Racist Stereotypes in Childish Gambino's song "This is America". Reproduction or Dismantling?

Abstract or Introduction

This thesis poses the research question whether Donald Glover reproduces or dismantles racial stereotypes in the music video "This is America". In order to get to the root of this question, one first must understand the concept of racism, and the purpose racism fulfils in the social system of the United States. Then the racist stereotypes need to be elaborated, because they are only visible and perceptible when known. Because of the male biased gender statistics and the fact that Donald Glover as a black man is the main protagonist of the video, the representation of black masculinity is an interesting additional aspect to be illuminated, especially regarding the hip-hop genre of the song. In the analysis, the music video is examined based on the semiotic approach and the theoretical foundation. Finally, a conclusion to the research question is drawn based on the multifaceted results.

A music video that can hardly be surpassed in semiotic richness is “This is America” by Donald Glover, released under his pseudonym Childish Gambino. The music video tackles gun violence, systemic racism, slavery, and juxtaposes jaunty images of dancing school children with shocking scenes of Gambino shooting a black man and gunning down a black choir. While the music video features the aforementioned racist stereotypes, the effect on the viewer is peculiar. The video has provoked a strong social reaction and has been highly discussed in the media, after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and the resulting protests, the song has become the anthem for people posting footage of the protests on TikTok. Until January 2021, the video was watched 750,776,033 times, vinyl records of the song are sold for 418 € on eBay. The topic, and therefore the video itself, has not lost significance today and goes on like the echo of a disturbing American history. The song has become a worldwide phenomenon, following numerous analysis and interpretations of the innumerable obvious and unapparent images and this thesis does not
foresee to reproduce such an analysis, but to take a closer look at the racist stereotypes the video alludes to and on how they are used. Many of the stereotypes elaborated by Bogle (2016) as well as more generalized attributions of black masculinity in hip hop culture are represented in the video, but differ strongly from typical music videos in this genre in the widespread reception, which leads to the question of how stereotypes are embedded here.