This is america by Childish Gambino

 

At the beginning of the song which is "This Is America" by Childish Gambino it introduces us to the setting of the place, the setting of the place is a warehouse, this is done in order to show the people with warehouse jobs in america, this warehouse is empty at first and then as the video progresses there comes even more things in the warehouse such as cars. At the beginning when he is walking up to the chair there is this sort of non-diegtetic sound of Caribbean music being played. This might be done in order to show the people from the Caribbean going to america. The camera starts out on his body but then slowly zooms out as he gets towards the chair, he then shows the trousers he is wearing, the trousers he is wearing is that of the same colour of the southern state army. When he walks up to the person in the chair, their face is covered with cloth, the color of the cloth could be referencing the kkk. When pulls out the gun, he does a Jim Crow pose which could be a reference to how black people are in america and how they are treated. The tone at the start of the song is quite relaxed until he shoots the person in the chair. The gun he is choosing is referencing gun violence in america and how the gun laws are bad and people can normally have a gun, after the gunshot, the tone suddenly gets a lot more intense with the music changing a lot, the music then changes to a rap style beat, this rap style beat is referencing the gang culture the is going on in america and the violence that is caused because of that and while this tune is played in the background the song progressively gets more chaotic. He then says the first line which is this is america and that is when the tone changes which is supposed to show the bad state that america is in.

He starts walking and then back up dancers come in the background, when the backup dancers come in the background, the music continues, cars start driving in the background. In the background there are multiple people coming in with cars, there are people running in with crowbars and baseball bats, while the backup dancers are doing dances of viral trends. The crime that is happening in the background while Childish Gambino is walking references the crime rate in america that is high. The camera is focused in on him and the backup dancers while the back the crime in the background is sort of blurred out, this is done to show that the crime in america is not focused on that much and is a problem, the people doing the popular dances is relevant today with tiktok dances. It shows that these are the main popular things that are happening and get the most attention while the are more important problems that are happening in the country, he keeps on walking.

As the chaos is continuing in the background it seems to show someone casually riding a bisiclye through all of this chaos. The people that are focused on in through these moments are black people in america. This is done in order to show the areas that are populated by mostly black people in america, those urban areas, and he is trying to show that there is a lot of crime and violence in those areas in america. The person riding the bisiclye casually through all of this is quite young, it shows that she is used to it and has lived through this type of stuff throughout her childhood, and that the young people in these areas of america that are going to school are affected by this, and a lot of people that are living through this are at risk. He is trying to show that people who live with this type of thing going into the background can easliy be influenced and then start getting into that type of thing. As the camera pans to the right it starts to show more with a person on top of a car throwing money, this is done to show that in those types of areas people want money as there is a lot of poverty. So engaging in that type of gang culture such as drug dealing can make a lot of money, and the people in those areas dont really have many opportunities to make much money and it shows that money is valued a lot in those certain areas in america.

The camera then does a wipe to a choir singing and then Childish Gambino gets thrown an assault rifle and shoots them down instantly. The Choir that is singing could be a reference to the incident where someone went into Charleston church and shooting and killing a lot of African Americans. This is further shown to highlight the gun problem in America and how dangerous it is. He casually just shoots them down and it shows that guns have become a normal thing for america and everyone has access to them and can easily kill people, He is trying to show that the right to bear arms in america is ruining the country and causing chaos such as killing people in a church choir. The clothing that the people are wearing also resemble school clothing and although Americans don't wear school uniforms it still could be used to reference schools and how school shootings have become a problem and this problem is caused by people having the right to easily get these deadly weapons and can do anything with them.

The camera then pans to the right after the shooting and the music begins then, That music comes in whenever he starts saying "this is america" again, the last time it happened in the video was when he shot the person in the chair, so every time the music starts again is when it involves a  gun, showing the gun violence problem in america. It shows a police car driving indicating the amount of crime in the country. There are then people running in with hammers, showing maybe the riots that happen in the country and show that there is chaos in the country. It then wipes back to the background dancers again with police cars in the background this time and even more people running around in the background.There is so much crime happening, the camera then pans to the top where it shows propel filming the crime that is happening below showing that there is so much happening that people are used to it and are now recording it and still nothing is changing and the country is still in the same state. These people that are filming are also wearing bandannas showing the gang violence in the country and has spread to these young people. 

It then shows these people still dancing while there is a car on fire in the background and there is even a dark hooded figure on a horse running in the background, this could be referencing the kkk and lynching and how there is ongoing racism in america. There are people breaking into cars and the camera then zooms into Childish Gambino as he pulls a gun sign with his hand and everywhere goes quiet. It then cuts to him on top of cars as it zooms out and there are many cars in the background while he is dancing on top. Then it then moves to the top as it tracks him running away from something, it could be the darkness that is in america and how the country is in a dark state.

The whole song makes references to various things in america such as racism, gang violence, poverty and the gun violence. The overall crime that is happening, and the police not doing much to stop it, and all of these factors have caused america to turn into a bad country in a bad state.