Childish Gambino – This is America Music Video is not revolutionary art.

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I can’t express how tired I am of seeing black death on my screens. I can’t seem to escape seeing a video of someone killing a Black Person, it’s even shown on the news on replay every hour. I am a Childish Gambino fan and I have to say this music video was disappointing to watch. I listened to the song before watching the video and I liked the song before the video but now I can’t stand to hear it. If you’re on the internet you will end up watching it because everyone is sharing the video, screenshots, memes and think pieces breaking down every meaning of the video. I wonder if it still okay to mention the triggers this video may contain for some people even though it has well over 72 Million views which means there’s a chance you saw the video already and was introduced to the chaotic scenes of death, massacre, suicide and chaos all while black people dance in the foreground.

After watching a majority of the video, I felt heartbroken that someone would even think to want to reduce their art to showcasing Black death. I’m mentally exhausted from all of this racial tension in America that I can’t even enjoy the little things as often as I’d like to because of all of the “What Ifs”. I’ve had a few conversations about this video and when I express my distaste for the video almost all said I didn’t understand the message and I should go back and watch it with an open mind. I understood the message and the shock value this video has and I still don’t want to go back and rewatch something I’m tired of seeing.

Gambino had the opportunity to be really creative but stuck with making something that will give him a lot of attention for his upcoming project. America’s thirst for blood and gore at the expense of Black People shows that he didn’t care how it would be viewed by his Black audience that understand the messages clear as day since it apart of our daily lives. Gambino had the chance to show us something else that wasn’t a repeated message some of us are tired of seeing, I guess a good trap beat and some singing will make this message better than the last one for the people hyping this video up.
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This video does nothing for Gambino’s Black audience but it will help continue to normalize brutality against Black People for his Non-Black audience. There is this twitter thread that shows a few White Men first reaction to seeing the choir be gunned down by Gambino, all of them laughed at that scene and they most likely tried to defend their laughter to a gruesome scene to their audience but if seeing people gunned down gets a laughter and excitement out of you then you’re the audience this video was meant for. When the choir appeared my first thought was the Charleston Church shooting and when he recreated that massacre I was disgusted and stopped the video, even though I was already towards the end of it I really couldn’t fathom why any Black person would want to glorify Black death and trauma and call it art.

To everyone praising this as incredible art, why do we have to keep repeating this same message of Black death in order to try and shock White America? Did they not feel uncomfortable the first 1 million times this message was portrayed? Does America need to keep seeing Black People die to get a message to register?

It’s ridiculous at this point and America being the shitshow it is will take a very long time to change. America has gone through its whole lifetime murdering Black People without consequences and let artists display this as a form of creative expression to show the masses a new narrative. I’m mentally tired of seeing people that look like me plead for their life, go through a routine traffic stop, go to a prayer session and lose their lives for absolutely nothing. Sharing videos of Black People’s trauma are one of the worst things that have been a hot fad as of late on the internet and news outlets.

Gambino had a real opportunity to create some amazing visuals to this basic song. I probably sound like some hater saying that but the video did make me dislike this song, I don’t know if I’ll listen to this project but this song and it’s visuals really didn’t sit well with me to appreciate what this project would bring. I get it This is America and as brutally honest this video is recreating Black death and trauma will never be acceptable to me, It’s very disrespectful to family members and others affected by the events and making light of it for the sake of shock value really shows how this trauma is becoming the norm and Americans will no longer react to the death of its citizens at the hands of American born and raised terrorist.

2 thoughts on “Childish Gambino – This is America Music Video is not revolutionary art.

  1. That music video definitely isn’t revolutionary, it’s practically just a copy and paste of other people’s complaints. To say Gambino is glorifying us dying would be pretty wrong, just because he used those scenes doesn’t necessarily mean he’s trying to trivialize it or take advantage of it. While I don’t agree with all the politics he put the deaths in the video for a reason.
    Gambino didn’t bring anything new to the table, all he did was repeat others sentiments and didn’t offer a solution. When it comes to issues like Gun violence, crime in the black community, poverty, Police brutality, or any problem or perceived problem in society it seems like most get emotional and complain rather than taking a step back looking at numbers, facts, and the situation itself then logically think about it. Barely anyone wants to offer a solution anymore, they’d rather point the finger and bitch.

    1. I think he knows what he was doing when he put those scenes in his videos, just like every artist before him that used black trauma to be thought-provoking and the talk of the town know how to market themselves as times change, it’s hot to be this “woke” person now so i’m pretty sure this will not stop with this video. Even though Gambino didn’t bring anything new he had an opportunity to do something else that didn’t repeat the same old trope, Gambino is only adding to this situation by continuing to use black death for a trending topic.
      A solution isn’t going to be offered by people that feel like they aren’t affected by any of societies problems. As for us who have to deal with society on a daily basis we can only do so much for any solutions to these problems because everyone is never on the same page when it comes down to actually handling problems that can be eliminated. It’s literally like playing a never-ending game of cat and mouse

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