodies. The emotion in the first scene gripped the reality of Black America and the ruthless killings during the past years. The next scene that triggered emotion is the four children in school uniforms accompanying him in a dance craze. He soon enters a room with a stage that references the massacre in a Charleston church of nine people by Dylann Roof. He guns down a gospel choir to echo the 2015 church killing while the church is chanting lyrics such as “Tell somebody / You gon’ tell somebody. Grandma told me / Get your money.” (Ladan, 2018). The emotion of the scene felt heartbreaking as he used an AK-47 gun to viciously shoot the choir in an execution-style without remorse. Toward the end of the video, Gambino is seen standing on top of a red car surrounding other cars. Many cars have their driver’s doors open. This could be a representation of how African Americans are pulled over often and stepped out of their vehicle by police officers for unknown reasons.
Logos is the “reasoned account” (Savolainen, 2014). The logos that appear during “This Is America” shows symbolism that represents past history of black oppression towards Blacks in America such as the reveal of the Jim Crow image, obsession with firearms over a trap, and dark beat that balances between joyful singing and manic that mirrors extreme violence with the false view on freedom. The idea of this song was to be an anthem for the Fourth of July due to the holiday honoring America and its morals. Gambino has resisted the temptation to explain the video because he feels as though it is not his place to explain what’s happening in the video and give it context. The message that he puts across is for his audience to walk away with whatever they feel the need to walk away with. He wants his art to speak for itself.
In conclusion, “This Is America” touches on layers of society such as gun violence, police brutality, entertainment used to distract from political problems, and the state of bodies in the United States towards African Americans. There is ethos because of Gambino’s major impact on the Industry and how his music creditability has won him Grammy. Pathos is present because the director, Hiro Murai, envisions the violence against black bodies in “This Is America” and has addressed the current ongoing issues with mass shootings layered with the music of weapons firing, screams, and ad-libs. The message Gambino wants to put out is to take whatever from the music video and put your own interpretation into the perspective of this song.
Annotated Bibliography
Biography. (2018, March 29). Donald Glover Biography. Retrieved July 19, 2019, from https://www.biography.com/actor/donald-glover
The following biography on, Donald Glover (Childish Gambino), gives a description of his life including factual details such as his occupation, education, and other things as well. The biography will demonstrate Donald Glover’s creditability in the industry for ethos.
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Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video) [Video file]. (2018, May 5). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY
The YouTube link for Childish Gambino’s, “This is America”. The video was directed by Hiro Murai. The producer is Jason Cole of Doomsday with Ibra Ake and Fam Rothstein of Wolf + Rothstein. The YouTube video will be used to correlate with ethos, logos, and pathos.
Hodgkinson, W. (2018, May 15). How Childish Gambino changed the race debate with a pop video; Will Hodgkinson reports on Donald Glover (Childish Gambino), the artist whose song and video This Is America has had 109m hits on YouTube in ten days. The Times [London, England]. Retrieved from https://bi-gale-com.proxy-bs.researchport.umd.edu/essentials/article/GALE%7CA538746601/494c32ff30470ec9c63f311d3e586310?u=umd_bowie
Will Hodgkinson describes how “This Is America” by Childish Gambino has become a phenomenon overnight. This video had reached 109 million YouTube views at the peak of its success. The song contains cheerful African chants while making light of a country that interprets internet popular dances and horrific violence by showing symbolism for gun violence, police brutality, and killings towards African Americans. This article will demonstrate the deeper meaning of how being black in America can be difficult in this music video for ethos and pathos.
Osman, L. (2018). Slaying New Black Notions Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” World Literature Today, (4), 40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-bs.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.543779205&site=eds-live
The poet, Ladan Osman, considers how Childish Gambino annihilates a root in black music. He explains how Gambino aims to talk about black optimism in America by understanding Gambino’s persona as a site upon African lineages. This article will help provide examples of how some of the scenes demonstrate real-life situations with the Black community using ethos, pathos, and logos examples.
Savolainen, R. (2014, January 7). The use of rhetorical strategies in Q&A discussion. Journal of Documentation, 70(1), 93–118. https://doi-org.proxy-bs.researchport.umd.edu/10.1108/JD-11-2012-0152
Reijo Savolainen discusses the aim of the study is to specify how rhetorical strategies are incorporated in Q&A (question and answer). The study is based on the analysis of 914 questions about global warming. Twelve rhetorical strategies serving the ends of classic rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos are identified. This article will help identify the definitions of ethos, pathos, and logos.
Shamsian, J. (2018, May 9). 24 things you may have missed in Childish Gambino's 'This is America' music video. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/this-is-america-music-video-meaning-references-childish-gambino-donald-glover-2018-5
Jacob Shamsian discusses how the music video “This Is America” capped an important career move for Donald Glover. The video is loaded with multiple examples of imagery and metaphors. He explains how the video touches on many things such as gun violence, the rate of black bodies increasing in the United States, and political problems. This article will show 24 things that were presented in the video that has a deeper meaning.
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