This is America - Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino - This is America

What is the overall message or connotation of the video in relation to the events, issues, individuals and social groups represented?

There’s plenty of messaging about race, violence and the entertainment industry in the song and video.
Doreen St. Félix notes that “The video has already been rapturously described as a powerful rally cry against gun violence, a powerful portrait of black-American existentialism, a powerful indictment of a culture that circulates videos of black children dying as easily as it does videos of black children dancing in parking lots.”

Every frame of This Is America references racism and the black experience in America right now. Though he draws references from the past - the mimicking of minstrel characters like Jim Crow.

The guitarist getting shot at the beginning of the video came to most of us as a shock, but as the beat kicks in, it doesn't take long for the audience to relax again and start to enjoy the music.  We then get presented with the choir and the singer comes dancing in. His sudden stop and frown doesn't prepare us enough for the shooting of the whole entire choir in less than a second. This was a clear reference to the 2015 Charleston shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The guns in the video are also being treated with extreme care, wrapped in a red cloth after being used. This is a massive contrast to the dead bodies being brutally carried/dragged off the scene. After using them, the guns are handed to children, which could imply that it's very easy for teenagers to get a hold of guns these days. 

Later on in the video we get a glimpse of a hooded man riding a while horse through the scene, which could be a link to the First Horseman of The Apocalypse. 

“This is a celly,” he raps, the camera can also be mistaken for a tool – a handgun – as it was earlier this year, when Sacramento police fatally shot Stephon Clark, a young black man who was ‘armed’ with what turned out to be an iPhone.

In those last few frames, as Thug fades out, Gambino charges towards the camera pursued by a horde of figures, his eyes wide.