Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ Gives a Haunting Take On Our Country’s Toxic Cycle of Violence

Fresh off an outstanding SNL performance, Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino has released his first video in a hot minute and it is brazen, unapologetic fire. Childish strides, dances and murders his way through a warehouse while rapping about, hinting at and alluding to the current state of America. At least that’s what it looks like on the surface. The tip of the iceberg, if you will. Allow Frantz and I unpack and explain. Frantz: If you unfold the trauma and stupidity of what Kanye has said in the last month about Blackness in the Americas, you’d might see the tip of the iceberg of what “This Is America” brings to the table. Off the bat, the guns come out quick – ‘cause this is ‘Murica: where gats got more rights than women for some reason. Director Hiro Murai and Donald Glover have created spellbinding collaborations before: Episodes of Atlanta plus the video for Gambino’s “Sober”, so we already knew this was gonna be fire. I didn’t see this coming.

There are these brilliant moments of juxtaposition; the straight up swag of Gambino getting it with the young people seconds after blasting a detained Black man through the dome. It’s doing the newest of social dances with the kids while someone jumps to their death in the background. It’s the beauty of a Black gospel choir and the horror of seeing them gunned down (after just hearing one of the Birmingham church bombers are up for parole). It’s the face changes; from trap ad-libs and black joy set so close to the blinding fe…