This is America analysis.

https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY

In his song, this is America, Childish Gambino uses lots of codes and refrences which can be connotated to how awful the treatment of the black comunity has been in the past.

The music video starts by having bright and positive music with a man playing a guitar who looks not dissimilar to treyvan martin's father who fought for his justice when he was murdered by the police for being black. A theme that will very much be touched upon in the rest of the video. The camera then slowly pans to a close shot of Gambino who starts happily dancing to the music until he passes the man with a guitar, Pulls out a gun and strikes a pose commonly associated with Jim crow who was a cartoon that was anti black and shown in the racist show the black and white mistrel show as entertaiment for white people in the early 30s. Childish Gambino then casually shoots him and then the music suddenly turns much lower and darker as Gambino hands the gun to someone presenting a red cloth which could be a connotation for death or murder to be more precise. It is then noticeable that the background erupts into chaos with people running around, but yet Gambino acts as though he is trying to draw attention away from it by staying close to the camera which could be another connotation of how the American media distracts you from the real world of violence and terror. Gambino signals for some children to stay in front of the camera as they dance with him to further distract the veiwer from the riot in the background.

The music changes drastically back to a joyful and enlightening theme once again as we are shown a choir singing a postive chant but this is interrupted very suddenly as Gambino walks into shot and pulls out an assault rifle and murders the choir in cold blood which is refrencing the charlestown shooting in a church which shows that Gambino is also making a social commentry on gun violence in the US. He once again gives the gun to someone holding a red cloth while the bodies are left behind which is a refrence to how America treats guns with complete respect while human life is devalued because of this.

The audience is now shown more footage of Gambino dancing with a group but it is clear that the chaos in the background has escalated and as it moves through its shot. We are shown some children on their phone which is a code of how children are now absorbed into media because of the technology we now possess. In the second shot of Gambino dancing. We see a man riding a white horse across the back which is a religous refrence to the apocalypse as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The next shot of Gambino dancing which includes a slow zoom on him as he imitates pulling out a gun which everyone runs away from screaming which is representation of how people in America are terrified of guns. This however is Gambino only holding a joint which he proceeds to light and smoke as he walks off screen. This is a clear comment on how black people are always associated with gun crime and people are scared by this when this is not always the case and some black people just want to do good but are stuck with the stereotype that they carry guns with them.

Gambino is now shown walking onto an old car as a sign that these sterotypes of black people are old and tired in a similar way to the cars that are old and tired. and proceeds to dance on it as the camera pulls away slowly into the final shot Gambino running away o  his own as people with dogs chase him into darkness which could be a way of Gambino showing that he knows tbe music video will create a storm and he will be hunted for speaking up about tbe problems the black community faces in America in 2018.