In 2018, Donald Glover stepped into his alter ego, Childish Gambino, to deliver a 4-minute opus which firmly focused upon the injustice that black people face daily in America. From start to finish, he tackled issues from police brutality to race and gun violence, but despite being released over two years ago, ‘This Is America,’ is still resonating with thousands. Now more than ever.
Read more: Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ – a 21st Century Masterpiece?
This week alone, the Grammy Award-winning single has climbed up the US Spotify Charts an impressive 95 places to No. 2 and has now amassed 1.117 million streams. It also appears on Spotify’s Black Lives Matter playlist, which has nearly half a million likes.
The same popularity can be noted on TikTok. Users have chosen a remix of the song with Post Malone’s ‘Congratulations’ as their anthem to play over Black Lives Matter themed images and videos. The trend began mid-May following new developments made concerning the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black jogger.
@kareemrahma this is america ##minnesota ##minneapolis ##protest ##blacklivesmatter ##blm
♬ original sound – carneyval_
Why now you ask? Well, it’s simple. The symbolism is still appropriate, still fitting and widespread discrimination is still happening!
Gambino wastes no time in the music video as less than a minute in he poses as the infamous illustration of Jim Crow, a theatrical racist character that portrayed African-Americans as being inherently less human.
Read more: The Murder of George Floyd and How to Be An Ally Against Racism
At one point viewers see the Grim Reaper galloping past on a pale horse. It is widely believed that this is a reference to verse 6:8 in the Book of Revelation, in which it reads: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
A police car swiftly follows behind the horse showcasing the unspoken connection between police violence and death for black Americans.
In another horrifying twist, Glover kills African-American members of a church choir with an assault rifle – an explicit image which echoes the actions of white supremacist Dylann Roof in South Carolina, 2015.
Gambino equally fluidly refers to the murder of Stephon Clark – “This a celly / That’s a tool” – a black teenager who was gunned down for supposedly carrying a weapon. After a police investigation, he was found only with his iPhone, a device which can be used as a tool. The same tool that allowed the world to see Floyd scream ‘I can’t breathe.’
Throughout the music transitions between trap and pop. When Gambino is enjoying himself, it is short-lived and harshly juxtaposed with the lyrics as he ushers us back into reality: “This Is America / Don’t catch you slippin’ now.” Reminding us that incidents of racial hate are never far away.
With protests show no sign of slowing down, it’s clear that many have been turning to music that not only reflects but represents the current generation we live in. By all means, ‘This Is America,’ but not for much longer.
Words by Paul McAuley