ROM- TIA Flashcards
Intro
“This is America” Childish Gambino
“This is America” by Childish Gambino was released in 2018. The video was highly controversial when released as many claimed it was too “violent.” However, many came to realize that the harsh violence was to highlight the discrimination of blacks in America and promote awareness.
Jim crow
The video begins with Childish Gambino striking an odd pose whilst shooting someone in the head. After further analysis, its concluded that this pose stricken is based off an infamous performer and playwright, Jim crow, which used blackface as a form of entertainment. This promotes how blackface is wrong and shows us that black face isn’t a modern issue and that it’s been happening for decades and it’s still an issue. I think that this is a symbolism for how America uses black people as a mode of comedy and entertainment whilst also showing the history behind blackface in America and emphasizes how long this racism has been affecting blacks
Republicans
Gambino then places the gun he used to shoot the man into a red cloth, handling it with care. This creates a juxtaposition to the violent, careless acts just done. The use of the color red can also be a direct link to the republican party in America who believe in pro- guns in America. This acts as a promotion of not supporting for pro guns and rather than for the lives lost due to them
Charleston shootings
They then show a sequence of a black choir performing then getting shot by childish Gambino. This is a reference to the shootings in Charleston 2015. This acts as a promotion for protecting black lives and shows that it is not just black “thugs” being shot because of gang disputes, black people are being shot just for their skin color, even the purest ones that worship God. However, many people found it worrying that so many people were praising a video that was making money of recreating black shootings. They argued that Gambino could have used other creative ways of raising awareness for racism instead of profiting from recreating black traumatic events which people cannot relate too.
villainising blacks
These people were also confused to why Gambino was the person committing all these racist crimes when it was white people who were the perpetrators to these crimes. This could be Gambino suggesting that it’s not just white people who are committing crimes against blacks but it’s also black people doing it to other blacks. Although this could make many black people (and whites) reflect on their actions toward blacks it’s still making profit of promoting black people as villains in a video that argues the opposite.
Conclusion
Overall, these two videos argue different points but receive criticism on the contents used in the video to promote the topic discussed. “This is America” used shocking events to turn heads and raise awareness, whereas Taylors video was more “calm” and down to earth but both seem to cause an outburst of angry critics claiming these factors are all away of gaining money and fame instead of standing against racism and supporting LGBTQ+ members. It also shows how people criticized Gambino’s video for being too violent and using real life events, but also criticized Taylor when her video wasn’t violent and didn’t focus on real life events. This emphasizes how the media is subjective and people will always find something to criticize.
