This is America response

To summarise this is America it is a video with elements ranging from Jim Crow Laws, shootings,
Death and others. The video itself shows us the viewers how we quickly forget dire events that we
find normal when in truth we shouldn’t.

START, LYRICS AND DEATH

At the start of the video we are introduced to a black man playing his guitar which is quickly
accompanied by the lyrics:
We just wanna party
Party just for you are i
We just want the money
Money just for you
I know you wanna party (yeah)
Party just for free
Girl, you got me dancin' (girl, you got me dancin')

The lyrics themselves are the calm before the storm as life can be all fun and games before
something (a mistakes) happens and suddenly everything you know is destroyed. We see this
happen in the video when the camera switches to Gambino who makes his way over to the
guitarist only to find the man no longer has his guitar and has a bag over his head.

In Life today the same thing happens again and again and it can happen to anyone for no reason
whatsoever but the main reason today is racism. Racism is a big issue and the victims pay more
than some expect but we quickly forget it and move on to the next biggest thing. This is also
represented in this video as Gambino pulls out a gun on the bagged man and shoots him in the
head. He then distracts us the audience by dancing but if you look at the back the man’s body is
quickly taken away and we forget that a man had been shot.

The message is that the entertainment we see on media severs as a distraction from bigger
issues.

(Things you missed in the background:

*A man was run over by a car and a man came to rob it

*A man committed suicide by jumping off the second story

*A kid throwing away money

*A white and brown chicken standing in opposite directions 1:29

* a white horse)

GUNS

America owes more guns than another country in the world and it is because of that, that there
are many incidents with the main weapon being a guns. In this is America a scene shows
Gambino shooting a black quire, which could be a symbol for the South Carolina Church
shooting in 2015. A white man went into a bible study class which he was welcomed by those
there but soon after he was welcome he killed many only leaving a small number of them alive.
(The man had confirmed he had been planning the attack for quite some time and that he chose
that church because it was a historical African American church.)

This is another sign of racism but also another message as after each shooting Gambino handed
over the guns to a child holding a red cloth which could indicate to the audience that we treat
guns better than we treat people.

This a celly, That’s a tool

Who or what is celly?

Well Celly can have many meanings as it can either represent how cell phones are used to
record the chaos even though it’s happening right in front of us and that we don’t really realise
until it hits the media or a cell in prison as when we break the law we are punished for our crimes
but sometimes that isn’t always the case as during the south Carolina church shooting the man
responsible almost got away with it as they said he had mental problems but is someone who
was black committed those crimes or was even a suspect they would be put to death.

This links in with another scene in the video as the kids recording have what seems to be a white
muzzle on their face that you would usually be seen on an animal or someone insane. This could
show that black people don’t speak up because they either don’t want to get shot or because
they can’t speak out about what is happening because they know no one will believe it and
decide to record it instead and this also happens in America as at times police will do more than
they stated and people will only believe you if they witnessed what happened or yu have a
recording to prove your innocence.

Another simple but common reason is that when something bad happens people tend to just
record it instead of helping and it can at times make the situation far worse than it has to be.

A man commits suicide in the background

As Gambino and the kids are dancing someone jumps off the railing on the second story and
apparently commits suicide. The image of children smiling and dancing contrast to the horror
behind them but what is worse is that they do live in that environment so they do know what’s
happening but can’t do anything about it or are s used to it that they have become numb to the
world around them.

They do understand the danger that they are living in but ignoring is best as they people involved
with the chaos in the background suffer more than the kids that are distracting us the audience
from it.

Horsemen of the apocalypse and death

The four Horsemen of the apocalypse in Christianity who according to the book of Revelation
(6:1-8) appear when the first four of the seven seals open to bring fourth the cataclysm (a large-
scale and violent event in the natural world) of the apocalypse. The one we the audience saw in
the video was the first horseman who is a conqueror with a bow and crown and rides a white
horse. Some speculate that it interprets to symbolise Christ. But as side before the horse meant
only bring the cataclysm of the apocalypse so what that could me is that the chaos that the
racism brought has split people apart and the damage it brings is already causing the chaos. So
if thing continue the way they are we will eventually destroy each other because of how we treat
one another.
How this links with race is that it does not only effect black people but by starting such a thing
that could affect anyone could cause the whole world to go into an apocalypse and the chaos will
only continue until things change. However, it could symbolise the connection between police
violence and death of African Americans as in the scene a police car is seen following the
horseman.