The song This Is America, they are trying inform viewers of how America isn’t what we perceive it to be. In the video he appears to show a contrast of popular contrast culture’s perception of black experience and its often brutal reality by juxtaposing happy, carefree choruses and dark, aggressive verses.
In the beginning when he shots the African American who was playing the guitar and then all of sudden had a bag over his head was a symbolism of Jim crow because of the pose that Gambino had when shot him which was a racist character to distinguish African American as lazy, stupid, and inferior human beings. The other things shown was when he handed gun off and the African American was basically dragged it showed that peoples care for guns and black people don’t get no kind of dignity. Then when he hands the gun off the person who garbs is grabbing it with a red cloth which could represent the Republican- Dominated states who value guns over black lives.
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The contrast may also suggest recurring shifts in mood whenever there is a crisis in America. At one point the entire nation was in going crazy and there was chaos everywhere and then next thing you know they was happy and dancing and not worried about nothing that was happening behind them. Gambino represents this by dancing with the school aged children and not worried about all the chaotic scenes of violence in the back such as people getting carjacked, people getting assaulted and people getting robbed. Also in his song he featured some of today’s artists who are also African Americans because they have all contributed to fighting police brutality.
This song also shows symbolism because there is a brief scene in the video where a hooded figure is riding an all-white horse through all the chaotic events behind Bino. Theories state that the horse relates to the pale horse Death rides in Revelation 6 as one of the Four Horse of the Apocalypse. The music also shows that he is just wearing a necklace and his pants with no shirts to relate or symbolize the late Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician. Another symbol of him wearing no shirt symbolizes that black people are very vulnerable compare to anyone else. Then another thing about his outfit is the fact he has buttons where a zipper is supposed to be represents what confederate soldiers wore which recalls the historical violence upon African Americans and his dancing serves to distracted us from that history. Basically saying that we are distracted by nowadays gimmicks we forget the pain and violence African Americans have experienced. During the song when Gambino slaughters a whole chorus out of nowhere is a quick recall of when a white supremacist killed nine black people in a church basement. The image shows how people struggle to reconcile with and spate different instances of violence.
In the end when he is running away from all the people in the end theories state that he is running from The Sunken Place which is a conception of Jordan Peele movie Get Out. Also suggesting that him sprinting goes back to a tradition of African Americans having to run for their owners to save their lives or escape the slavery.
In Gambino song Redbone which nowadays refers to a distinguished lighter skinned black female. In the song it seems as if he fears that his efforts to keep his woman happy is what going to drive her away from him. He suggests this because in his first line he suspicious of his girl cheating on him and he is implying that he she would remain loyal to him but her actions have made him think different and feel like she up to no good. In the next verse he gave a metaphor of his relationship by using the food such as peanut butter, chocolate and Kool aid. The message that his trying to display is that despite their personalities seem to be align they do not go well with each like the food references.
In one part of the song he’s saying to stay woke because he must be trying to warn whoever he is talking to stay observant with infidelity in relationships and also to be concern of their partners because they don’t know what they are doing behind there back. Then him saying “N*ggas Creepin” is a message to be aware of males making a move to screw over their love ones.
In contrast “Redbone” was more his relationship to a girl and how he was scared to lose her because of his own insecurities. He is trying to warn other of their love ones and that you really can’t trust no one when it comes to relationships. Which differs from “This is America” which is trying to relay message to the world that America is not what is made to seem and he is trying to show what is really is and what America is really about. That for some time we’ve been sweeping everything under the rug because we get distracted by things nowadays because of how gullible we are today.
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