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This is America:�The Imagery of Childish Gambino

Dr. Bailey Hinkley Grogan�California State University� Long Beach, 2019

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Childish Gambino�(Donald Glover)

  • Comedy writer for 30 Rock, Atlanta, and Saturday Night Live
  • Two Prime Time Emmy Awards
  • Five Grammy Awards
  • May 5, 2018--> Debut as SNL Host, releases “This is America”
  • #1 on Billboard Hot 100
  • Song of the Year, 2019 Grammy Awards
  • Newest movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story May 10

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“This is America”�Written and Produced by Donald Glover and Ludwig Goransson

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Breakdown of Analysis

  • Violence against Black Americans
  • Stereotypes
  • Sound
  • Dance
    • Sherrie Silver- Rwanda-based choreographer
    • “No matter how much is going on—even if it’s the middle of a war or poverty or hunger—one thing Africans share is we dance our sorrows away. Not even professionally, it’s just a part of our culture. –Silver
    • American and African based dance techniques: The Whip/Nae Nae, Gwara-Gwara, Neza, The Shoot

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Jim Crow and Minstrelsy

  • Minstrelsy
  • “The Original Jim Crow.”
  • Facial Movements
  • Prevalence of micro and macro aggressions in 2018
  • Dances, direct eye contact and smiling

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The Original Jim Crow

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Stereotypes cont.

  • Black men with weapons, chaos, etc.
  • Media portrayal of black men
  • Unfair bias of black Americans
  • “Don’t Catch you Slippin’
  • Stem from minstrelsy
  • L’il Sambo + Mamey Two Shoes (1940s-current)
  • Outside of sports, gangsters and street people (video games)
  • “Thugs” – 2021

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Violence Against Black Americans

  • Gun placement, people disposal
  • Importance of guns in America
  • “I got the strap, I gotta carry ‘em”
  • 2015 Charleston Church Massacre
    • Historically black congregation, first independent black denomination
    • 10 victims

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Police Brutality

  • 14% of population, murdered at twice the rate of White Americans
  • Rate of Black Americans murdered by police rising yearly
  • Philando Castile, Oldsmobile (2016)
  • Dexter Reed (2024)
    • 96 rounds in 41 seconds

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�Disproportionate rate at while black Americans are murdered verses other demographics.���Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/

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The Sunken Place

  • Jordan Peele, “Get Out” (2017)
  • Used Gambino’s music
  • Peele, “The Sunken Place”
    • Helplessness and loss of agency in the face of systemic racism
    • Cultural appropriation, social hierarchies, being silenced by the system, marginalization.

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Final Remarks

  • Imagery of minstrelsy, Jim Crow, Police brutality, violence towards Black Americans.
  • References to current events involving Black Americans experience.
  • Dances based in West African and Black American culture.
  • Donald Glover…an artistic visionary?

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Dr. Bailey Hinkley Grogan

bailey.grogan@unco.edu