this is america

Yes, this is America is a catchy tune by the loveable Donald Glover - or better known as childish Gambino; but you'd have to be living under a rock not to clock onto the deep significance behind the song - and more importantly its music video.

If English Literature taught me anything it was how to analyse something to the death- so I guess I'll have a go at decoding the video of the moment and see what I can draw from such an ironic yet powerful piece of work.

1. the lack of white people.

Glover appears to take the role of the white man in the video, there are no Trump cap toting impereal wizards to be seen in the whole film. Instead childish Gambino appears to let them off the hook and takes the role of the mass shooting supremicist. The scene where he turns his gun on the Gospel singers perhaps a refernce to Dylann Roof's 2015 horrific church massacre?

2. “that’s a tool, my Kodak.”

A seemingly throwaway lyric until context is involved. Camera phones have been instrumental in exposing many of the racially aggrevated abuses carried out by police in the states. However recent events can put another clever spin on the line. On march the 18th Sacremento police '''mistook''' an iphone in a young Stephon Clark's hand for a handgun, which ultimately lead to his death. A poignant juxtaposition, a weapon used to expose police, ultimately leading to another death in the black community at the hands of law enforcement. Perhaps a representation of the way in which Trump's america is heading?

3. Jim Crow

A less subtle inference but there are obvious links to the characterized Jim Crow of Wilson's America and Gambino's clothing and movements in the video. What more can even be said for this, it is a blatant critism of the way post Obama America is headed.