Childish Gambino’s “This is America” music video is a whirlwind of lyrics, images, and themes that at first glance are hard to piece together, but after a while start to make a whole lot of sense. When I first watched the music video, I’m not going to lie, I was completely confused, and I was left with an overall feeling of, “what the heck just happened.” I watched it three more times, and now I think I’m beginning to understand the genius behind everything the music video pieced together. From the dancing to the lyrics, Gambino created a video that represented America and its troubling past and present. 

Childish Gambino dances throughout his video. His movements are overall very interesting, but looking at them first glance, they could be considered awkward and perhaps even funny. The choreography is not random. The dancing is an odd way of a distraction to the crazy and hectic actions that are made throughout the video (such as killing people or fighting each other in the background). As if to say, that things are happening but being swept under the rug. I don’t mean that Gambino is trying to sweep these hard topics under the rug, quite the opposite, I think he is trying to show us just how easy it is for people to get distracted from the issues occurring all around us. The way he decided to convey this message is effective because the video is just so crazy that it forces you to watch it again because you want to know what exactly he was going for. It was also effective because the music video wasn’t really in your face, it was subtle in the way it went about bringing up these harder topics which makes them somewhat easier to digest.

The lyrics in the video also took me a minute to kind of understand the real meaning behind them. I specifically find the lyrics “We just want to party, party just for you, we just want the money, money just for you.” I feel as if these lyrics could be easily glossed over, but for some reason they really stuck with me. I think Gambino used these lyrics to convey the feeling that we all want equal rights, opportunities, and everything in between yet America still hasn’t truly allowed that to happen. There are more lyrics that convey this similar message throughout the song. Overall, the lyrics were effective in conveying the message because they were fairly straight forward without explicitly saying the idea flat out.

I want to leave you with some questions. Do you think you would change any of the lyrics to make the message more clear or do you like the subtle subtext Gambino uses? Do you think that Gambino was effect in sending his message the way he did in his music video?

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
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The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

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• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
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You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

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