This is a black work by a black artist featuring semiotics about black experience in America. I don't know your race, but I'm white, so I'm not about to inflate my own opinions and readings, I'm going to seek out the voices of those better equipped to speak on it before I proclaim Glover and the video as indisputably great and brilliant. The work itself is so charged that I think a bunch of white liberal minded people rushing to paint it as genius actually can minimize the complexity of the work.
Yeah, that's not on Glover though. I can't think of how much more intentional he can get than using 9 churchgoers people being killed with a gun similar to what Dylan Roof used when he shot up the church.
I guess that’s where I disagree, I don’t think that’s what the video is doing. I think your point is fair about the potential for imagery to be misappropriated though, although I don’t think that’s Glover’s fault.
I'm not saying he was being provocative for the sake of being proactive, but that being provocative should never just be the point. We're talking about effectiveness. That's what's being critiqued, Donald's art and his ability to convey his message just like any song or work of art.
I agree that it doesn't hurt to educate yourself before posting a comment. Also, there is a lot of proclamation in this thread and I don't think it has dampened the message at all.
I think if the response to anyone questioning the effectiveness of the video is to ignore or dismiss it, that fails the many different ways the work can be discussed. It's not engaging the art seriously, it's just resting in the comfort zone of "I like this".
K. Austin Collins is a good writer: Donald Glover’s “This Is America” Is a Stylish, Ambitious Provocation—But What Is It Actually Selling?
I do think we should ease up on praising Donald as a revolutionary genius, especially since he isn't the perfect messenger to deliver the latest artistic masterpiece on "wokeness" given his own problematic behavior (misogynoir, internalized racism). It's like "Kanye is dead! Long live the new Kanye!" I know we all want a new Kanye but maybe we should just do away with such mantles, ya know?
Basically the message I took from the video is the idea that these shootings and terrible things happen, and then the world is so quick to forget and move on, without trying to fix any of the issues, therefore the cycle just repeats. And the song structure itself supports that. I dno, but that’s my biggest take away from the video
My standing is that I don't want to believe that Donald would be disingenuous with dealing with subject manner like this and is fully trying to engage in something, whether it hits the mark it wants to or not is up to the viewer. Then again I might just be super naive and want the best of situations. Again I love the video and song but being a white male I don't want to sing praises about the treatment of subject manner that I'm not a participant of. There's many discussions to be had from POC that are way more directly involved than I could ever be, and it's important for that to come out of this.
I really don't get what there is to make someone think he's just using it as a "costume." Like the implication seems to be that since, in his past work, he has generally viewed himself as an outsider, that he never did and still doesn't genuinely care
Not sure if you read the article, but if you read it in context I think there's grounds for at least the question. Especially when Donald has said "he prefers to be excluded from the expectations of “woke” art." Anyway to bring it back to the effectiveness of his message this really stood out to me n the bolded: So much of what I'm hearing is that the video mastefully demonstrates how we are distracted from the violence of institutional racism by entertainment, as displayed by Donald dancing with kids, performing viral dance moves, that we all love to watch, with all focus on them, as the chaos of black America ensues in the background. Is he saying our attention towards social media and viral sensations is keeping us from doing something about these problems? These are the distractions? This is what's holding our attention from these issues? This is responsible for our ignorance? I hope that's not what he's saying.
I think the dancing with the kids representing distractions from institutional racism is a somewhat shallow interpretation. I see the song/music video as a whole being more about him trying to convey that all these seemingly dichotomous experiences and mental states and do coexist in a non-contradictory way.
after a day, i'm definitely on the side of the video is amazing but this song kinda sucks. ah well. shocked it got BNT tho, p4k has never been high on gambino
I definitely like the music video and the song's vibe more than the song itself as a standalone track. Eagerly looking forward to "Saturday" studio version, really dug that song on SNL