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Childish Gambino's This Is America

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“I don’t want to give it any context. I feel like that’s not my place. I feel like if I do that it doesn't feel good to me, it doesn’t feel good to anybody. I feel like whatever I make is for the people, and after watching it you can walk away with whatever you need to walk away with.” Donald Glover, (Childish Gambino), says this in an interview with Chris Van Vliet when asked if he could explain what his latest release, “This is America” is all about. Since the release of “This is America” in early May 2018, social media has been flooded with interpretations of the symbolism used by Gambino in the music video. Turning many readers into researchers trying to uncover the hidden messages. One of the most fascinating things about “This is America” is the way Childish Gambino uses his skills as an actor to help express his America. It may be Childish Gambino singing, but it’s Donald Glover performing. In Childish Gambino’s “This is America” he uses his skills as the actor Donald Glover to tell a story about the relationship between America and the black culture throughout …show more content…

If you only keep your eyes on the dancers you will miss all of the violence in the background. There are a number of shootings, people running for their lives, fires and smoke going up in the backgrounds, suicides, and gang violence. Fans have found the use of Gambino’s distractions have a direct correlation with the world today. Think of the amount of coverage events involving celebrities get and how real problems do not make the social media cut (Rao, Sonia). Gambino specifically raps, “this a celly, thats a tool,” soon after the camera is direct towards a number of people glued to their phones and filming all of the horrors happening around them. Ultimately symbolizing the way we use phones to cover up and distract us from the events that are taking place in the

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I believe that Erykah Badu 's quote isn 't just limited to hip-hop, it 's relatable to all music. The reason why I feel this way is because music is something that connects us all. Even if the genres are different, it 's still music. It affects our everyday lives and is everywhere we go. It bonds humans together.

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In “Goin’ Gangsta, Choosin’ Cholita: Claiming Identity,” Nell Bernstein argues that some young people have claimed racial identities other than their own and this is not a bad thing. Some young people are influenced by music and television, and then they begin to mimic the things they hear and see while other people claim to be races they are not because of association or they only claim part of their identity. Bernstein explains that as time goes by the suburbs are becoming more diverse and people in the suburbs have become infatuated with the “city life”. At the same time, others have found it too hard to be white or their own race, so they claim another ethnicity, or only part of theirs to fit in. Bernstein believes that being who you

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The Power Behind “Just Walk on By” In Brent Staples article “Just Walk on By”, Staples shares his thoughts on the way marginalized groups interact. He uses his own experiences as a young African American man to shed light on how people can have implied biases that affect the way they treat other people. Staples does this to demonstrate how society develops preconceived notions in the minds of individuals about marginalized groups, primarily African American men, which are often a flawed representation of the people within these groups. The rhetoric he uses is key to developing an understanding persona and an emotional appeal that exposes the implied biases of people without alienating or offending the audience, to whom-- among others-- he attributes these biases.

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Shakur describes that African Americans are a product of their environment and that they “are being manufactured in droves in the ghetto streets.” Assata Shakur uses metaphor to compare African Americans to being a product of a factory where they are designed a certain way. When she illustrates this idea of simply being a product, her audience can recognize the distance between them and the government. Assata Shakur suggests they “ create shields that protect us and spears that penetrate our enemies.” Shakur warns African Americans that they need to protect themselves from the corruption and injustice ways of the American

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This is America." Many African Americans are depicted in stereotypical situations such as murder and theft in the video. He made this video to show the audience how he believes the people of America perceive his ethnicity. Due to racial injustice in America remaining unresolved challenges Learned Hand's claim that America is a land of freedom from

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This was very American, godd*mn All-American.” (Reynolds and Kiely, 294). Before, Quinn thought he was All-American because of his genetics and how most people thought he was a good kid. However, he soon realized that his family did not make him All-American, it was his actions that made him an All-American boy. Quinn and Rashad have grown into the new interpretation of All-American by standing up for themselves and others, and fighting against injustices that minorities struggle

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Boyz in the Hood, directed by John Singleton, is a coming-of-age drama that takes place in South Central Los Angeles during the 1990s. The film is a powerful commentary on the intersection of race, poverty, and violence in urban America. The film follows the lives of three young African American men, Tre, Ricky, and Doughboy, as they navigate the challenges of growing up in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood. One of the movie's key themes is the impact of culture on communication, and how communication reflects, sustains, and changes cultural values.

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This film is a great image of how American pop culture was consumed in the early 90s. This film focuses on the relationship and interactions between three African American males

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Childish Gamino has a music video that came out in 2018 that talks about and shows what's going on in America. Which is lots of violence, guns, and distraction by entertainment.   74 years earlier, in 1944, Learned Hand had his "I Am an American Day Address". In this speech, he talks about liberty, freedom, what people sought when coming to America, and what America means. Both Childish Gambino and Learned Hand are trying to unite people

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1499 Words | 6 Pages

This is exemplified as Killer Mike utilises words such as “My American dream”, he associates America with being his, somewhat similar to it belonging to him. Mike’s American dream is based on individuals working to gain rank and not gaining rank due to the colour of their skin. “It 's American me, it 's American me, the alliteration utilised here is an indication of Mike telling the listener, he is indeed American regardless of his skin colour. Once more Mike quotes Malcolm X whereby he states “by any means necessary”, this implies to the listener that he is willing to go to any lengths to be considered American and further will go through all measures to live “his American dream”. Furthermore, in this instance Mike implies the theory of certain African American intellects, who stated that there was a stark contradiction in the ideals portrayed by the American

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At the beginning of his speech, he conveys emotion through telling his own story and putting the audience in his shoes. He states “On the one hand he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war. He pledges allegiance to that flag which guarantees "liberty and justice for all. " He is part of a country in which anyone can become President, and so forth”. This shows the audience how African American children feel when living in a country made on the premise of equality, but feeling anything but equal to their Caucasian peers.

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A system that we currently live have led to the hate and feeling expressed in Cookes song. When Cooke does anything like even go to the center of town people say, “And I go downtown somebody keep telling me don 't hang around” (Cooke) In a country where a certain group of people are not allowing follows the conformist ways of America and how the racism seeps in to everyone’s

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As Smith uses his words to create a poetic trailer for this stereotype-free movie, he tells the story of a young African American boy. Rather than being focused on his color, he focuses on his

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His usages of logical, ethical, and emotional appeal combined with the ironic chorus simply are not heard due to one great constraint. Springsteen’s audience is made up of mainly white Americans, a group that very rarely criticizes America. Criticizing America is very rare in this audience’s culture because they love America. Springsteen used the resource that most Americans know at least one suffering veteran. This resource was not strong enough because of the audience’s overwhelming patriotism.

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There have been many protest songs in the United States; the freedom of speech has contributed to powerful music and protest words that are written in song. The song that will be discussed throughout this essay is “American Idiot” by Green day. This song speaks volume about the uneducated “America” and puts emphasis on the destruction that reality television is making on the United States of America. Listening to the unspoken word and read between the lies, for that then you will understand. The song “American Idiot” was released during the 2004 presidential election, where George W. Bush was selected into office for the second term as President of the United States of America (source).

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