I chose to do my rhetorical analysis project on the “This is America” music video by Donald Glover, or his more well known rapper alter ego, Childish Gambino. During his hosting of “Saturday Night Live,” he released the four minute, one-take music video. The video quickly accumulated millions of views totaling more than thirty million on Youtube in forty-eight hours. The video itself was filled to the brim with references to African American violence in the USA and was created to start a discussion about guns and violence in America and how it is so closely intertwined with the African American community. He released it following recent cases of shootings when tensions were high. A month prior to the release, there was a national student walkout to protest gun violence in America. He chose to use his music video to elevate the issues that society was dealing with.

The song creates a strong juxtaposition of the two main types of music that are often associated with black people in America: the close-knit South African choirs and trap music. The video starts off with the choral singing and immediately shifts to a trap style of music following the initial gunshot fired by Donald Glover, referencing the violence associated with that kind of music. The poses and the dances that the people perform in the music video reference the highly racist minstrel shows that were performed in the early 19th century as a way to mock people of African descent. Later on in the music video, an all black choir is seen performing and is shortly gunned down by Donald Glover as the song suddenly switches to a trap style once again. This sudden act of violence is a reference to the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina where a white supremacist shot and murdered nine African Americans during a prayer service at an important old African Methodist Episcopal Church. Amidst all this, there is chaos happening in the background of the video with African American students dancing along with Donald Glover in uniform. All these changes in visual and audio elements follow a cyclical pattern that likely alludes to the shift in the state of mind of the American population whenever a major incident of gun violence occurs. The nation will be in a state of anger and grief and demand that change must happen but ultimately nothing is ever achieved and the mood will once again die down and be forgotten until the next tragedy happens. The masses become outraged one second but becomes unconcerned and happy the next much like the shift in style for this song. The trap music closely associated with gun violence shifts to a happy carefree choral style in a cycle.

During the music video, Donald Glover says “this a celly. That’s a tool.” which can either be a reference to the shooting of Stephon Clark which occurred two months prior to the release of the video. Stephon Clark was an African American teenager who was shot due to the police’s claim that he had a pointed a gun at them when in reality he had only been carrying a cell phone. This line can also be stating that cell phones are important tools in documenting the unjust treatment of black people in America since the camera pans over to a bunch of black children filming the violence and chaos happening in the video on their phones. Donald Glover also says, “Look how I’m geekin’ out. I’m so fitted. I’m on Gucci. I’m so pretty. I’m gon’ get it. Watch me move,” which alongside the odd dance moves, seems to represent how Americans are often so distracted with the black people in the entertainment industry that they neglect and often choose to ignore the violence and unfair treatment that black people experience everyday. This is also supported by the last few lines where he says “You just a black man in this world.You just a barcode, ayy. You just a black man in this world. Drivin’ expensive foreigns, ayy. You just a big dawg, yeah. I kenneled him in the backyard.” He says that black men are just barcodes which means that they’re just numbers in this society. They are “kenneled in the backyard” because Americans refuse to deal with the fucked up way black people are treated in this country. All of the unfair treatment and violence happens in their backyard but they kennel it away to not deal with it. They choose to focus on the superficial aspects of the black community and not deal with the real danger that they are put through on a day to day basis despite this country’s promise of equal rights to all and an equal right to life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness.

This music video leaves you with a feeling of uncomfortability. All the violence and sudden shifts in mood create a sense of unease much like what black people experience everyday. Their lives can go from happiness to sudden violence and tragedy and they can’t help but feel unsure of what the next day has in store for them due to the prejudice against them. There isn’t a particular audience that Donald Glover is trying to communicate to. He is showing the entire world that America is incredibly flawed. He doesn’t really rely on Logos as much since the entire video is meant to show how illogical the country is. (I suppose that is a way of showing Logos I guess? To show that something is illogical is to help divert it from that illogical route.” The use of Pathos is very apparent in the sudden violence shown. Much like what Aristotle thought of rhetoric, the violence can be used to teach the audience to not imitate these bad actions. The feeling of dread, anger, pity, and uneasiness mix together during the video. The children dancing amidst all the violence will spark a feeling of fear and dread in the viewer since it is natural for humans to care for children. It almost sparks an evolutionary parental instinct in all of us.

Donald Glover uses Ethos just for starring in the video since he is widely known for being a jack-of-all-trades. His career has spanned from comedy writing to a successful musical career to directing and starring in his own TV series. The TV series, “Atlanta” was created to be a black comedy-drama that showed the viewers the African American experience without altering it to be more relatable to non-African American people. Donald Glover weaves these artistic narratives under the guise of commercial media. The only limits he really has is to not create material that is too disturbing for public viewing since all of his work is presented on regulated platforms like FX and Youtube.

I personally believe that Donald Glover accomplished his goal with the video. He used it to spark a discussion and garner attention for the issue via an incredibly popular social media platform alongside national television. The song immediately went to the top of the charts. I have incredible respect for him as a person and an artist and his proper use of ethos, logos, and pathos has left a grim reminder of the horrible state our society is currently in.

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